Resources, Conservation and Recycling 31 (2001) 347–353 Recycling of banana pseudostem waste for economical production of quality banana N.V. Phirke, R.P. Patil, S.B. Chincholkar, R.M. Kothari * School of Life Sciences, North Maharashtra Uniersity, P.B. 80, Jalgaon 425 001, India Received 16 June 2000; accepted 13 October 2000 Abstract Banana pseudostem biomass, traditionally incinerated and wasted, has been conserved and recycled by solid state fermentation (SSF) into plant growth stimulating soil conditioner (SC). This SC alone or combined with biofertilizers showed reduced mortality (10 and 12%) of planted suckers, enhanced chlorophyll contents (593 and 661 gg -1 ), gave biomass (35.0 and 36.6 kg) at par and improved yield (54.2 and 55.0 MT ha -1 ), with that of the control (23%, 312 gg -1 , 36.3 kg and 49.4 MT ha -1 , respectively). This has afforded (i) saving of chemical fertilizers by 50%, (ii) reduction in quantum (40%) and frequency (15%) of irrigation and (iii) reduction in cost of electricity and labor without sacrificing quality and quantity of banana. Thus, a voluminous agro-waste is converted into an eco-friendly agro-input for sustainable productivity. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Banana pseudostem waste; Consortium of biofertilizers; Improved productivity; Soil condi- tioner; SSF www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec 1. Introduction This university is surrounded by 39,300 hectares (ha) of banana plantations over, which contributes 15.4% of India’s banana production. After harvesting fruit, the pseudostem is traditionally wasted. This biomass, accounting for 3.4 million MT per annum, is thrown away on farm boundaries and incinerated after natural * Corresponding author. Tel: +91-257-252193; fax: +91-257-252183. E-mail address: rmkothari@rediffmail.com (R.M. Kothari). 0921-3449/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0921-3449(00)00092-6