Commercial Initiation of Feather Hydrolysate as Supreme Fertilizer: A Smart Bio-Cleaning Strategy of Poultry Waste

PURPOSE: Economic development of India mainly depends on agricultural sectors. The Indian traditional agricultural system is mainly based on chemical fertilizer to get better yield. The main motto of this research work is to change the traditional faith of Indian farmers and rural Indian economy. METHODS: Bioprocessing of feather prepared from an efficient newly isolated bacterial strain, identified as Bacillus wiedmanni SAB10 is used to produce a nitrogen rich liquid fertilizer. The cell-free hydrolysate was prepared from submerged fermentation of poultry litter (1.25%, w/v) as sole media with supplemented as chicken feather (1%, w/v) in 79.41 h with pH 10.6. RESULTS: Fermented hydrolysate contains a significant quantity of total amino acid (503.02 mg/L) with diversity (Cystine, Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, lysine, Valine, Proline and Alanine), total oligopeptides (4.65 mg/ml) and thiol content (58.09 µg/ml) which influence growth and yield (1.02 fold) of moong beans (Vigna radiata) plant in pot trials and as well as successfully scale up in field trials by the farmers. This liquid fertilizer not only makes plant healthy and has drought tolerance (proline content- 0.023 mg/g) capacity but also increases the grain quality by spraying the fertilizer on foliage with a ratio of 2:1 (Water: Feather hydrolysate) for two times (before the 1st flash and 2nd flash of flowering). CONCLUSION: Fermented feather hydrolysate is used full as a foliage fertilizer for the cultivation of moong beans. Some commercial properties and its eco-friendly, cost-effectiveness will make it a smart liquid fertilizer in near future. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12649-022-01982-9.