Vol. 8, Issue 11, Part D (2024)

A field experiment was carried out during the year 2023-2024 at Banana Research Station, Jalgaon to find out the effective method for decomposing of banana pseudostem waste and to access the nutrient status in decomposed banana pseudostem waste. A field experiment was conducted in randomized block design and replicated thrice comprised of nine treatments T₁ (Pseudostem waste + Decomposing culture @ 1 lit t^-1 in 100 lit water), T₂ (Pseudostem waste + Cow dung slurry @ 100 lit t^-1 of PW), T₃ (Pseudostem waste + Cow dung slurry @ 100 lit t^-1 of PW + Decomposing culture @ 1 lit t^-1), T₄ (Pseudostem waste + Urea @ 8 kg and SSP 10 kg t^-1 of PW in 100 lit water), T₅ (Pseudostem waste + Urea @ 8 kg and SSP 10 kg t^-1 of PW in 100 lit water + Decomposing culture @ 1 lit t^-1), T₆ (Pseudostem waste + DAP @ 20 kg t^-1 of PW in 100 lit water), T₇ (Pseudostem waste + DAP @ 20 kg t^-1 of PW in 100 lit water + Decomposing culture @ 1 lit t^-1), T₈ (Pseudostem waste + water @ 100 lit t^-1 of PW) and T₉ (Pseudostem waste or Control) through compost. The findings of the present investigation revealed that shorter duration for compost preparation (83.27 days), higher total iron (7.73 mg kg^-1), manganese (5.72 mg kg^-1) content, total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in banana pseudostem compost (2.57, 0.49 and 3.28%, respectively). The organic carbon content found ranged between 34.14 to 42.27% and C:N ratio found ranged between 13.37 to 20.12. The maximum bacterial, fungal and Actinomycetes count in compost (58 × 10⁴, 19 × 10⁴ and 5 ×  10⁴ cfu g^-1 compost, respectively). The gross monetary returns (9,854 ₹ t^-1), net monetary returns (6,707 ₹ t^-1) and B:C ratio (2.13) were obtained significantly higher under the application of Pseudostem waste + Urea @ 8 kg and SSP 10 kg t^-1 of PW in 100 lit water + Decomposing culture @ 1 lit t^-1 (T₅).

Thus, a voluminous wastes is recycled into an eco-friendly sustainable approach to reduce the wastage of huge biomass obtained from banana pseudostem waste.