Improving Physiological and Yield Traits of Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) by using Various Sources of Organic Wastes and Bio Fertilizers, Rhizobia

Background: Investigations were carried out during Rabi, 2016 and Summer, 2017 at farmer’s field in Kodukkanpalayam village of Cuddalore District, Tamil Nadu to evaluate the direct effects of agro industrial wastes (bagasse ash, pressmud and distillery spentwash), crop residues, farmyard manure with 50% inorganic sources, with and without Rhizobia on various traits of groundnut. There were twelve treatments in randomized block design (RBD) with three replications. Results revealed that the growth and yield components of groundnut viz., plant height, DMP and LAI at flowering stage, number of pods per plant, hundred kernel weight, pod yield and kernel yield were greatly influenced by the treatments. Methods: Combination of Pressmud @ 12.5 t ha-1 + Rhizobia @ 2 kg ha-1 + 50% RDF (T7) recorded the highest and followed by the application of distillery spentwash @ 100 m3 ha-1 + Rhizobia @ 2 kg ha-1 + 50% RDF (T8). Similar trend of results was recorded in summer, 2017 also. This might be due to the increase in the availability of nutrients, which increased the growth and yield attributes of groundnut in both the seasons. Also, use of agro industrial wastes and biofertilizers in any cropping sequence minimize the cost of inorganic fertilizers, thereby act as a boom to farmers by making the waste into wealth and maintain the soil health and fertility. Result: The study revealed the scope of utilization of agro industrial wastes (bagasse ash, pressmud and distillery spentwash), organic sources (crop residues and FYM) and biofertilizer (Rhizobia) in Agriculture.

Treatment of Bio-methanated Distillery Spentwash using various Physico-Chemical Treatment Techniques

Distilleries are one of the important secondary agro based industries. Every liter of alcohol produced will generate around 8 to 10 liters of Spentwash, which is highly complex liquid waste with dark reddish brown colour. Distilleries are listed in Red category by Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India, due to the complexity of Spentwash. This liquid waste is very difficult to treat and safe disposal of the same is a tedious task for distilleries. Most of the distilleries have adopted anaerobic digestion as a source of energy recovery by extracting methane from spentwash. The effluent from the anaerobic digester is called Bio-methanated Spentwash (BMSW), which is partially treated, but still concentrated and the same cannot be disposed into the environment safely. Present study is a part of Research work, which concentrates on various treatment techniques to further treat the Bio-methanated Spentwash to use it in composting of Pressmud in field scale. Electrocoagulation, Adsorption and Fenton Oxidation are selected as treatment techniques for the study, to convert Bio-methanated Spentwash into Stabilized Spentwash (SSW). This study showed, Fenton oxidation has a maximum removal efficiency with COD reduction of 45%, but produces volatile organic fumes harmful for the living beings. Hence, for the field scale implementation of Stabilization of Spentwash, Electrocoagulation process is recommended, due to its efficiency and practical feasibility of implementation .

Dynamics of Soil Microbial Population and Enzymes Activities under Distillery Spentwash Irrigation

Spentwash is a rich source of organic matter and nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and sulphur. The effect of different levels and methods of spentwash application on soil enzymatic activity was examined through a field experiment. The field experiment was conducted using Sesame VRI (Sv) 2 as a test crop at Research and Development Farm, The Sakthi Sugars Pvt. Ltd., Appakkudal, Erode District. The experiment was formulated with six treatments with four replications, laid out in Randomised Block design. As per the treatment schedule the calculated quantity of biomethanated distillery spentwash for pre-sown application was uniformly applied to the plots before sowing viz., 25, 50, 75,100% along with recommended dose of NP for four treatments viz., 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% and Recommended dose NPK was treated as one treatment (control).The soil samples were collected at 30 days intervals and analysed for the changes in soil microbial population and enzyme activities. The results of the study showed that the microbial population and enzymatic activities of the soil were substantially increased throughout the crop growth period due to biomethanated distillery spentwash application.

Assessing the changes in soil properties and possible ground water pollution with application of primary treated distillery spentwash

The present study deals with pollen morphology of fifteen species of Commelinaceae belonging to three genera: Commelina (6 species), Cyanotis (7 species) and Murdannia (2 species), collected from different localities in Andhra Pradesh, India. Species have shown diversity in size, shape and ornamentation, but all share a common feature; heteropolar and monosulcate apertural nature. While all the six species of Commelina have echinate ornamentation, four of them with prolate shape and two others have spheroidal shape. Seven species of Cyanotis have granular ornamentation and prolate in shape, except Cyanotis axillaris which is perprolate. Both the species of Murdannia have granular ornamentation; but differ in shape: prolate in M. nodiflora and perprolate in M. nimmoniana. These observations are of immense value in taxonomical, melissopalynological and aeropalynological studies.