UTILIZATION OF DISTILLERY WASTES FOR SUSTAINING SOIL HEALTH IN PADDY FIELDS

Sugarcane based industries like distilleries produce a large amount of byproducts like Raw Spent Wash (RSW), Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) and Bio-compost (BC).The Treated Distillery Effluent is waste water, which could be recycled in agriculture both as irrigation water and as a source of plant nutrients.The beneficial effect of organic matter for enhancing the soil fertility and thereby improving the crop productivity is well established.Thus, the soil application of TDE could offer the double benefit of safe disposal of wastes and its effective utilization for agricultural production.Keeping this fact in view, a field experiment was conducted to study the effect of Treated Distillery Effluent (TDE) and bio-compost on soil chemical and biological properties using paddy as a test crop (ADT-43).Based on the increase in soil chemical and biological properties, it can be concluded that TDE @ 0.1 million L ha -1 (M3) or TDE @ 0.15 million L ha -1 (M4) along with 37.5% N as urea + 37.5% N as biocompost (S7) can be recommended as a nutrient source for paddy crop.