Recycling of industrial solid waste, pressmud as a manure

The solid wastes from the sugar industries like pressmud can be reutilized and recycled as organic manure. Among the vegetable crops, Lycopersicon esculentum is popular and also highly nutritious as it contains vitamin c and beta-carotenes. A field experiment was conducted with five different rates of pressmud at the rate of 3.75, 6.25, 12.5, 15 and 0 tonnes ha⁻¹ along with the recommended nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (100: 70: 70 kgha⁻¹) in the tomato crop variety PKM-1. Among the levels, 3.75 tonnes ha⁻¹ pressmud and recommended fertilizers level registered significantly higher Lycopersicon esculentum yield of 30.6 tonnes ha⁻¹ whereas plants applied with recommended level of NPK alone recorded 21.25 tonnes ha⁻¹ which was 44.14% increase over the control. As the application rates of pressmud increases, the yield of the crop was affected.