Bioconversion of Vegetable and Fruit Waste and Its Effect on Growth and Yield Parameters of Black Gram and Lablab

Abstract

India is one of the countries with a large agricultural economy and plays a newlinesignificant part in the whole socio-economic process. The growing need for safe and newlinehealthy food, long-term sustainability and environmental degradation have made organic newlinefarming a major global priority topic. One of the biggest food wastes generated in large newlinecities is vegetable and fruit waste, which accounts for about 50% among all household newlinegarbage. However, it can be recycled and reused as manure. Composting is a biological newlinedecomposition process that breaks down organic material into a stable, humus-like newlinesubstance. The aim of the present study is to recycle Vegetable and Fruit waste into newlinecompost as manure and analyse its microbial population, physico-chemical and FT-IR in newlineraw and compost sample. The compost was incorporated into different treatments and newlineevaluated its effect on vegetative growth, biochemical, yield, antioxidant and antibacterial newlineactivity of two leguminous plants i.e. Black gram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] Var. Co 6 newlineand Lablab [Lablab purpureus (L.) Sweet] Var. Co (Gb) 14. The study was carried out in newlinefour different phases. newlineIn phase I, composting was carried out in pit using Pleurotus eous, Trichoderma newlineasperelloides, cow dung and Eudrilus eugeniae. Microbial flora of both winter and newlinesummer composting revealed that treatment C8 noted highest bacterial, fungal and newlineactinomycetes count on 30th day with remarkable increase on 60th day and the population newlinewas gradually declined on 90th day respectively. A significant decrease in lignin, cellulose, newlineEC, organic carbon and C:N ratio was noted in C8 treatment followed by C4 treatment newlinewhen compared to raw wastes sample. The increasing trend was noted in C8 and C4 newlinetreatment for pH, N, P, K, Ca and Mg respectively. The FT-IR spectroscopic analysis newlineshowed that raw vegetable and fruit wastes sample has a deep peak when compared to a newlinecomposted sample having a smaller or disappearing peak which may be due to the newlinecomposting process. newlineThe finding of phase II revealed that the biometric charac