Agricultural Research Grant Awardee 2023

The commonly grown crops by small scale farmers comprise of rice, wheat and coarse cereals that primarily generate post-harvest lignocellulosic residue.  “Grow rice, get rich” is the key strategy that the small and marginal farmers seem to be following. One Kg of grain produces almost 1-1.5 kg of agri residue like stalks and straws. The handling of such agro-waste is a real challenge for the farmers and hence mostly burnt. Instead of burning, utilizing agri waste as a feedstock for value added products like fortified compost, biogas and pre-treated fodder, which can generate additional revenue for the marginal farmers is the main aim of the project.

The purpose of this project is to develop an on-farm applicable technology for efficient extraction of enzyme from a unique indigeneous bioculture (Accession no. MCC 0198, Patent No. 360956, 2021) developed by VNIT to  digest agri residue. The pre-treatment process taking place by the virtue of this enzyme helps in subsequent conversion of the agri waste into commercially valuable products. The technology would solve the issue of abundant, underutilized agri waste and also generate economy for the small and marginal farmers. It would also support the goals of sustainable agricultural practices leading to circular economy.

The enzyme production and its utilization for agro-waste valorization have been successfully carried out at lab-scale in VNIT. Sufficient base level data have been generated so far. The current project aims at scaling up enzyme production and its application to improve dry fodder digestibility in animals, accelerate bio-gas production and lead to rapid composting.