Harnessing the benefits of groundnut and toddy palm shell biocompost on selected crops

Abstract

Safe management of plant and animal waste is one of the most important environmental issues in the world. Disposable of groundnut shells and toddy palm shells are a threat to the environment. A significant amount of shell residuals dumping or burning process leads to the accumulation of waste causing environmental pollution. newlineHence, minimizing the waste by recycling promotes zero-waste production. Recycling of newlineorganic waste is most important for preserving natural resources. The current research was performed to investigate the growth and yield performance of bhendi, cluster bean, coriander and fenugreek by the influence of groundnut shell and toddy palm shell composts. The degradation of groundnut shell and toddy palm shell through the microbial consortium and Trichoderma asperelloides along with vermicomposting technology has been presented. The treatments includes T1: Groundnut shell + Trichoderma asperelloides + Eisenia fetida, T2: Groundnut shell + microbial consortium, T3: Groundnut shell + microbial consortium + Eisenia fetida, T4: Toddy palm shell + Trichoderma asperelloides + Eisenia fetida, T5: Toddy palm shell + microbial consortium, T6: Toddy palm shell + microbial consortium + Eisenia fetida respectively. During composting bacterial, fungal and actinomycetes counts were observed at the regular interval of 30, 60 and 90 days which achieved peak stage on 60th day of composting. The physical and chemical parameters of raw and composted samples were analyzed. The results observed range between pH (6.01 6.40), EC (1.39-2.59 dS m-1), TN (0.91-1.39%), TP (1.98-2.51%), TK (2.36-3.85%), Ca (2.27-3.25%) and Mg (2.18-2.99%), were significantly increased while lignin (9.54-6.69%), cellulose (10.71-6.35%), OC (29.8 26.5%) and C:N ratio (29:1-19:1) were considerably reduced in C6 and other treatments. In addition, FT-IR analysis showed high degradation in C3 and C6 and XRD confirms excellent compost maturity. SEM micrographs of final composts revealed the presence of many structural changes.