INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

The time has now come to adopt integrated nutrient management technology to maintain the soil fertility. This technology consists of using organic sources of nutrients like farm yard manure, sulphitation factories press mud, vermicompost, press mud biocompost and bio fertilizers in combination with organic fertilizers like urea, DAP and muriate of Potash. It is possible to reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers by 25-50 %, if the above organic sources of nutrients are used in combination with inorganic fertilizers. The cane quality is better and the yield of sugarcane is higher; besides improving the soil fertility on long range basis if integrated nutrient management recommendation is followed. Recently some sugar factories in India having distilleries are producing press mud biocompost using press mud and distillery effluents and adding suitable bacterial cultures. This is the most suitable bio-manure for sugarcane crop to obtain higher cane yield and sugar recovery. The composition of this manure is given below:

1	Organic Matter	50 - 55 %
2	Nitrogen	2-2.5 %
3	Phosphorus	2-2.6%
4	Potassium	1.5-1.8%
5	Calcium	3.0-4.0%
6	Sulfur	1.2-1.7%
7	Magnesium	0.8-1.5%
8	Iron	0.03-0.05%
9	Others	2.0-5.0%
10	Moisture	30-35%

In sulphitation plants of sugar industry, there is production of 4.0 percent press mud on total cane crushed, which is an important organic source of nutrients having high manurial value for crops. It is rich in organic matter, which improves the physical condition of the soil and its water-holding capacity. With its use, the soil fertility in relation to organic matter build up, supply of major plant food nutrients N, P and K and micronutrients like iron, copper, magnesium, zinc and boron improves significantly. By using press mud compost at the time of cane planting, the dose of inorganic nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic fertilizers can be reduced to almost 50%, which helps in increasing the sugar recovery by 0.5 unit and yield by 10-15 %. In view of this increase in productivity of sugarcane, the industry should supply the entire press mud produced to the cane growers for application in the fields as the industry would get higher returns in terms of cane availability and sugar recovery with the use of press mud.

It is suggested that press mud should be given to the cane growers at 50% subsidized price to improve the yield and sugar recovery. Excessive use of inorganic fertilizers particularly that of Urea is having adverse effect on cane maturity and sugar recovery. There will also be no need of applying micronutrients in inorganic form to the cane crop, if press mud compost is used.