Biopesticide Production From Solid Wastes
Abstract
An enormous amount of solid waste is produced all over the world (billions of tonnes/year). Among these the biodegradable and nonhazardous solid wastes could be recycled and utilized in an eco-friendly manner to produce many bio-products (including biopesticides) using microbial strains by a solid-state fermentation process. In general, microbial biopesticides are produced using commercial media, which incurs a high production cost. To suitably address this issue, nonhazardous solid (biodegradable) waste can be used as the raw material, which reduces 35-59% of the cost involved in the use of synthetic media for biopesticide production. The biopesticides market represents $2.5. billion of global pesticide use. In this chapter, the production of microbial biopesticides from bacteria, fungi, and viruses is briefly presented and discussed. Also, the impact of using biopesticides to augment crop production and its vital role in improving human health are concisely highlighted.