BENEFITS OF
CITY COMPOST
Mrs Almitra H Patel, Member
Supreme Court Committee for
Solid Waste Management
[email protected]
www.almitrapatel.com
98443 02914
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VEDIC SOCIETIES
WASTED LITTLE
India has inherited a rich tradition of
conservative use of resources.
Even today, our “footprint” on the earth
is
much lighter than that of the newly
consumerist societies of the developed
world.
We should be proud of this and preserve it.
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CROP WASTES & FARMYARD
MANURE HAVE BEEN
RECYCLED SINCE MILLENIA
Even today our villagers feed kitchen waste and
leftover food to cattle or goats, poultry, pets or fish.
What little waste remains thereafter goes to a
compost pit or heap for return to their own fields.
But in our cities this nutrient cycle is broken. We
have no link to the land. What our food crops
extract from others’ fields is returned only as
pollution today. It need not be so.
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THE PLASTICS YUG AND UREA
SUBSIDIES HAVE KILLED THE
ART OF COMPOSTING
We have no incentives to keep nonbiodegradable plastics out of our
compostable food waste.
Cities have no space and their managers
have no understanding or interest in
composting for the benefit of farmers.
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COMPOST ADDS CARBON to SOILS
All living things, plant and animal, need both
Carbon & Nitrogen.
Our soils once had upto 4% carbon. Today
it is as low as 0.2% and declining.
The Green Revolution was an initial success
because Nitrogen in Urea helped plants
use the rich Carbon stocks built up in
Indian soils over thousands of years of
sustainable agriculture.
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Once soil Carbon was used up,
urea alone could do little.
This was never explained to farmers, who
stopped producing on-farm compost and
relied on only chemical fertilisers.
Excessive urea subsidies have led to its
unbalanced use. ONLY India of all SAARC
countries persists with this dangerous
populist subsidy policy, which fertiliser
companies themselves must try to end.
Crop yields have actually declined over time.
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20-yr Dryland Millet yields decline
without Farm Yard Manure:
Yield kg/ha
Millet Yield
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1979- 1986- 199383
90
97
Year
FYM
10t/ha+100%N
PK
FYM
10t/ha+50%NP
K
FYM 10t/ha
Recommende
d NPK
Control
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FYM alone improves yields but
FYM + Chem Fert works best
This combination of organic manures like city
compost and synthetic fertilisers is called
I P N M or INTEGRATED PLANT NUTRIENT
MANAGEMENT.
Many private field trials are proving its benefits
in many crops, but we need intensive
awareness and demonstrations. Fertiliser
Companies should do this if Govt will not.
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Paddy, 6 wks after transplanting.
City compost used on left-side plot
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Sona Masuri paddy benefited from
compost use AT NO EXTRA COST:
With Mysore city compost
0.5t city compost = Rs 1750
15th day DAP 100 kg Rs 800
35th “ 19:19:19 100kg 800
55th day urea 50 kg
230
potash 75kg
350
Total Cost =
Rs 3,930
Without compost
0
200 kg Rs 1600
200 kg
1600
100 kg
460
150 kg
700
Rs 4,360
Bellary photo March 2004 Bellary and data from Vennar Organics.
City compost used from next year on 60 acres after this 1 acre trial.
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Compost IMPROVES the action
of Chemical Fertilisers
Only 20% to 50% of the N P K in Chemical
Fertilisers goes up into the plants. The
rest runs down into soil, rivers and lakes,
polluting drinking-water supplies.
Humus-rich, microbe-rich compost acts like
a SPONGE, holding the run-off nutrients
till plants can absorb all of it. So Farmers
can get full value for every rupee spent.
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Do we have enough Organic Manure?
Today farm cattle have declined and farmyard manure is kept for own use, not sale
In 2001, the Planning Commission had
estimated a shortfall of 6 million tons a
year of organic manures.
This 6 million tons can be produced today by
composting the municipal waste of just 35
largest Indian cities
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How good is City Compost?
For both farmyard manure and city compost,
their N P K content is not important, 1% each.
Their real value is their rich microbial
content ! Soil bacteria convert inert N P K
in soil and air to soluble forms which are
useful for plant growth.
The heat of composting heaps kills weed
seeds. So fields using city compost need
less weeding time and cost than with FYM
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City Compost offers many benefits
that chemical fertilisers cannot:
Water-holding capacity of humus in
compost is most important.
Farms using compost do not need 2nd or 3rd
sowing if rains fail. Crops with compost
need 4-5 waterings vs 6-7 without it.
For every 1% organic matter content, soil
can hold 75,000 litres of plant-available
water per acre of 1ft deep soil (ATTRA data).
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Soil Micronutrients are vital
Indian soils have become deficient in eight
micronutrients now that mainly chemical
fertilisers are used.
Composts are mostly made from plant
material in which all micronutrients are
present and get back into the soil.
Farms using compost do not suffer
micronutrient deficiency.
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Strong root systems = healthy plants
Compost use makes soil porous so roots are
stronger. This strengthens the plant’s natural
resistance to pests and decay.
Farmers using compost find they need far less
pesticides, saving input costs with less
environmental pollution.
SHELF LIFE IMPROVES! Fruit from compostgrown plants are larger, tastier, have better
colour and shelf life and fetch better prices.
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Healthy plants have many benefits
With city compost use : Tea yields and flavour improve.
Paddy: less plant death after transplanting, more seeds.
Papaya: 50% thicker trunks, fewer days between flowering,
less fruit drop. Yield 63% more. Fruit 28% heavier, shiny.
Fig: Stronger stems, less disease, 30% more branches,
20% more fruit, 40% heavier with better colour & longer
keeping quality.
Pomegranate : Ditto, with fruit size doubled. [all Vennar data]
FAI needs to compile photo-case-studies
through all its members to convince farmers
and promote IPNM for India’s food security.
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Compost use restores fertility to
water-logged and saline soils
India has 22 million hectares of alkaline
and saline barren soils awaiting rescue.
Experiments at Kutch and by UP’s Bhoomi
Sudhar Nigam have proved the benefits of
using compost. Full yields are restored in
3 years to totally-barren soils.
Soil sponsors have won new customers.
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Co-Marketing of City Compost &
Chemical Fertilisers is a must
The Supreme Court has approved this
recommendation of an Inter-Ministerial
Task Force on IPNM. Govt has written to
all Fertiliser Co’s to co-market compost.
Creative solutions are needed from all for
its bulk storage, timely availability,
affordability and ease of application.
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HOW CITIZENS CAN HELP
City compost becomes more affordable to
farmers when waste is received unmixed,
requiring less sieving energy to remove
plastics at the compost plant.
Every citizen, every one of you here, can
help farmers, and reduce your own food
prices, simply by keeping plastics out of
other waste and donating it as kachradaan to a ragpicker or kabadiwala.
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