Leftover rice scraps become a living soil booster for corn
Melo N, Nazari MT, Schommer VA, Ferrari V, Moraes CAM
Soil Health
If you compost or amend garden beds, this shows how farm byproducts most people toss out can be turned into a microbial soil treatment that measurably wakes up soil biology.
Growing a fungus used as a natural pesticide leaves behind spent rice as waste. Researchers took that waste, let a helpful soil bacterium ferment it for a week, and turned it into a soil conditioner. When they added it to soil growing corn, the soil's microbial life, enzyme activity, and carbon dioxide release all increased, meaning the soil got more biologically active and healthier.
Key Findings
Rice waste from Trichoderma asperelloides production was fermented with Streptomyces sp. BEI-18 A for seven days via solid-state fermentation
Applying the resulting conditioner to maize soil increased microbial abundance, enzymatic activity, and CO2 release compared to untreated soil
Beta-glucosidase activity classification improved from moderate to adequate, though physicochemical parameters did not meet criteria for physical or chemical soil conditioner classification
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists turned leftover rice waste from fungal biopesticide production into a beneficial soil booster by fermenting it with a helpful Streptomyces bacterium, and it improved soil microbial activity when tested on corn plants.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Biotechnological valorization of rice waste from Trichoderma production through the development of a streptomyces-based biological soil conditioner.
Sustainable soil management is vital for maintaining agricultural productivity while mitigating the environmental impacts of intensive pesticide use. This study evaluated the use of rice waste gene...
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