Paper Title
Study on Development of Products of Commercial Importance from Aquatic Weeds of DAL Lake

Abstract
Dal lake is the second largest lake in Jammu and Kashmir. It is integral to tourism and recreation in Kashmir. Besides Dal there are other freshwater lakes in Kashmir including Wular which is Asia’s largest fresh water lake. Aquatic weeds growing rampet in the lakes are posing big threat to the existence of dal lake and other lakes. To restore back the lost glory and pristine beauty of the lakes, government agencies are continuously extracting these weeds from the lake over decades. Every year, more than 100,000 cubic meters of weeds are recovered both manually and mechanically from the Dal Lake and thrown away as waste. on the other hand these aquatic weeds are mega accumulators of nutrients. The present study pertains to several products of commercial importance that had been prepared from fresh water aquatic weeds which are ‘laboratory media for growth of fungi, medium for growth and mass multiplication of fungal biopesticides, laboratory medium for tissue culture, and fermented aquatic weed extract for use in agriculture and horticulture as high quality organic fertilizer. A cost effective fungal medium formulation based on aquatic weed specie Ceratophyllum demersum(horn wart) and sucrose was found to support high quantity of fungal biomass. The biomass production of biopesticides fungi and other fungi was more than what was recorded in conventional culture media like potato dextrose, molasses yeast etc. a tissue culture medium prepared by using aquatic weed specie Ceratophyllum demersum also supported a better growth of potato sprouts as compared to conventional MS medium. An organic fertilizer prepared by controlled fermentation of aquatic weed extract which was used as soil application/ foliar spray on vegetables increased considerably both quantity and quality when tested on chilli, tomato, bottle guard and brinjal.