CHEMICAL CHANGES DURING COMPOSTING OF POULTRY WASTE WITH COIRPITH WASTE AND SUGARCANE TOP

Abstract: Composting of dead birds with cage layer manure (CLM) and low cost carbonaceous materials like 'coir pith waste ' and 'sugarcane top ' was carried out to study the feasibility of composting. Based on the C:N ratio of the ingredient, the compost recipes were formulated. Composting was carried out by sequential layering of dead birds with manure substrate and carbon source. Treatment mixture with CLM alone (T5) had higher pH value (8.48 and 8.44 during primary and secondary stage, respectively). But treatment mixture with dead birds (T1 and T2) had lower pH (7.45 and 7.85 for T1 and T2 during primary stage and 7.81 and 7.58 for T1 and T2 during secondary stage, respectively). EC and TDS had decreasing trend from primary stage to secondary stage. The total organic matter content was reduced at the end of secondary stage and ranged between 30.31 ± 1.06 and 32.99 ± 0.69 per cent. There was a reduction in total organic carbon content at the end of secondary stage in all treatments, (expect T5) which ranged between 17.58 ± 0.61 and 19.13 ± 0.40 per cent. The N content in the finished compost ranged between 10.68 and 12.65 g/kg and maximum loss of nitrogen was noticed in T1 (39.18 per cent), T2 (39.06 per cent) and T5 (41.51 per cent). At the end of composting process the C:N ratio of different treatment mixtures did not diffe