National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal-132 001, India
Online published on 5 January, 2012.
Two small (0.3 meter x 0.3 meter) loose brick enclosures were prepared in a manner that aeration was possible from all sides and filled with 4% urea treated paddy straw duly mineralised with 1% single super phosphate (SSP) and 0.1% CaO with moisturization to 65 %, layer by layer either without or with 3% Coprinus fimetarius culture grown on millets. NH3-N decreased from original 0.551% to 0.232% in urea treated sample as compared to 0.071 % in fungal treated sample. However, insoluble N increased from original 0.979% on day zero to 1.409% on day 13 of fungal treatment. In contrast to this, the value of insoluble N remained almost constant in the urea treated sample. In another experiment done on similar lines but with large scale with 80 kg urea (4%) treated paddy straw, it was observed that CP content was 4.92,8.45 and 14.63% in untreated, urea treated and fungal treated paddy straw respectively. The amino N and the content of various amino acids increased substantially on fungal treatment through Karnal Process, thereby supporting the view that the Coprinus fimetarius fungus has the capability of trapping the excess ammonia from urea treated paddy straw and subsequently incorporate the same in various amino acids thereby increasing the protein value of straw.
