the usefulness of the effluent wastes was studied in place of sodium hydroxide treatment for improving the nutritive value of wheat and paddy straws or maize stovers in ruminant feeding. kier boiling waste (kbw) and mercerization washing (mww) had 0. 85 and 0. 29 titrable alkalinity, whereas bleaching washing waste (bww) was neutral in reaction. both naoh and kbw treated straws/stovers gave lower values for neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, acid detergent lignin, hemicellulose and organic matter, with higher ash content, than their respective untreated samples. delignification was higher in the kbw than in the naoh-treated samples. the in vitro rumen digestibilities of dry matter and organic matter were comparable for naoh and kbw treatments but significantly higher than the untreated samples. the results presented suggest that alkaline effluents such as kbw, available from the cotton textile industry, have a potential use for the treatment of straw/stovers. 13 refs