1. Introduction Agriculture is sust

1. Introduction Agriculture
is sustained nowadays by means of intensive useof agrochemicals in order to preserve soil quality and to obtainhigh yields. Meanwhile, the international market increasingly requires natural or organic food, free of chemical residues. As aresult, alternative agricultural systems such as the use of benefi-cial microorganisms are being developed with the aim to improveand maintain soil quality. Among such microorganisms is the fungigenus Trichoderma. Several strains of Trichoderma have been devel-oped as biocontrol agents against fungal diseases of plants [1]. Theuse of Effective microorganisms (EM) is done on a smaller scale.Dr Teruo Higa, an horticulture professor at the University ofRyukyus, Okinawa, Japan discovered and developed the EM tech-nology [2]. EM is a mixed consortium of beneficial microorganismsof natural occurrence (lactic bacteria, yeast and photosyntheticbacteria, among others) that can be applied as an inoculant toincrease the microbial biodiversity of soils and plants [3]. EM isnot a substitute for other cultural practices; it is an additionaltool to optimize the best practices of soil and crop handling suchas crop rotation, utilization of organic amendments, conservationtillage, recycling of harvest residues and pest biocontrol. If used in