Sadia Kanwal

Compost and Sustainable Agriculture: Benefits of Composting Sadia Kanwal

Over last few years, a wide range of agrochemicals are used by farmers to sustain food production. Nowadays, different bioremediating plants used to remediate the used water that is use for irrigation purpose. These plants have capacity to absorb heavy metals and contaminants. Reuse of these plants like in this study, water lettuce (pistia stratiotes) for purpose to make compost is very beneficial. In this study, rock phosphate enriched composts were prepared by mixing rock phosphate with water lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) with and without effective microbes. The treatment comprise of four types, includes plant material (water lettuce), water lettuce and rock phosphate (WL+RP), water lettuce, rock phosphate, effective microorganisms (WL+RP+EM) and water lettuce, rock phosphate, effective microorganisms, urea (WL+RP+EM+Urea). The present investigation indicates that nutrients availability was enhanced in compost with time span. The availability of phosphorus was increased in other treatments particularly in treatment where WL, RP, EM and urea was applied. Thus, RP enriched compost could be alternative and viable technology to utilize low grade RPs and re-use water lettuce efficiently.