DYNAMICS OF PLANT NUTRIENTS AND GREENHOUSE GASES DURING THE PROCESS OF COMPOST FORMATION

Organic amendments play an important role to increase soil organic matter (SOM). Organic materials including crop residues, manures, composts and other rural and urban biogenic waste has been suggested to enhance soil nutrient bioavailability and to increase fertilizer use efficiency. However, the effect of the organic amendments on nutrient availability depends on their decomposability and indigenous nutrient concentration. Most sensible and profitable way to avoid wasting of useful natural resources without creating environmental problems is composting which produce a high quality and low cost organic amendment from organic waste materials. The study was mainly conducted to evaluate the effects of compost prepared from different waste materials on greenhouse gas emission and nutrients availability in soil. The specific objective of the study was to assess GHG emission from compost and nutrient release pattern during composting. Compost was prepared in pits using raw materials viz. farmyard manure (FM), poultry manure (PM) and green manure (GM) for 90 days. In the study, samples of compost were analyzed for total N, total P, total K and greenhouse gases emission. In the second study, The treatments applied were; i) control, ii) PM, iii) FM, iv) GM, v) PM+FM 1:1, vi) PM+GM 1:1, vii) FM+GM 1:1, viii) PM+FM+GM 1:1:1. All the treatments were replicated three times following completely randomized design (CRD) lay out. The samples collected on 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90 days. The results indicated that nutrient release was maximum in compost having three types of material used for composting while greenhouse gases release was minimum in these treatments. Release of greenhouse gases were mainly dependant on temperature and decomposition rate of organic matter.