ISOLATION OF PHOSPHATE SOLUBILIZING MICROORGANISMS AND OPTIMIZATION OF THEIR FERMENTATION CONDITIONS BY STATISTICAL TECHNIQUE USING AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE

In soil phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms (PSMs) are beneficial because they have the ability to hydrolyze both organic and inorganic phosphorus to a soluble form that is easily absorbed by plants.In this study PSMs were isolated from the soil and their culture conditions were improved.Using the pour plate method and Pikovskaya Agar medium (PVK), seven PSMs were isolated from the soil collected from different areas of Lahore.Aspergillus niger was determined to be the isolate with the highest phosphorizer.The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) a statistical approach was applied to optimize the cultural conditions and wheat bran was used as a substrate for solid state fermentation (SSF), which produced biofertilizer.Five distinct parameters were measured and optimized using central composite design (CCD): temperature (X1), pH (X2), incubation period (X3), moisture (X4), and nitrogen source Ammonium sulphate (X5).Ammonium sulphate, which has the highest phosphorus solubility among several nitrogen sources, was chosen.Temperature (44.09C), pH (8.31), incubation time (8.81 days), moisture content (60.90%), and nitrogen supply (2.40%) were the optimized parameters for phosphorous solubilization.It is possible to expand the global food supply without endangering the environment by employing PSMs as biofertilizers.It might be concluded that considering the A. niger's ability to solubilize phosphate and its ability to produce plant growth promoters, so it can be suggested as a phosphate solubilizer in an agricultural field.