Cereal and millet wastes management through mushroom cultivation

Cereal and millet wastes are the discarded agricultural biomass, left after the harvesting of crop. These wastes contain certain complex polymers such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Their accumulation on land causes environmental pollution. The fungi are reported to degrade these polymers into simple forms by producing variety of extracellular enzymes, thereforte, four Pleurotus species viz., P. sajor-caju, P. florida Strain-P1, P. flabellatus and P. eous were evaluated for the post harvest management of cereal and millet wastes. Nine locally available wastes such as wheat straw, paddy straw, maize straw, hulled maize cobs, sorghum straw, oat straw, barley straw, Italian and little millet straw were selected for this study. Different growth parameters like time lapsed in spawn run, primordial development, maturity of fruit bodies, yield and biological efficiency of each mushroom were recorded against every individual substrate, separately. The crop of mushroom was harvested in three flushes. Results indicated that every Pleurotus species had utilized all the substrates for their mycelial growth and fruit body development although their magnitude varied among themselves thus these can be utilized as as tool for waste management. Among the mushroom species, P. florida Strain-P1 gave highest yield and biological efficiency from different substrate followed by P. flabellatus, P. sajor-caju and P. eous while among the cereal and millets wastes, paddy straw was found most productive substrate next to wheat straw for the cultivation of Pleurotus species. 

The substrate left after mushroom harvest is called spent mushroom substrate (SMS)which can be utilized in different ways to give additional benefit to the farmers.

Cited this as: Siddhant, Ruchira Singh, Jyoti Rastogi and R.S. Kanaujia (2013):Cereal and millet wastes management through mushroom cultivation. 3rd National Conference on "Environment and Biodiversity of India" organized by North East Center for Environmental Education and Research (NECEER), Imphal in association with PE Society's Modern College, Shivajinagar, Pune, Maharashtra. Oct 06, 2013. p.71. (Abstract)