The Hindu 28.11.2013
Mushroom cultivated using organic manure got from municipal solid waste
S. Rajendran talks biotechnology in his own simple way.
But he chooses to offer me biscuits before getting into the subject. He
couldn’t have sounded more uncanny saying that the biscuits and
biotechnology are related.
“It’s made of mushrooms
cultivated on municipal waste,” he says. Sounds like a bizarre
proposition? But it’s possible. In an attempt to make optimum use of
waste generated in the city, the Associate Professor of Department of
Botany at Saraswathi Narayanan College, has successfully cultivated
mushroom with the use of organic manure obtained from municipal solid
waste. “Mushroom is a storehouse of proteins,” he says. “It can be
consumed as a fresh vegetable as well as in the powdered form.”
It
all started when Rajendran embarked on a Department of Science and
Technology funded project ‘Feasibility study of technology for
smoke-free briquettes’ with agricultural waste. Initially, he focussed
on producing quality briquettes. But he thought of cultivating mushroom
as the organic content in agricultural waste was considerably high.
“The
organic substance is separated from the waste and oyster mushroom is
cultivated through the solid state fermentation technology,” he
explains. It is a process where the organic matter is seeded with
mushroom spawns. The substrate is then left in a temperature controlled
room for 15 days to get the first yield of mushroom. When he found the
results encouraging, he branched out and applied the same technology on
municipal waste. He first demonstrated the study in Paramakudi
Municipality.
After the mushroom harvest, the fungal
fermented substrate is used to make briquettes. “The calorific value of
these briquettes can be upgraded to that of lignite coal. These
briquettes are potential power-generating agents as well as efficient
fuel,” notes Rajendran. Apart from the briquettes, he has also made
tiles out of agricultural substrate, which are efficient acoustic
enhancement material.
“Once the degradable waste is
segregated, the leftover inert material can also be utilised as rooting
media for plant cultivation in terrace gardens.” On an average the city
generates around 450 tonnes of garbage everyday, leave alone the
hospital waste. It includes more than 100 tonnes of vegetable market
junk. Over 65 per cent of the entire waste is organic matter. Since the
waste generated in Madurai corporation is massive, Rajendran suggests
that women self help groups can be involved in production of organically
cultivated mushroom. He regularly conducts free training programmes for
entrepreneurs interested in mushroom cultivation and he has also
developed healthy mushroom spawns. He has submitted a proposal to the
city corporation. There’s generally an aversion towards agricultural
produce grown on municipal waste. “It’s a misconceived notion,” says A.
Mathuram, City Engineer, Madurai Corporation.
The
local body collects garbage from residences and commercial
establishments and transports them to the dumping yard in Vellakal near
Perungudi where the degradable waste is digested aerobically and
composted to manure.
The Corporation has devised the
solid waste management programme in accordance with the guidelines of
the inter-ministerial task force established by ministries of
environment and urban development. “There are no takers for the organic
manure generated from municipal waste. Awareness should be created among
people to support such initiatives. We are studying the feasibility of
using briquettes for power generation,” he says.
It
can be used to grow not only mushrooms but also vegetables. For many,
garbage disposal is dumping the junk in a yard. But not many know that
it is a money spinner for the administration.
