Study on Composting of Agricultural and Forest Wastes

The effective recycling of agricultural waste (rice straw) and forest waste (saw dust) were carried out to produce organic fertilizer, compost, by using traditional method. During the decomposition process of composting, changes occurred for temperature and height of bedding were studied and the characteristics of raw materials and compost samples were analyzed. The results showed that compost produced from saw dust gave higher yield (46%) than that produced from rice straw (33%). It was also found that 3 fold reductions in volume of organic matter was achieved by using rice straw and 2 fold reductions in volume was achieved by using saw dust The analysis of compost samples indicated that the products contain sufficient amount of both primary and secondary macronutrients but all the values obtained were near the lower limit of literature value due to the low C: N value in raw materials and also the absence of microorganisms used-in traditional method