Composting of Vegetable Waste Using Microbial Consortium and Biocontrol Efficacy of Streptomyces Sp. Al-Dhabi 30 Isolated from the Saudi Arabian Environment for Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

Thirty-seven root-associated Actinomycetes were isolated from the tomato plant for plant growth promoting activity. Among these, ten were selected for phosphate solubilisation, the production of siderophores, and indole acetic acid. Out of ten, eight Actinomycetes solubilised phosphate, whereas, Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30 showed better activity (43.1 mg/dL). Actinomycetes produced siderophore and the concentration ranged between 1.6 and 42.1 μg/mL. Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30 showed the ability to produce a maximum amount of indole acetic acid (IAA) (43 μg/mL), chitinase (43.1 U/mL), cellulase (67 U/mL), and protease (121 U/mL) than other strains. Further, vegetable waste was used as the bulk material for composting using Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30 along with microbial consortium. Total nitrogen content was 3.8% in Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30 inoculated compost, whereas 2.7% organic nitrogen was detected in the control. In the compost vegetable waste, the C:N ratio was 10.07, whereas it was 17.51 in the control. The vegetable waste composted with Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30, Lactobacillus plantarum ATCC 33222, and Candidautilis ATCC 9950 showed antagonistic activity and the supplemented compost enhanced shoot, root height, and total weightin tomato plants. These findings clearly suggest the use of Streptomyces sp. Al-Dhabi 30 as a potential biocontrol agent.