efficacy of lignocellulolytic fungi on the biodegradation of paddy straw

paddy straw is one of the most abundant agricultural by-products in tamil nadu, india. itcontains high amounts of cellulose and lignin. the fungal strains were isolated from naturally decomposingsites of paddy straw. eight fungal strains were isolated and later these eight fungi were used for finding outtheir potential for the degradation of lignin and cellulose content of paddy straw. among eight fungi tested,three fungal strains showed lignocellulolytic activities. hence, these three fungal strains were used for thedecomposition of paddy straw both individually as well as in various combinations. inoculation of theselignocellulolytic fungi in paddy straw accelerated the process of paddy straw decomposition when comparedto control. significant reduction in lignin and cellulose content were observed in paddy straw inoculated withmixed culture of r. oryzae + a. oryzae + a. fumigatus compared to other experiments. mixed culture of threefungal strains reduced c:n ratio to 10:1 compared to 70:1 in paddy straw mixed with soil. a significantincrease was also observed in macro nutrients of the compost harvested from e8 experimental trays. it isevident from the results that the mixed culture of all the three lignocellulolytic fungi may be used for thedegradation of paddy straw. hence we conclude that combination of three lignocellulolytic fungi viz.,r. oryzae,a. oryzae and a. fumigatus can be recommended for the degradation of paddy straw which would result inproduction of good quality compost containing higher amounts of total nitrogen (1.55±0.03%), total potassium(1.57±0.01%) and total phosphorus (1.48±0.17%) content.