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Plant diseases cause considerable losses in crop production and storage. Nowadays, growers still
rely heavily on chemical pesticides to prevent, or control these diseases. However, the high
effectiveness and ease of utilization of these chemicals can result in environmental contamination
and the presences of pesticide residues on food, in addition to social and economic problems.
Consequently, there is an increasing demand from consumers and officials to reduce the use of
chemical pesticides. In this context, biological control through the use of natural antagonistic
microorganisms has emerged as a promising alternative. Indeed, these bio pesticides present many
advantages in term of sustainability, mode of action and toxicity compared to chemical pesticides.
However, in the present study the cowdung sample was collected from in an around sundarakkottai,
Mannargudi Taluk, Thiruvarur district, Tamil Nadu. The totally, there is an increasing demand from
consumers and officials toreduce the use of al microbial population in the cowdung was determined
by serial dilution techniques. The isolated bacterial colonies are identifying as Bacillus subtilis
totally four Bacillus subtilis isolates were identify and among the four strain only. Three strains
possess antagonistic activity against the fungal pathogen isolated from Rhizosphere soil sample. The
isolated fungal pathogens are Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium oxysporum. The
antagonistic activity was carried out by dual culture plate method and liquid broth method.
Keywords: Cow dung, pathogenic fungi, microbial population, Rhizophere.