Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry (EID Parry Project), A.D. Agricultural College and Research Institute (TNAU), Trichy - 9, India.
Distillery effluent, a waste water of distillery industry is of purely plant origin and contains large quantities of soluble organic matter and plant nutrients. It does not contain any toxic elements/compounds. The only problem with distillery effluent is excessive Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and electrical conductivity. These problems could be overcome either by the application of distillery effluent after proper dilution (1:10 to 1:50) with irrigation water or by pre-plant application (40 to 60 days before planting) to give sufficient time for the natural oxidation of organic matter. Application of distillery spent wash/effluent significantly increased the EC, organic carbon, available N, P, K, Ca, Mg and micronutrient status of the soil. Distillery effluent application significantly increased the yield of crops viz., sorghum, wheat, maize, sugarcane, cotton, groundnut, sunflower, soybean, sugarbeet, potatoes and other vegetables, forage crops and tree crops, but had adverse effect on legumes and no effect on rice. The untreated distillery spent wash is acidic in nature (pH- 3.5 – 4.0) which could be effectively used for the reclamation of non-saline sodic soil. The technology of using distillery effluent for composting of pressmud, pressmud along with sugarcane trash and coir waste, pressmud plus bagasse ash and city garbage have been successfully tested. Thus utilisation of distillery effluents in agriculture would save costs on fertilisers and facilitate reduction in pollution load on aquatic eco-system.
