Effect of distillery effluents on some physiological aspects in maize

A field experiment was conducted for two years to study the effect of application of different distillery effluents: raw spent wash (RSW), biomethanated spent wash (BSW), lagoon sludge (LS), recommended NPK+FYM (farm yard manure) and control (no fertilizer and effluent) on some physiological aspects in maize. The study revealed that the application of distillery effluents resulted in increased leaf area, chlorophyll content, nitrate reductase activity total dry weight and grain yield. Among the effluents, the highest grain yield (36.9 q ha−1) was obtained in BSW followed by RSW (32.2 q ha−1) and LS (28.3 q ha−1). Overall, NPK + FYM treatment recorded the highest grain yield (51.8 q ha−1). However, to achieve the full manurial potential of the effluents, some amount of fertilizer should be supplemented.