CHARACTERIZATION OF URBAN COMPOST AND ITS SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT CROPS
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Date
2019
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Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Guntur
Abstract
The study entitled “Characterization of urban compost and its suitability to different crops” was carried out at Department of Environmental Sciences, APGC, Lam, Guntur during 2018-19. The raw materials and compost samples were obtained from four different composting sites viz., Site-1: Guntur Municipal site (Guntur), Site-2: Vijayawada APIIC Autonagar site (APIIC), Site-3: Vijayawada Kabela centre site (Kabela) and Site-4: Vijayawada Gandhi market site (Gandhi). Characterization of raw materials used in composting process and compost samples was done in terms of physical, physico-chemical and chemical properties. Compost samples were also analysed for biological properties and incubation studies were carried out to know the suitability to different crops.
The collected raw materials from Guntur, APIIC, Kabela and Gandhi sites were alkaline in nature (7.91, 8.43, 8.26 and 8.71), moisture content of 79.30, 83.20, 81.90 and 80.40% and EC value was 2.31, 1.86, 2.33 and 2.09 dSm-1 respectively. The organic carbon values were 28.10, 22.60, 29.10 and 29.80% respectively. Nutrients viz., nitrogen (1.12, 0.98, 1.31 and 1.17%), phosphorus (0.58, 0.34, 0.51 and 0.69%), potassium (0.73, 0.63, 0.82 and 0.78%), sulphur (0.09, 0.12, 0.34 and 0.49%), calcium (0.24, 0.64, 0.82 and 0.78%), magnesium (0.12, 0.31, 0.36 and 0.49%), iron (154.10, 193.40, 163.70 and 117.20 mg kg-1), copper (9.20, 15.50, 6.70 and 11.30 mg kg-1), zinc (31.80, 26.30, 34.20 and 18.40 mg kg-1) and manganese (14.70, 7.60, 25.10 and 16.90 mg kg-1) contents were present. Samples contain heavy metals viz., lead (23.45, 10.37, 18.37 and 15.04 mg kg1), cadmium (0.11, 0.09, 0.21 and 0.17 mg kg-1), chromium (7.36, 9.74, 17.95 and 13.74 mg kg-1) and nickel (14.21, 22.45, 7.50 and 30.71 mg kg-1) respectively.
The collected four compost samples from different sites (Guntur, APIIC, Kabela and Gandhi) were neutral in reaction (7.12, 7.59, 7.45 and 7.63) with the EC values of 3.68, 3.32, 4.16 and 4.21 dSm-1. The amount of moisture content was 29.70, 27.80, 28.70 and 28.20% and OC values were 15.98, 11.88, 16.60 and 18.11% respectively. Primary nutrients were present in the amounts of 1.63, 1.16, 1.48 and 1.71% of nitrogen, 0.64, 0.42, 0.65 and 0.79% of phosphorus and 0.85, 0.79, 0.88 and 0.91 % of potassium respectively and secondary nutrients were sulphur (0.16, 0.28, 0.54 and 0.61%), calcium (1.17, 1.49, 1.86 and 1.58%) and magnesium (0.32, 0.59, 0.73 and 0.97%). Micronutrients viz., iron (188.30, 204.70, 175.80 and 124.40 mg kg-1), copper (11.50,
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17.80, 10.40 and 15.30 mg kg-1), zinc (33.70, 29.60, 38.20 and 20.50 mg kg-1) and manganese (17.90, 10.20, 29.70 and 18.30 mg kg-1) and heavy metals viz., lead (34.70, 12.95, 42.32 and 22.19 mg kg-1), cadmium (1.24, 0.76, 1.52 and 2.31 mg kg-1), chromium (10.09, 13.18, 25.42 and 19.67 mg kg-1) and nickel (22.84, 30.42, 25.21 and 31.27 mg kg-1) were also present respectively.
Incubation studies were carried out for 21 days to test the suitability of the composts on black gram, green gram and maize crops. The study includes five treatments (T1- no compost, T2- compost @ 2 t ha-1, T3- compost @ 5 t ha-1, T4- compost @ 10 t ha1 and T5- FYM @ 5 t ha-1) with four replications for all the four compost samples. In all the four set of treatments highest germination percent, shoot length, root length, fresh weight and dry weight were significantly higher in T4 while lowest was recorded in T1 in all the three crops. The results of T5 were statistically on par with the results of T4.
Among the four composts, highest mean germination percent in black gram and maize was recorded in Guntur site and for green gram in Gandhi site. Mean shoot length was highest in Kabela site for black gram and in Gandhi site for green gram and maize crops respectively. Mean root length was highest in Kabela site for black gram and green gram crops and in APIIC site for maize. Highest mean fresh weight was recorded in Kabela site for black gram and in APIIC site for green gram and maize crops. Highest mean dry weight was recorded in Kabela site for black gram and green gram crops and in APIIC site for maize respectively.
The composts collected were very rich in the nutrients and were neutral in nature with more organic carbon content and can be suitable to the soil application. All the trace elements were present in the composts but all were within the limits of USEPA, 1997.
In the incubation studies, T4 (compost @ 10 t ha-1) was significantly showed the best performance but it was statistically on par with the results of T5 (FYM @ 5 t ha-1) in all the three crops of four compost sites. Kabela site showed the better performance followed by APIIC compost site in all the growth parameters.
From the study, it can be concluded that urban waste can be converted into nutrient rich urban compost and can used to the agricultural crops. Currently, urban wastes are generating enormously and dumping sites are being filled rapidly, this problem can be overcome by converting the wastes into compost.
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D5766
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