Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
composting converts all kind of organic waste into humus, provide an opportunity
to the farmers to make better use of organic wastes and refuse which are already
present either at the farm or neighborhood. The organic materials that are usually
considered as waste are either be thrown away or burnt but now-a-days proved to be
suitable material for the preparation of composting material for agricultural crops.
According to “agriculture education 1964” it is estimated that 15 million ton of com-
post can be obtained from forest litter annually, without adversely affecting the natural
regeneration of the forests 15 million ton of forest litter manure present throughout
the country contain 0.75, 0.73 and 0.75 million ton of N, P
2
O
5
(phosphates) and K
2
O
(oxides of potassium) respectively. Forest litter can thus be collected and is used for
composting to quite a reasonable extent. On the other hand, variety of aquatic plants
is known for their utilization pattern as compost has not been considered yet. Among
two aquatic weeds,
Ipomoea aquatica
and
Eichhornia crassipes
are the most common
floating weeds growing luxuriantly in several parts of the world. The chemical com-
positions of these weeds reveal a significant amount of holocellulose in them which
could be enzymatically converted into various important products including biofuels,
single cell protein etc. by microbial enzymes (Kour et al.
1993
). Hubbe et al. (
2010
)
reviewed plant-derived cellulosic materials as organic wastes to produce beneficial
amendment compost. With major consideration on composting, emphasizing sources
of energy seems to be essential to drive the biological transformations. Lignin, humus
and the recalcitrant organic matter of good water-holding, ion exchange, and bulking
capabilities contribute soil health and productivity. Recycling and composting of or-
ganic wastes with objective to understand the dynamics of microbial biomass-organic
carbon mineralization into CO
2
studied by Zhang et al. (
2012
) contributed a unique
set of estimated parameters of different organic fractions, with the exception of some
compost because of a poor simulation of the cellulosic and soluble pools.
The significance of organic manures as a source of plant nutrients to increase
the fertility level of soil has been well established (Stockdale et al.
2002
; Bationo
et al.
2007
). The organic matter content is low in the cultivated soils of tropics and
subtropics regions. The low organic matter is mainly due to high temperature and
intense microbial activity. Therefore, the soil humus has to be replenished through
periodic addition of organic manures. Under intensive cultivation practices, soils
are losing their organic matter much faster than that replenished by farm yard ma-
nures (FYM), composts or green manures. It is, therefore, application of agrochemi-
cals to be the only way to increase the fertility of large acreage of Indian soils
substantially and rapidly (Raychaudhary
1972
). But, due to excessive application
of agrochemicals that create microbial resistance, disturb soil ecology, responses
to ground water population and impart chemical residue in plant parts besides high
cost, their availability to the farmers at reasonable cost is fast declining. There is
thus, an urgent need for utilizing organic manures or waste for supplementing or
substituting chemical fertilizers in the present context. The adoption of agrochemi-
cal adopted inoculant strain has an enormous potential for the betterment of crop
production and fertility restoration of soil (Kumar et al.
2009
; Maheshwari
2013
).
Organic materials are available as byproducts of farming and allied industries. De-
rived from the plant and animal origin they are considered as the source of immense
practical value for crop productivity. Composting is the best method for converting
