Short communication Effect of distillery effluents on some physiological aspects in maize S. Ramana * , A.K. Biswas, A.B. Singh Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabi bagh, Berasia Road, Bhopal 462 038, India Received 21 November 2001; received in revised form 9 January 2002; accepted 15 February 2002 Abstract 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 þ 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 þ 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. Ó 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Distillery effluents; Leaf area; Dry matter; Nitrate reductase activity 1. Introduction Distilleries producing huge quantities of foul smelling wastes (effluents) are recognised as one of the most po- tential agro-based industries in India. However, these distillery effluents contain organic and inorganic nutri- ents and have been reported to have a beneficial effect on crop yields (Joshi et al., 1996; Ramana et al., 2002; Ramkumar and Rajendra Singh, 1998). Further, Kulk- arni et al. (1987) classified spent wash as a dilute liquid organic fertilizer with high potassium content. In the present experiment, an attempt was made to study the effect of different distillery effluents vis- a-vis NPK þ FYM on some physiological aspects and yield of maize (var DHM-103) grown on a Vertisol. 2. Methods The field experiment was conducted for two conse- cutive rainy seasons (June–September) of 2000 and 2001 with five treatments: BSW (2.0 ha cm); RSW (1.0 ha cm) andLSat5tha 1 ; recommended NPK at (N: 120; P 2 O 5 : 60; and K 2 O: 60 kg ha 1 ) þ (5 tha 1 FYM) and a con- trol. The characteristics of distillery effluents were re- ported in our previous communication (Ramana et al., 2002). The samples for dry matter were collected from 1.2 m 2 plots at 20 days interval, the leaf area was mea- sured and leaves dried in an oven at 105 °C. The chlo- rophyll was extracted by a non-macerated method as described by Hiscox and Israelstam (1979) and the ac- tivity of nitrate reductase (NR) was estimated as sug- gested by Hageman and Hucklesby (1971). The crop was raised as per the standard agronomic practices and the data were analysed statistically and the treatment means were compared using LSD technique at 5% probability appropriate for RBD. 3. Results and discussion Photosynthetic surface area and leaf chlorophyll contents are the key factors determining dry matter production (Bellore and Mall, 1975). Further, chloro- phyll content is considered as an index of metabolic efficiency of the plant to utilize the nutrients absorbed. In the present experiment, the application of distillery effluents increased the leaf area (Fig. 1a) and total chlorophyll content (Table 1) resulting in higher dry matter production (Fig. 1b) in maize. This reflects the Bioresource Technology 84 (2002) 295–297 * Corresponding author. Fax: +91-0755-733310. E-mail address: sramana@iiss.mp.nic.in (S. Ramana). 0960-8524/02/$ - see front matter Ó 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0960-8524(02)00053-6