Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Decomposition of Organic Materials
into High Value Compost for Sustainable
Crop Productivity
Dinesh Kumar Maheshwari, Shrivardhan Dheeman and Mohit Agarwal
Abstract
In developing countries, augmenting sustainable agriculture and up
keeping of soil fertility with intensified agricultural practices which include use of
organic and chemical fertilizer with their negative penalties, affect biodiversity of
soil and contribute to agricultural soil quality decline. The application of compost
aids agricultural sustainability by means of various processes like green manur-
ing, leaf manuring, mulching and composting on attention of scientific commu-
nity. Composting as microbial decomposition process bears community dynamics
of various microbial genera hence, it is influenced by microbial population and
balanced through their physiological activity. The understanding of the factors like
temperature, pH, oxygen level etc. influencing decomposition of organic wastes and
performance. These factors are the key issue over sustainable waste management
practices on which the high value compost prepared by improved techniques and
applied in soil recycling which was found productive for agricultural production.
Keywords
Mulching
·
Recycling
·
Soil fertility
·
Organic manure
12.1
Introduction
Millions of farmers in developing countries need adequate infrastructural resources
for enhancement of the agricultural crop productivity. The adequate agro-technology
and proper management ensure to increase crop productivity and soil manage-
ment practices in order to get sustainability and adaptable crop production for
long duration. The practice of composting as one of the old established traditional
methods for improving the fertility of soil/land owned by small farmers of the coun-
try. Although, crop rotation and mass introduction of microbial inoculants intro-
duced into soil also yield better productivity (Bernard et al.
2012
). The practices of
