Identification of rice straw degrading microbial consortium

A microbial consortium consisting of 30 species of bacteria was developed to study the biodegradation of rice straw. Rice straw treated only with microorganisms showed better degradation results compared with rice straw pre-treated with urea, lime and palm oil mill effluent (POME). A reduction of 15.85, 24.22 and 10.25% in acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and crude fibre (CF) of rice straw was observed after the treatment with microbial consortium. The study highlights the potential of microbial consortium to degrade rice straw efficiently.