Bioconversion of Paddy and Coffee Husks As organic Manure and its Effect on Plant Growth and Soil Fertility

Abstract

ABSTRACT newlineBiocomposting plays an important role in managing the agro based industrial newlinewaste in organic farming to minimize the soil hazards, the present work has been newlinedesigned to investigate the Bioconversion of paddy and coffee husks as organic manure newlineand its effect on plant growth and soil fertility using Pleurotus eous, Pleurotus florida, newlineTrichoderma asperelloides and Eisenia fetida. newlineThe results of microbial population study revealed significant increase of bacteria, newlinefungi and actinomycetes in C6 (Raw coffee husk + 6.5g Pleurotus eous, 6.5g newlinePleurotus florida, 7g Trichoderma asperelloides + Eisenia fetida (5t/ha) followed by C3 newline(Raw paddy husk + 6.5g Pleurotus eous, 6.5g Pleurotus florida, 7g Trichoderma newlineasperelloides + Eisenia fetida (5t/ha) on 20, 40, 60 and 80 days. Observations with FT-IR newlineand FESEM revealed the morphological structure, maturity and stability of biocomposts newlineas well as physico - chemical parameters clearly showed that among 6 biocomposts, newlineC6 showed significant reduction in lignin, cellulose, EC, organic carbon, C:N ratio and newlineincrease in total nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium in comparison newlineto other biocomposts, raw paddy and coffee husks. The pot culture experiments were newlineconducted with control and 6 treatments (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6) on moth bean, black newlinegram, fenugreek and kalmegh. T6 showed significant growth in all biometric parameters newline(root length, shoot length, number of leaves, number of nodules, fresh weight and dry newlineweight) and yield parameters (number of pods/plant, length of the pod, number of newlineseeds/pod, weight of the seeds/ pod, fresh and dry weight of the pods) when compared to newlinecontrol and other treatments. Biochemical parameters (protein, carbohydrate, chlorophyll newline a , chlorophyll b , total chlorophyll in leaves, leghaemoglobin in nodules, protein and newlinecarbohydrate in seeds) of all the four test plants was maximum in T6. Phytochemical newlinescreening of methanol seed and leaf extracts of fenugreek and kalmegh grown under newlinetreatment 6 showed various phytochemicals