AN ECONOMICAL AND SIMPLE METHOD FOR THE MASS PRODUCTION OF CANE PEST INSECTS KILLING FUNGUS, BEAUVERIA BASSIANA ON BAGASSE AND ITS UTILIZATION UNDER IPM IN SUGARCANE

摘要

Based on our three years experimentation, an economical and simple farmers/ sugar industry level production system was developed for entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana which has been found infecting several sugarcane tissue borers apart from sap sucking bug, Cavelerius sweeti and termites. In this extensively modified aseptic and clean system, the fungus is produced as efficiently as with LUBILOSA system currently being used for its commercial production in USSR, China and Brazil. The technique as also the equipment used for the mass production have been quite simplified and made cost effective using locally available sugar industry waste. In this solid state culture system, bagasse mixed with wheat or maize bran and brewer's yeast has been used as media for the production of conidia in place of par boiled rice. The specially designed sealed bioreactors with automated process control have also been substituted by high density polypropylene bags. With the modified technique, the current cost of production of one kilogram conidia numbering 2 × 10~8 per gram formulated dry conidial powder ranges between 200 -250 rupees only which is manifolds cheaper than the commercial products available in the market. This paper outlines the steps along with materials used in this simplified procedure for production of B. bassiana conidia in the laboratory and its application in sugarcane crop.