Utilization of distillery slop for sugar cane production and environmental pollution reduction

The research aimed to study the effect of distillery slop and chemical fertilizer on soil fertility, growth and yield of sugar cane. The field experiment was conducted on Mahasarakam soil series, using the K 88-92 variety of sugar cane. The results showed that distillery slop significantly increased some nutrients in soil, particularly potassium, magnesium, sulfur and chloride. The results also showed that application of distillery slop did not affect most of the physical properties of soil. Only the saturated hydraulic conductivity was significantly decreased under non-application of fertilizer. Under the application of distillery slop, chemical fertilizer had no significant effect on the yield and the juice quality of sugar cane for both crop years. However, under non-application of distillery slop in the first crop year, application of 21-0-0 and 20-20-0 fertilizer had a significant effect on cane yield. With the application of chemical fertilizer, distillery slop had an influence on the yield of sugar cane in both crop years while different doses of slop did not make any significant difference on cane yield. The average yields of the first crop year were 126.7, 195.6, 203.0 and 187.2 ton/hectare and those of the second crop year were 85.0, 150.0, 150.8 and 142.4 ton/hectare after the application of 0, 187.5, 375 and 562.5 m3/hectare, respectively. The results also showed that application of distillery slop did not have any significant effect on juice quality for both crop years. Investigation of slop trace under the ground surface indicated that application of distillery slop did not affect the quality of underground water as the deepest level of trace was only 50 centimeters