What is the issue?
Compost derived from biodegradable waste will ensure sustainable solid waste disposal by following waste to health mechanism.
What are the challenges in solid waste disposal?
- Proper collection, separation, transportation and disposal of solid waste to some distant preferably out of sight is not made in India.
- Processing and treating different streams of solid waste, and safe disposal of the residuals in scientific landfills, has received much less attention.
- In recent times unscientific landfill practices have led to man-made disasters such as Deonar (Mumbai), Bellandur (Bangalore), and Ghazipur (Delhi).
- The use of incinerator for disposal of mixed waste is a financially and environmentally expensive solutions, since toxic emissions looms large from this method.
How compost will ensure proper solid waste management?
- Compost is an organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment, it is a key ingredient in organic farming.
- In this method compost is produced from biodegradable waste collected from the city, it provides an alternative to farmyard manure.
- It is rich in microbial content that helps plants to take up soil nutrients.
- It provides an opportunity to simultaneously clean up the cities and help improve agricultural productivity and quality of the soil.
What is the need for such compost?
- Excessive and imbalanced use of chemical fertilisers has led to severe deterioration in the quality of soil.
- Only about 20 -50 per cent of the nitrogen in urea is absorbed by plants, remaining pollute surface water with nitrogen runoff.
- Organic manure or compost plays a very important role as a supplement to chemical fertilisers in replenishing the nutrient-depleted soils.
- The addition of compost or organic manure reduces nitrogen wastage, as its humus absorbs the nitrogen and acts like a slow release sponge.
What are the advantages of such compost?
- The water holding capacity of the soil which uses compost helps with drought-proofing.
- It is rich in organic carbon which is an essential element of integrated plant nutrient management, as it increases the productivity of other fertilisers.
- Horticulture crops grown with compost have better flavour, size, colour and shelf-life.
- It reduces input costs for farmers, since it is weed-free, makes soil porous, roots stronger and resistant to pests and decay.
- Landfills would be cleaned up for production of this compost and the fields around them would be much more productive.
What are the challenges with availability of this compost?
- The availability of this compost is purely based on proper delivery mechanisms, which is lagging in India.
- Government Schemes made for composite has not worked well because of its administrative complexity
- The high volume but low value nature of compost makes it not so attractive for fertiliser marketing companies to promote its use.
- Compost manufacturers feels harder to meet the quality specifications laid down by the Fertiliser Control Order (FCO).
How the challenges can be addressed?
- Government policies which safe guards the interest of fertilizer manufactures should be formulated.
- The state agricultural departments can help to facilitate the use of city compost through their widespread extension networks.
- Fertiliser companies need to make vigorous efforts to market city compost using their well-connected dealer channels.
- Subsidies for the city compost based fertiliser will promote its use among farmers and it also promotes companies to co-market the compost.
Source: Indian Express
