Evaluation of Phytotoxicity of Effective Microorganism (EM) Treated Distillery Industry Effluent

Abstract

Effective Microorganisms (EM), a culture of coexisting beneficial microorganism predominantly consisting of Lactic acid bacteria, Photosynthetic bacteria, Yeast, Fermenting fungi and Actinomycetes that are claimed to enhance microbial turnover in soil and thus known increase soil macronutrients and increases plant growth and yield. In the present study, distillery effluents decomposition with EM technology into high nutrient content of treated effluent and its impact on plant growth parameters of vignamugo (Green Gram) was studied. The distillery effluents was effectively decomposed by commercial formulation of the EM-1 with complete conversion of fresh distillery effluents into finely very rich in treated effluent with 6.33ppm of total Nitrogen (N), 167.6ppm of total phosphorous (P), 153% of total potassium (K),and 0.72 % of organic matters. Plant growth parameters such as shoot length, leaf surface area, total foliage per count, total leaves and branches emerged in the plants, chlorophyll content of compost treated plant reveals 0.42 mg/g. The study explores the possible augmentation of EM as a major source of conversion of wastes into high nutrition organic manures and thus reducing dumping of industrial effluent into the environment.