Making use of Compost

What is the issue?

Compost derived from biodegradable waste will ensure sustainable solid waste disposal by following waste to health mechanism.

What are the challenges in solid waste disposal?

• Proper collection, separation, transportation and disposal of solid waste to some distant preferably out of sight is not made in India.
• Processing and treating different streams of solid waste, and safe disposal of the residuals in scientific landfills, has received much less attention.
• In recent times unscientific landfill practices have led to man-made disasters such as Deonar (Mumbai), Bellandur (Bangalore), and Ghazipur (Delhi).
• The use of incinerator for disposal of mixed waste is a financially and environmentally expensive solutions, since toxic emissions looms large from this method.

How compost will ensure proper solid waste management?

• Compost is an organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment, it is a key ingredient in organic farming.
• In this method compost is produced from biodegradable waste collected from the city, it provides an alternative to farmyard manure.
• It is rich in microbial content that helps plants to take up soil nutrients.
• It provides an opportunity to simultaneously clean up the cities and help improve agricultural productivity and quality of the soil.

What is the need for such compost?

• Excessive and imbalanced use of chemical fertilisers has led to severe deterioration in the quality of soil.
• Only about 20 -50 per cent of the nitrogen in urea is absorbed by plants, remaining pollute surface water with nitrogen runoff.
• Organic manure or compost plays a very important role as a supplement to chemical fertilisers in replenishing the nutrient-depleted soils.
• The addition of compost or organic manure reduces nitrogen wastage, as its humus absorbs the nitrogen and acts like a slow release sponge.

What are the advantages of such compost?

• The water holding capacity of the soil which uses compost helps with drought-proofing.
• It is rich in organic carbon which is an essential element of integrated plant nutrient management, as it increases the productivity of other fertilisers.
• Horticulture crops grown with compost have better flavour, size, colour and shelf-life.
• It reduces input costs for farmers, since it is weed-free, makes soil porous, roots stronger and resistant to pests and decay.
• Landfills would be cleaned up for production of this compost and the fields around them would be much more productive.

What are the challenges with availability of this compost?

• The availability of this compost is purely based on proper delivery mechanisms, which is lagging in India.
• Government Schemes made for composite has not worked well because of its administrative complexity
• The high volume but low value nature of compost makes it not so attractive for fertiliser marketing companies to promote its use.
• Compost manufacturers feels harder to meet the quality specifications laid down by the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO).

How the challenges can be addressed?

• Government policies which safe guards the interest of fertilizer manufactures should be formulated.
• The state agricultural departments can help to facilitate the use of city compost through their widespread extension networks.
• Fertiliser companies need to make vigorous efforts to market city compost using their well-connected dealer channels.
• Subsidies for the city compost based fertiliser will promote its use among farmers and it also promotes companies to co-market the compost.

Source: Indian Express