UTILIZATION OF AGRO-INDUSTRIAL WASTE BY HIGHER MUSHROOMS: MODERN VIEW AND TRENDS

Waste management and providing a world population with rich in protein food are two important problems of which the utilization of agro-industrial (agriculture and food industry) waste by higher mushrooms causes the growing interest of researchers around the world. More than 150 individual types of wastes have been investigated last decade as alternative substrates alone or in various compositions (more than 450 substrates) for cultivation of 52 higher mushroom species (about 100 strains) as evidenced by the results of more than 130 considered in the review scientific publications. All waste is used as a basis for substrates and supplements thereto, are characteristic of the respective continent and region of the world. Publications containing biochemical studies of substrates and fungi confirm that fungi are grown in rich in biologically active substances unconventional substrates, provide a rich biochemical composition of fungi compared with conventional substrates (sawdust, straw, etc.). The disadvantage of many publications is the lack of mention of examined fungi strains, whereas studies of various strains of the same fungus in the same substrate show different results. The prospect of the study of agricultural residues utilization by higher mushrooms consists in the investigations of: productivity, biological efficiency of the process, morphological and biochemical indices of cultivated mushrooms, depending on the biochemical parameters of substrates and the process conditions; safety of cultivated mushrooms.