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Industrialization and urbanization result in increased environmental pollution,
particularly dumping of industrial waste poses dangerous threat to human health and
ecosystem. Recycling and value addition of such waste in the form of substrate for bacterial and
plant growth could serve a right solution in the current global scenario.
Combatting the growth of phytopathogens and protecting crop plants from
vulnerable diseases is a challenging issue in agriculture. Numerous biocontrol agents currently
available in the market are ecofriendly and they thrive on abundant nutrients in the rhizosphere
and stimulate plant growth (Gray and Smith, 2005).
Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus
subtilis are root colonizing bacterial biocontrol
strains, which suppress soilborne plant diseases caused by phytopathogenic
fungi (Heeb et al., 2001; Manjula and Podile, 2001; Nagarajkumar, 2004; Moataza and Saad, 2006;
and Vleesschauwer et al., 2008). Mass multiplication of these bacterial agents
incurs more cost in the form of media formulation and
hence, substituting industrial effluents as carbon and energy source
in the medium could result in conservation of economy.
Molasses is a highly viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane. The quality
of molasses depends on the maturity of sugarcane, the amount of sugar extracted and the
method of extraction. It contains significant amounts of vitamins and minerals. Blackstrap
molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron,
and is often used in the manufacture of cattle feed and mass multiplication of bacterial fertilizers (Ashnaei et al., 2007). |
