Abstract :
The efforts have been made to convert the sugar industry waste into a value-added product, by employing an epigenic earthworm species for vermicomposting eg. Eisenia foetida, under laboratory conditions. Sugar industry waste was amended with other organic supplements (Cow dung); and ten types of vermicompost were prepared. Vermicomposting of sugar industry waste resulted in total organic carbon (22.10±0.171) but increment in total nitrogen (20.16±0.142), total potassium (16.76±0.111) and total phosphorus (19.39±0.101) was achieved after 14 weeks of E. foetida activity. The C:N ratio decreased with time in all the earthworm worked vermicompost in the range of (1.09±0.110). E. foetida exhibited maximum value of mean biomass gain (1091.54±0.481 mg earthworm-1), cocoon numbers (0.80±0.014 cocoon worm-1 day-1) in VC4 treatment. The microbial populations in vermicomposting (VC4) were enumerated with the dilution plate method, using several media in the presence of earthworms. The microbial populations increased due to earthworm activity. Overall, VC4 vermicompost appeared as an ideal substrate to manage sugar industry waste effectively and these method can be proposed as a low impute basic technology to convert sugar industry waste into value added vermicomposts.
Keyword :
Cow dung, Earthworm, Eisenia foetida, Press mud, Waste, Sugar industry