The Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellayani, Kerala, has developed a patented technology (No. 321857 of Government of India) for rapid conversion of degradable wastes to value added organic fertilizer within a day under the leadership of Dr. C.R.Sudharmaidevi. The process has been tested thoroughly on a laboratory scale and a Pilot Plant with a capacity of 500 kg waste /shift was installed under the funding of ICAR/DARE and State Plan to test the effectiveness of the process and scale up the technology.
The technology involves segregation of biodegradable waste and its pulverization and grinding to obtain a uniform mass. The ground material is transferred to the processing vessel, Reagent I (@50 ml/kg waste) is added and boiled for 30 minutes at 100 oC. After this, another reagent ie., Regent II is added @100 ml/kg waste and allowed to boil for another 30 minutes. By this time the digestion will be completed and moisture absorbing materials like coir pith @40 g/kg waste and charcoal powder @30 g/kg waste (optional) are added and thoroughly mixed. The material will be resorted to sun drying or electrical drying. The dried product is fortified with small quantities of essential nutrients. One kg waste yields about 250-300g organic fertilizer. The final material is named as “Fortified Suchitha Organic Fertiliser” which is widely used for crop production and sold through KAU outlets at a cost of Rs.57/kg. Pot trials had shown that fortified manure could be used as an ideal potting medium when mixed with soil and coir pith in the proportion 1:1:1 on volume basis.
The machinery of Pilot plant comprises a pulverizing unit, grinder, two waste processing vessels of 250 L, driers- two units, a packing machine and a boiler. The construction and installation of the Pilot Plant was carried out by Kerala Agro Industries Corporation. The installation work was completed during June 2016. Apart from the main unit the pilot Plant houses a prototype machine (20 kg wastes/day) named “Suchitha”for handling small quantity of waste.
Nutrient content of fortified organic fertilizer
Moisture : 15- 25 % Organic Carbon : > 20 %
|
Nutrient |
Min.( %) | Nutrient | Min.(ppm) |
|
Nitrogen |
1.5 | Iron | 600 |
|
Phosphorus |
1.0 |
Manganese |
22.0 |
| Potassium | 1.0 | Copper | 12.0 |
| Calcium | 0.24 | Zinc | 60 |
| Magnesium | 0.11 | Boron | 0.5 |
| Sulphur | 0.05 | Chlorine | 100 |
Contains coir pith (4 %) added during processing
