Evaluation of economic medium for mass multiplication of entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out during Rabi 2013-2014 at the Entomology laboratory, College of Agriculture JNKVV, Jabalpur at Completely Randomized Design (CRD) to select a suitable and economic medium for mass multiplication of Metarhizium anisopliae. The experiment on mass production studies was undertaken on fifteen substrates for determining a suitable medium for growth and sporulation. The observations were recorded on 10th, 20th and 30th days after inoculation. Among the different substrates evaluated highest conidial count (12.68 × 107 spores/ml) was observed on cowpea media followed by pea (11.84 × 107 spores/ml). It was also clear that M. anisopliae is able to grow on a variety of cheap and easily available grains; hence they can be used for the mass multiplication of the fungus and produced in bulk and can be made available at the doorstep of the farmers.