VERMICOMPOST PRODUCTION FROM Eichhornia Crassipes AND …

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

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VERMICOMPOST PRODUCTION FROM Eichhornia Crassipes AND ITS GROWTH PROMOTING IMPACT ON SESAME (Sesamum Indicum L.) PLANT

1Sujata K. Madikhambe and 2K. R. Rao

1&2Department of Zoology, Walchand College of Arts and Science Solapur, Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Present study was conducted to recycle the aquatic weed, Eichhornia crassipes with suitable method of vermicomposting. The earthworms Eudrilus euginae were used for converting weed waste into enriched vermicompost. To observe the potential of this vermicompost, it was applied on sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant and measured the growth parameters. The result indicated that vermicompost treated plants showed maximum enhancement in the plant growth attributes over control. This indicates that vermicompost found to be very effective in improving soil quality and plant yield. Therefore, it is concluded that vermicomposting technology can be adopted for recycling various organic waste. Keywords:Eichhornia Crassipes, Eudrilus Euginae, Sesamum Indicum, Vermicompost. I Introduction Due to increasing population, the rate of solid waste generation is also increasing and adding burden over the environment. Management of solid waste generated from various sources is a major problem. The effective discarding of the waste is very essential to maintain the healthy environment. However, the modern concept of solid waste management includes the recycling or recovery of waste into new usable forms like compost and vermicompost (Ghatnekar, 1998 [10]; Iranzo et al., 2004 [13]; Bhat et al., 2015 [4]; Rosanine, 2016 [22]).

Vermicomposting is the process which uses earthworms for conversion of biodegradable organic solid waste into homogenous, stabilized product called vermicompost (Edwards and Fletcher, 1988 [6]). During vermicomposting process, the complex nutrients of organic matter are transformed into bioavailable form by the action of earthworms and microorganisms (Gajalakshmi and Abbasi, 2004 [9]; Adhikary, 2012 [1]). Therefore, this method is helpful for management of aquatic weed, Eichhornia crassipes (Ankaram et al., 2012 [3]). The final product i.e., vermicompost can be used on vegetable, horticultural or agricultural crop to increase their yield.

Sesame (Sesamum inducum L.) is one of the significant edible oil seed crop from India. Plant belongs the Pedaliaceae family.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) seed have high content of oil. It is a chief source of fatty acids, proteins, amino acids, iron, calcium vitamin E, Vitamin A, Vitamin B-complex, niacin etc. Seeds of sesame also contain antioxidants called Sesamin and Sesamolin. Sesame oil is used as raw material for the production of paints, cosmetics, soaps, perfumes, insecticides and pharmaceutical purpose. Therefore, this is one of the most important oil producing crop (Malik et al., 2003 [17]; Choudhary et al., 2017 [5]; Elayaraja and Singaravel, 2017 [7]).

Low production of this crop is due to the imbalanced nutrient status of soil, decline in soil quality because of excessive use of

chemical fertilizers etc. (Muthuswamy et al., 1990 [19]). For sustainable agriculture and improving soil texture, use of organic manure like compost and vermicompost in agriculture is gaining more attention among the workers (Haynes, 1997 [12]; Follet et al., 1981[8]; Ravimycin, 2016 [21]).

Singh and Om Prakash (2009) [24] have studied vermicomposting method for management of toxic weed, Argenone

mexicana. Kaur et al., (2015) [15] while studying the effect of vermicompost and vermiwash on growth parameters of vegetables observed that vermicompost has active role in increasing the growth and yield of different vegetables, cereals, fruit crops and ornamentals. Rasool Azarmi et al., (2008) [20] have studied the effect of vermicompost on growth, yield and nutritional status of tomato (Lycopersicum esculentus).

The present study is mainly focussed on recycling of aquatic weed, Eichhornia crassipes into useful vermicompost and its

impact on various growth parameters of Sesame plant.

II Materials and Methods a) Study area: Sambhaji tank, Solapur, Maharashtra, India is a natural fresh water body and recreational site. Different migratory birds visit this tank. Therefore, people come this place to observe these migratory birds, beautyof Sambhaji tank as well as for recreational purpose. Eichhornia crassipes which is aquatic fast growing plant forms a dense mat by spreading in an uncontrolled



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manner and causes interference in the Sambhaji tank. After removal of this weed from tank, it is dumped and accumulated on the roadside as large masses. Therefore, this weed waste should be disposed properly or recycled into another usable form. b) Vermicompost production: Eichhornia crassipes plants were collected from Sambhaji tank, Solapur. Plants were chopped, sundried and its powder was made by using mechanical pulveriser. This dried powder of E. crassipes was mixed with equal proportion of cow dung and vermicompost was produced by pot and heap method by using earthworm, Eudrilus euginae. c)Pot experiments with Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant: The pot experiment was conducted to observe the effect of vermicompost on Sesame plant. We observed the various growth parameters of plants like height of plant, number of leaves, number of flowers and number of capsules and compared with that of control group. T1 was treated as control containing 100% soil, in T2 treatment 50% soil was mixed with 50% compost, T3 treatments was the mixture of 50% soil and 50 % vermicompost produced from pot method whereas in T4 treatment, 50% soil was amended with 50% vermicompost produced from heap method.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) seeds were sown in pots and kept under observation. Optimum moisture in all the treatments was maintained by sprinkling water periodically. The growth parameters of the plants were measured from all the treatments after 30-, 60- and 90-days duration.

