Trichoderma: A part of possible answer towards crop residue disposal

Abstract

India is one of the leading countries in agricultural production and generate large volume of crop residue. Increasing demand for food grains due to growing population leads to generation of crop residues. Due to lack of proper disposal mechanism of crop residue, farmers burn the residue which release greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, and poses great threat to environment as well as human health. The residue burning causes greater carbon emission and nutrient losses which otherwise incorporated into the soil system may substantially improve the soil biodiversity. Besides several practices of crop residue management, the most feasible method for farmers is incorporation of residue into the soil with the inoculation of microbes. In soil system the ability of microbial community in degrading organic substances is well known. In the early stages of residue decomposition simple substrates like carbohydrates are degraded by bacteria, but in later stages degradation of complex constituents viz., cellulose, lignin needs microbes which are capable of secreting enzymes like cellulase, acting on complex organic substrates. In this context, cellulolytic micro organisms like Trichoderma have the potential and emerging as an important microbial inoculants to enhance the rate of decomposition as well as alleviate the effect of residue burning.