Abstract

Distillery spentwash is a nutrient rich liquid organic waste obtained from molasses based distillery industries after biomethanation process and it is the carrier of huge amounts of nutrients and organic matter. A field experiment was conducted during 2009–10 at Research and Development Farm, M/s. Bannari Amman Sugars Distillery Division Ltd., Ealur, Erode to assess the performance of multicut fodder sorghum by utilizing distillery industry byproducts viz., distillery spentwash, biocompost and spentwash ash. Treatments involved were distillery spentwash @ 37.5 and 50 kilo 1/ha at full and split dose, biocompost @ 5.0 t/ha and spentwash ash @ 400 kg/ha with recommended dose of fertilizers and the various parameters were assessed at 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th harvests. Results of the field experiment revealed that the application of distillery spentwash @ 37.5 kilo 1/ha at full dose with recommended dose of nitrogen and phosphorus increased the growth, quality and nutrient parameters over recommended dose of fertilizers.