Author(s):

Aliya Parveen, Chetan Kumar Sharma, Vipin Yadav, Rizwan Ahmad, Pankaj Kumar Teli and Aziz Ahmed

Abstract: In India, coal fly ash and sugarcane trash are produced in large quantities and the storage or spreading of this waste on land causes contamination of the atmosphere, soil and water. The aim of this study was to convert (CFA) and sugarcane trash (ST) mixed with cow dung (CD) into vermicompost using an epigeous earthworm Eisenia fetida (red worm). Five treatments containing CD, CFA and ST in different ratios namely CFA: ST: CD in 1:1:8 ratio (T₁), CFA: ST: CD in 2:2:6 ratio (T₂), CFA: ST: CD in 3:3:4 ratio (T₃), CFA: ST: CD in 4:3:3 ratio (T₄) and CFA: ST: CD in 3:4:3 ratio (T₅) were run under laboratory conditions. The physicochemical changes of substrate materials in different treatments were measured at the end of vermicomposting (90 days). The vermicompost material showed decrease in Total Organic Carbon (TOC) (10.8-28.3g kg^­1), pH (9.2-11.6) and Total Potassium (TK) (9.0-22.5g kg^­1) and increase in Electrical Conductivity (EC) (12.6-14.1mS cm^­1)), Total Kjeldhal Nitrogen (TKN) (33.3-95.2g kg^­1) as well as Total Phosphorus (TP) (56.5-87.8g kg^­1) contents. Eisenia fetida showed better growth performance in T1 treatment also worms grew favourably in T₂ and T₃ treatment. Greater proportion of CFA and ST in T₄ and T₅ treatment significantly reduces (p<0.05) the growth and reproduction rate of Eisenia fetida during experimentation. This study clearly indicates that CFA and ST could be potentially used as raw substrate in vermicomposting if mixed with CD in 1:1:8, 2:2:6 and 3:3:4 ratios, respectively. It was further found that vermicompost obtained by below method was rich in Sodium, Calcium, Magnesium content i.e. 33.5, 23.3 and 19.9 (g kg^­1) respectively, while it was also rich in some micronutrients i.e. Iron, Zinc, Manganese (Mn), Copper (Cu), and content i.e. 1064, 169, 402and 165 ppm respectively. Thus, vermicomposting of coal fly ash and sugarcane trash is a cheap, excellent and ecofriendly method of sugarcane waste management.

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