Effect of Dilution of Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) on Soil Properties and Yield of Sugarcane

Abstract

Sugarcane is one of the most important cash crops, which plays a pivotal role in India’s agricultural and industrial economy. The treated distillery effluent (TDE) being plant originated, contains all plant nutrients and organic matter. Therefore, it is being used as a cheap source of nutrients and organic manure in agriculture activities in soil besides improving soil physical properties. The experiment was conducted during August, 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 with CO 86032 in a randomized block design with six treatments and was replicated four times. The TDE was discharged @ 1.00, 0.50, 0.33, 0.25 and 0.20 lakh liters·ha-1 to get the dilutions of 1:10, 1:20, 1:30, 1:40 and 1:50 dilutions respectively. It was applied four times at 40 days interval starting from 45th day after planting. The fertilizers viz., N and P @ 75 percent of the recommended dose were applied and K was skipped. The results revealed that irrigation with TDE at 1:10 dilution resulted in higher yield of sugarcane. The TDE did not have any influence on quality parameters of sugarcane. The TDE application favourably influenced the available nutrients and organic carbon content in the soil. Besides, the present findings credibly proved that the TDE application not only enhanced the soil fertility status but also substituted for 25 percent of N and P and 100 percent of K fertilizers to sugarcane crop.