Endophytic bacteria are a promising source of cost-effective and eco-friendly approaches that are highly desirable for sustainable agriculture. The study successfully developed a novel prototype fermentor and demonstrated an impactful utilization of endophytic bacteria for large-scale production of biofertilizers. The fermentor was designed to integrate i) a temperature control unit, ii) a heating unit, a heated water circulation unit, and iii) a microbial growth unit, ensuring precise control of temperature and agitation, providing a conducive environment containing an affordable medium for the proliferation of single endophytic bacterium, or consortium of endophytic bacteria. The capacities of the fermentor revealed that the temperature of the growth medium could be elevated from 29°C to 37°C within 50 minutes at varying rotation speeds of 60 rpm, 75 rpm, or 90 rpm, securing uniform temperature distribution for optimum growth of the consortia. Each consortium's average growth rate was recorded after 48 hours. Furthermore, the system efficiently returned to the initial temperature of 29°C from 37°C within 4.5 hours and maintained a temperature around 35°C to 37°C during a brief period of over ~70 minutes of power outage. The amplified culture of consortium A. comprised of growth-promoting endophytic bacteria (Klebsiella sp. HSTU-Bk11, Acinetobacter sp. HSTU-Abk29, Citrobacter sp. HSTU-ABk30, and Enterobacter cloacae HSTU-ABk39) significantly improved the morphological traits of rice plants (root, shoot, tillers number) along with the crop yield in the fields. This study presents a novel fermentor, facilitating the large-scale production of plant growth-promoting endophytic bacteria, and presenting new insights for enhancing sustainable organic agricultural research and industrial applications.
Key words: Biofertilizer, Endophytic bacteria, Fermentor, Microbial growth, Sustainable agriculture
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