Utilisation of distillery effluent in coastal sandy soil to improve soil fertility and yield of sugarcane

Coastal sandy soil is characterised by low fertility and poor physical properties. Distillery effluent, a liquid waste from the distillery industry contains large quantities of soluble organic matter and plant nutrients. It does not contain any toxic elements / compounds. In order to improve the physical properties and fertility of the coastal soil by utilising the distillery effluent, field experiment was conducted at Sugarcane Research Station, Cuddalore using sugarcane as test crop. The distillery effluent was applied at different doses (0, 1.25, 2.5, 3.75, 5.0 and 6.25 lakh litres ha) along with different combinations of NPK fertilizers (no NPK, N alone, NP and NPK). The distillery effluent was applied 40 days before planting and thoroughly mixed with soil. The results of the post harvest soil analysis indicated that application increasing doses of distillery effluent progressively increased the organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrient content in the soil. Application of distillery effluent improved the physical properties of the soil by reducing the bulk density and increasing the water holding capacity. Application of graded doses of distillery effluent significantly increased the cane yield of sugarcane up to 3.75 lakh litres ha and there after the yield increase was not significant. In distillery effluent applied plots, NP and NPK gave comparable yields which indicated that K fertilizer could be skipped off when distillery effluent is applied. It was interesting to note that application of distillery effluent even upto 6.25 lakh litres per hectare did not produce any deleterious effect on soil as well as crop growth.