Although several treatments have been used to improve
Table the degradability and voluntary intake of rice straw, such as physical or chemical treatments, the practical use of these treatments is still restricted in terms of safety concerns, costs and potentially negative environmental consequences. Using ligninolytic fungi, including their enzymes, may be one potential alternative to provide a more practical and environmental-friendly approach for enhancing the nutritive value of rice straw. The cost of exogenous enzymes is at present too high to be applied by smallholder farms, but this may change in the future. Moreover, the application of ligninolytic fungi or their enzymes combined with chemical pre-treatments to rice straw may be an alternative way to shorten the period of the incubation times and (or) decrease the amount of chemicals, effecting some synergy. Certainly, since available data on treatments using fungi and their enzymes for improving the quality of rice straw are relatively scarce, these techniques should be developed further.