Scientists from the Bioenergy Group at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) have developed a mixture of anaerobic fungi from farm waste, generated mainly from rice straw. “This culture of anaerobic fungi, called methanogens, which we have devised from rice straw, can be directly mixed in the bio-digestors along with the rest of the farm waste to obtain manure. Once added, the farmers can obtain processed manure within a fortnight.
Currently, at least 20 to 30 days are required to obtain manure in this manner,” said S S Dagar, one of the researchers in the team. The larger aim of the team, however, is to curb the secondary pollution caused by crop burning and help farmers earn some additional money from the waste generated from their own land.
“While farmers take two to three crops every year, little is done to maintain the fertility of the soil. One of the traditional ways is burning of crop residue, but its ill-effects are worsening. With this environment-friendly solution obtained from crop residue itself, the nutrients can be put back into the soil for the next season,” explained P K Dhakephalkar, senior scientist at ARI.
“There will be about 135 types of methanogens devised from numerous environments. This will be the country’s first culture bank and we will encourage researchers to use it for scientific studies,” added the senior scientist.