National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF) has developed a waste decomposer culture which is used for quick composting from organic waste, soil health improvement and as a plant protection agent. It is a consortium of microorganism extracted from desi cow dung.
The waste decomposer is sold in a bottle of 30 gms costing Rs. 20/- per bottle directly through NCOF and Regional Organic Farming Centres (RCOF) to farmers. The waste decomposer is also validated by ICAR. According to them, single bottle decomposes bio-waste of more than 10000 metric tons just in 30 days.
How to prepare waste decomposer solution from the starter culture?
- Take 2 kg jaggery and mixed it in a plastic drum containing 200 liters water.
- Now take 1 bottle of waste decomposer and pour all its contents in a plastic drum containing jaggery solution. Avoid direct contact of contents with hands.
- Mix it properly with a wooden stick for uniform distribution of waste decomposer in a drum.
- Cover the drum with a paper or cardboard and stir it every day once or twice.
- After 5 days the solution of drum turns creamy.
The waste decomposer solution could be prepared again and again from the above-formed solution. For this, 20 liters of waste decomposer solution is added to a drum with 2 kg of jaggery and 20-liter water is added. We can prepare continuously this solution from this waste decomposer for a lifetime.
The procedure they said for the composting method as follows:-
- Spread 1 ton of compost as the layer on a plastic sheet placed under shade
- Sprinkle 20 liter of the above-prepared solution over the compost layer
- Spread one more layer of compost above the existing layer
- Sprinkle 20 liter of the solution over the compost layer
- Use the solution for 10 compost layers
- Maintain 60% moisture during the entire period of composting
- Turn over the compost at 7-day interval The compost is ready to use after 30 days.
But we have already BARC culture that we are using for kitchen waste composting and working very well. But we have the problem for brown matter composting. As our VA friend Mr. Pravin Patil said that this culture is also decomposing brown matter. That’s why we decided to conduct this experiment for brown matter composting.
The above-said procedure we did and prepared the solution for 200 liters:-
We have prepared for this solution as mixed 2 kg jaggery with 200 liters with proper stirring. After that, we added this Waste Decomposer Culture bottle in this jaggery solutions.
After preparing the solution we have covered drum with a bedsheet
This solution stirred daily twice up to 7 days.
After 7 days solution looks like creamy, it means culture is ready to spread.
In these 7 days, I have collected various brown matter within a village with help of DBRT students. I have collected brown matter like bangya, mug kad, wal kad, dried leaves, dried shredded leaves, and a mixture of all of them.
After that, I have framed rectangular bed with a height of each brown matter.
As process mentioned I have started to spread prepared culture on this brown matter bed on every Friday, 19 October.
Along with this, I have maintained 60% moisture daily by spreading water on this bed with help of one DBRT student Mahesh Mali, who has assigned this project of Agriculture section.
After every 7 days, we have mixed it like an upside down and spread this culture. This procedure has continued up to 42 days. Means we have spread culture on this bed 6 times in 42 days up to got some result.
The overall data of 42 days are given below:-
| Product | Total Weight | Total Spread Culture on Date | |||||
| 19/10/2018 | 26/10/2018 | 02/11/2018 | 9/11/2018 | 16/11/2018 | 23/11/2018 | ||
| Bangya | 50 kg | 25 liter | 22 liter | 23 liter | 22 liter | 22 liter | 22 liter |
| WalKad | 32.4 kg | 16 liter | 15 liter | 15 liter | 16 liter | 15 liter | 16 liter |
| Mug Kad | 35 kg | 17.5 liter | 15 liter | 18 liter | 15 liter | 18 liter | 16 liter |
| Dried Leaves | 24 kg | 12 liter | 10 liter | 12 liter | 12 liter | 11 liter | 12 liter |
| Shredded Dried Leaves | 14.94 kg | 3 liter | 7 liter | 6 liter | 6 liter | 6 liter | 5 liter |
| Mixture of all above | 16.29 kg | 8 liter | 7 liter | 8 liter | 7 liter | 7 liter | 7 liter |
After 50 days the result and observation look like this:-
50% of brown matter has decomposed very well. Because of the water shortage problem we were not able to maintain 60% moisture in some days. That’s why some part was not decomposed. We observed one more thing that shredded leaves have decomposed very well. So next we need to shred all brown matter as small as in particle.
“Still, the made compost from brown matter is very good and this compost we can use as a culture for brown matter composting,” the comment from Dr. Sharad Kale, who is BARC scientist and worked on compost culture.
