Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

COMPOSTING SPENT MUSHROOM SUBSTRATE : EMPLOYMENT GENERATING ACTIVITY

A.S. Deshmukh

Abstract

Unused agrowaste can be converted into value added products such as gourmet and medicinal mushrooms and also compost. Pleurotus sajor caju was cultivated on four agrowastes viz. wheat, mung (Phaseolus radiatus), tur (Cajanus cajan) and soybean (Glycine max) to determine the effect of these agrowastes on yield, moisture content, protein, carbohydrate, fat and crude fiber contents. The spent mushroom substrate was composted along with waste karanj seed cake after biodiesel extraction and fly ash. The physicochemical parameter of compost sets such as moisture, porosity, WHC, bulk density, pH, C%, N%, C:N, OM%, P%, Na%, K%, Ca% were evaluated for each compost set and compost prepared along with Karanj (Pongamia pinnata) seed cake waste proved to be best. The lab scale mushroom and compost were evaluated for income generation.