Use of agro-waste for production of value added products is a good alternative for developing low-cost carriers for formulation of -based bio-products. It provides avenues for safe utilization of wastes, while reducing cost and environment pollution load of waste disposal. The present study was undertaken to find suitable agro-waste for economical and higher mass production of TvR1 under solid-state fermentation, optimizing culture conditions using mathematical model and assessing effect of formulated bio-product on growth of Spinach (). Among various agro-wastes screened, sugarcane bagasse was observed to support maximum growth (20.08 × 10 spores/g) of TvR1 which was significantly ( ≤ 0.05) higher than the others. The Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to optimize culture conditions using optimal point prediction analysis which predicted that maximum spore production of TvR1 (19.1245 × 10 spores/g) will be obtained at 30 °C and 68.87% of moisture content after 31 days of incubation. Amendment of formulated bio-product of TvR1 in soil at concentration 15% w/w promoted biomass, photosynthetic pigments, and protein content of spinach (significant at ≤ 0.05). After 6 weeks of sowing the shoot length, root length, and photosynthetic pigments of plants irrigated daily and on alternate days were reported to be increased by 66.97, 185.03, and 82.80%; and 56.56, 71.36, and 74.64%, respectively; over the no amendment.
