The Role of Rot Fungi in Composting Process of Empty Fruit Bunches of Oil Palm

Abstract

A b s t r a c t Empty Fruit Bunches of Oil Palm cannot be readily decomposed as they are still in complex elemental form, therefore must be degraded first, yet natural degradation processes takes a very long time, hence the use of fungi can accelerate the degradation process by various enzymes they produced. Rot fungi possess the ligninolytic capability i.e., producing enzyme that degrade lignin. The materials used in this study include EFB of oil palm, bran, and dolomite lime. Ingredients were mixed evenly and then inoculated with 3 different rot fungi. Treatment 1: without rot fungi (control), treatment 2: Trichoderma sp., treatment 3: Pleurotus ostreatus, and treatment 4: Tramella sp. Composting process was done on the vessel with dimension of 200 × 100 × 80 cm. Compost was covered with a tarpaulin, mixed and reversed thoroughly every 2 weeks, and placed under the shade for 12 weeks to accelerate decomposition. The results showed that the inoculation of the rot fungus accelerate the composting process, improve the physical and chemical properties and contribute to the nutrient content of the compost. This study showed that the quality of the compost with different parameters such as temperature, pH and the ratio C: N was good. Temperature was increased in all treatments after three weeks and then decreased gradually until the stage of maturity of compost. The inoculation treatment with Trichoderma sp had better quality than other treatments. C/N ratio and pH of mature compost was 18.68 and 6.1. It was concluded that inoculation of Trichoderma sp is potential for EFB decomposition.