222 V.P. Singh et al. Effect of effluent and fertilizer application on growth and yield of sugarcane V.P. Singh 1 , A. Singh 2 , V.P. Singh 3 , J. Singh, K.S. Rawat and R. Kumar 4 Division of Agricultural Physics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012 1 KVK, Sitapur; 2 KAB-II, ICAR, New Delhi; 3 SVBP Univ. of Agriculture and Technology, Modipuram 4 Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, BAU, Sabour Received : June 2012; Revised accepted : January 2013 ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted at research farm of Jubilant Organosys Ltd., Gajraulla, University of Agriculture & Technology, Modipuram, Meerut ,U.P. in collaboration with G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar to investigate the response of effluent with and without fertilizer application on growth, yield attributes and yield of sugarcane (var. CoS 767). The levels of irrigations were viz., irrigation with fresh water, pre-sowing irrigation of undiluted effluents, one irrigation with 1:3 dilution and two irrigation with 1:4 dilution and the fertilizers levels were viz., without fertilizers and half dose of the recommended fertilizer (75:30:20 NPK) in split plot design. The highest cane yield (104.83 t ha -1 ) was found in the treatment receiving two irrigations with 1:4 dilution along with 50% recommended dose of fertilizers. Treatment receiving two irrigation with 1:4 dilution of effluent without fertilizer gave almost similar yield (99.94 t ha -1 ) to the treatment receiving one irrigation with 1:3 dilution along with 50% recommended dose of fertilizer indicating that, almost 50% of NPK have been saved. Again, the treatment receiving one irrigation with 1:3 dilution without fertilizer gave similar yield (94.11 t ha -1 ) as that of pre-sown undiluted with 50% recommended dose of fertilizer (95.55 t ha -1 ), showed saving of 50% of recommended dose of NPK. Key words: Effluent, irrigation, fertilizer, sugarcane. Ann. Agric. Res. New Series Vol. 34 (3) : 222-224 (2013) Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is one of the most important cash crops of India. Currently, India exported around 2 million tons in 2008-09. At the same time, India is the largest consumer of sugar in the world. It is true that there has been an increasing trend in sugar production but the cost of cultivation is also increasing year after year and the cane prices being almost constant. Since sugarcane has an extensive and highly efficient root system, it is a nutrient exhaustive crop and it needs a judicious dose of macronutrients for better production of biomass. Supply of nutrients in the form of commercial fertilizers, increase the cost of cultivation still further. Experiments have shown that the waste water or sewage effluent contains a large amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and others soluble organic material that are being wasted. It has been found that around 100 tonnes of nitrogen (N) and 35 tonnes of phosphorous (P) are washed per annum by many river or sewage; such effluents may serve as an ecofriendly measure to reduce the cost of cultivation, particularly irrigation and fertilizers and also reduce the pollution hazard. In Australia, the use of waste water for irrigation has increased the cane yield by 45% and commercial cane sugar (CCS) increase of 12% over dry land areas (Braddock and Downs, 2001). Irrigation with treated distillery effluent at 1:10 dilution was found the optimum level for building up the soil fertility and increasing the sugarcane yield in sandy soils (Gopal et al., 2001). Increase of about 15 t ha -1 of cane yield have been found by use of distillery effluent of at 1;10 dilution in sandy loam soils of Coimbatore (Kayalvizh et al. , 2001). Green house studies showed that the effluents at lower concentration