III Results

Graph 1: Effect of vermicompost on height of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

Graph 2: Effect of vermicompost on number of leaves of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

Graph 3: Effect of vermicompost on number of flowers of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

Graph 4: Effect of vermicompost on number of capsule of Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

Figure 1: Treatments of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

Figure 2: Flower of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant.

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Figure 3: Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Seed capsules.

Figure 4: Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) Seed capsules.

Figure 5: Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) seeds.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plants were treated with soil and vermicompost media and observed the effect of vermicompost on growth of the plants. a) Height of the plant: Plant height was measured from all the treatments (T1, T2, T3 and T4) and compared with control (T1). After 30 days following sowing, the maximum height was increased by 15.27% in T3 and 18.76% in T4 when compared with T1. After 60 days, height was increased by 4.65% in T2, 8.46% in T3 and 13.72% in T4. Similar increasing pattern was maintained after 90 days where T2, T3 and T4 showed 4.58%, 9.59% and 11.01% increase in height of plant. b) Number of leaves: The trend of increase was also observed in number of leaves. After 30 days, leaf number was increased up to 10.19% in T2, 24.03% in T3 and 28.46% in T4 after comparing with T1. However, the enhancement up to 17.44% in T2, 37.19% in T3 and 50.73% in T4 was noticed after 60 days. After 90 days, leaf number was increased by 15.17% in T2, 23.28% in T3 and 27.90% in T4. c) Number of flowers: The number of flowers was counted after 60- and 90-days duration and it maintained similar increasing pattern when compared with control. After 60 days, the maximum increase was observed in T2, T3 and T4 i.e., 39.50%, 77.87% and 86.25% respectively and after 90 days it showed 5.08% in T2, 27.12% in T3 and 30.01% in T4. d) Number of capsules: After 60 days, the number of final product i.e. sesame seed capsule was increased by 9.28%, 63.93% and 77.59% in T2, T3 and T4 respectively. Likewise, 16.16% in T2, 36.52% in T3 and 53.24% in T4 was observed after 90 days.

Overall from our results, it was noticed that all growth parameters of Sesame plant were increased maximum in

vermicompost treated plants.

IV Discussion The present study showed that the aquatic weed, E. crassipes was used as organic raw substrate and converted into

vermicompost through the earthworms, Eudrilus eugeniae. After application of this vermicompost on sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant, its positive impact was seen on yield of plants. This is may be because the vermicompost produced by worm action contains the simple, bioavailable nutrients, useful microorganisms that help to improve plant growth.

Our results are in agreement with Mahadesh et al., (2015) [16] where they have studied the impact of different levels of

vermicompost on yield and quality of Maize crop. Their result revealed the maximum biological yield of this crop after application of vermicompost. Gautham Chanda et al., (2011) [11] also studied the effect of vermicompost and other fertilizers on tomato plants. They carried out field experiments with different treatments by using chemical fertilizer, farm yard manure vermicompost, separately and also in combination. They finally observed that the vermicompost supplemented with NPK treated plants showed better results as compare to other treatments.

Sirsat (2016) [25] have studied the vermicomposting technique for disposal of organic waste. They produced the

vermicompost from campus waste consisting of dead organic matter, plant litter, papers, grass and plant leaves. They used this vermicompost for garden and tree plantation. They finally stated that vermicomposting is the best solution for disposal of organic residue.



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Effect of vermicompost was observed (Mamta et al., 2012 [18]; Saroj Klangkongsun 2013 [23]; Ali and kashem, 2018 [2]) on growth parameters of vegetables. Karthika et al., (2015) [14] while studying vermicomposting of leaf litter observed that microorganism helped in degradation process. They finally suggested that vermicomposting efficient technology for converting negligible leaf litter waste into enriched bio-fertilizer. V Conclusion

In the present study, it is concluded that the aquatic weed waste can be transformed into efficient, nutrient rich vermicompost by the joint action of earthworms and microorganisms. This vermicompost was found to be beneficial because it influenced the growth of sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) plant. Hence, it can be applied on other plant for getting more yield. From our study it is also further concluded that, the vermicomposting is low cost environmental friendly technology for solid waste management.

Acknowledgement The authors are thankful to Dr. S. V. Koti, Principal, Walchand college of Arts and Science, Solapur for providing all the necessary facilities to carry out the research work. References 1. Adhikary, S. (2012). Vermicompost, the story of organic gold: A review. Agricultural Sciences. 3 (7): 905-917. 2. Ali, S. and Kashem, M. A. (2018). Effect of vermicompost on the growth and yield of cabbage. Journal of Agricultural

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VERMICOMPOST PRODUCTION FROM Eichhornia Crassipes AND …

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