Economically viable mass production of lignocellulolytic fungal inoculum for rapid degradation of agrowaste

A consortium of four hypercellulolytic fungal cultures, namely Aspergillus awamori, Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus nidulans and Phanerochaete chrysosporium was optimized for compost production on the basis of their lignocellulolytic enzyme production potential. The consortium has been effectively used for composting of diverse agricultural wastes such as paddy straw, soybean trash, pearl millet, maize residues and mustard stover. The inoculum of four fungi needs to be produced in bulk for talc-based consortium formulation. Routinely fungus is grown on potato dextrose agar medium, malt extract agar medium or Martin's Rose Bengal agar medium, which escalates the cost of production because of relatively expensive ingredients. Further, harvesting of fungal biomass from solid surface adds additional cost to the production schedule.