Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 1
Ecological Intensification through Nutrients
Recycling and Composting in Organic Farming
Francesco G. Ceglie and Hamada M. Abdelrahman
Abstract
In organic agriculture fertilizers are permitted in organic forms, as
defined by regulation. Mineralization of organic fertilizers is a biological decom-
position that release plants' available nutrients; hence soil microbial communities
are vital in the organic cropping systems. Composting microorganisms can work
for the farmer's benefit recycling agricultural organic wastes into materials that
contribute to healthy and biologically active soil. Composting process has been
deeply described to highlight the link among starting mixture, process factors and
final resulting compost. Composting and crop residues incorporation are fundamen-
tal to recycle resources at farm level to improve the nutrients use efficiency and to
decrease the off-farm input needs. In the organic farming a balanced combination of
compost application and crop residues incorporation increases the microbial carbon
use efficiency, which regulates the soil organic matter decomposition and nutri-
ents mineralization resulting both to increase the yield and to decrease the negative
impact on the environment.
Keywords
Crop residues recycling
·
Microbial C
·
Nutrients use efficiency
·
On-farm input
·
C/N ratio
1.1
Introduction
In organic farming systems crop rotation, cover crops, livestock integration and
organic amendment are the pillars for sustainable soil fertility management. Com-
posting is recommended as a tool to recycle inputs (biomass and nutrients) available
in the farm and to reduce off-farm inputs. Compost application has been widely
