Daily key household wastes from Sri Lanka convert in to a potential substrate to mass produce Beauveria bassiana

摘要

In Sri Lanka, coconut consumption is relatively high and after extracting milk the coconut scrapings become a waste. The coconut scrapings and black gram husks comprise the major proportion of daily household waste from urban areas. Accumulation of such wastes is also a burden for proper dispatch and recycling of such wastes is also not practiced for effective reuse. Waste recycling is a preferred method in organic agriculture for effective management of wastes and an attempt was made to successfully utilize such wastes as a potential substrate for mass production of entomopathogeinc fungi, Beauveria bassiana. It has been used as a potential biological agent to control wide array of crop pests worldwide. White rice is generally used to mass propagate B. bassiana. Milk extracted coconut scrapings and black gram husks were used to grow B. bassiana and white rice was tested to compare the fungal growth and sporulation efficiency. The result is comparable and white rice was the best that supported 1×10~9 spores/g of B. bassiana and sustained the spore load for a month. But milk extracted coconut scrapings and black gram husks yielded 1×10~8 spores/g and also sustained the spore load more than a month at 29±2°C and 75±3 % RH. Though the spore production was slightly lower than white rice but the cost of production in these wastes was significantly very low compare to white rice. The use of such house hold wastes combining with white rice for the mass multiplication of B. bassiana would immensely helpful to reduce the cost of production of B. bassiana as low as possible and effectively manage such household wastes in to an environment friendly form.