Recycling the groundnut crop waste as fertilizer and paper

Abstract

India is the second largest producer of groundnut in the world. More than 85 lakhs of hectares of the land isapproximately used in groundnut cultivation. In 2022 groundnut is produced in 9.86 million metric tons in which 50% of waste has been produced. Agricultural waste can be recycled into different forms of energy sources. Groundnut crop residues were collected from Lattur located at Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu, India. The collected residues were separated as groundnut shell and plant residues. The plant residues are subjected to both vermicompost and natural composting processes. Groundnut shell is used to prepare paper by using the Kraft process (Chemical pulping method). Both the compost is mixed with soil with the ratio of 1:10, 2:10 and Nutrients like N, P, K were analysed. The results slow vermicompost having enriched nutrients. Comparing Natural compost, and the Groundnut shell were prepared as paper with a size of 210mm*297mm. Compost helps to improve the health and quality of the soil that is added to improve and maintain the environment. For the paper production trees were cut and used. This causes deforestation. To resolve this problem the better solution is preparation of paper using the non-wooden material. The groundnut shell is one of the non-wooden materials used for the production of the paper. These papers will be eco-friendly as well as it controls deforestation.