RECYCLING OF BIOMETHANATED DISTILLERY SPENT WASH TO ENHANCE SOIL HEALTH, GROWTH AND YIELD OF SUGARCANER. Jayashree, K. Suganya and V. SathyasreeAbstract Sugar industry is the second largest agro-based industry in India, which contributes substantially to the economic development of the country. The distillery units mainly use sugarcane molasses as a preferred raw material and for every liters of alcohol production, 10-15 liters of waste water, known as spent wash, is generated which poses serious disposal problems. Field experiment was conducted to study the efficiency of Biomethanated distillery spentwash, on improving the yield and quality of Sugarcane at Research and Development farm of Bannari Amman Sugars Ltd., Modur, Sathyamangalamtaluk, Erode district, using Sugarcane, Co 86032 as a test variety with a spacing of 40cmx30cm. Application of 40KL + Biocompost (1.0 tonnes) (T5) recorded higher yield of 76 t ha-1, + NPK as per recommended dose (T1) recorded the lower yield of 53 t ha-1.Increase in the rate of spentwash application markedly increased the Exchangeable Ca, Mg, Na, K concentration and relatively higher values were observed in soil that received 40kl spentwash with 1 tonnes of biocompost. Mineralization of organic matter and the nutrients present in the effluent are responsible for the increase in the availability of nutrients in soil. |