Composting plays a significant role in converting the organic wastes into high quality manure. Although composting is a simple and age-old technique, it is a time consuming process. The period for the maturation of the compost generally is around ~90 – 150 days based on the nature of wastes used for compost and other factors like temperature, preparation method etc. In the present scenario, the compost is needed essentially to balance the organic carbon and enhance the fertility of the soil and on the other hand, solid waste getting accumulated has to be converted to manures. Reducing the duration of the composting process will help in more turnover of the waste into compost and ready availability of manure to the farmers.
Cellulase and pectinase enzyme producing bacterial and fungal strains were isolated from different samples like soil, rotten fruits & vegetables and used in the composting process. In the trial experiments, acceleration of the composting process of dry leaf litter, fresh biomass and cow dung by using different combinations of EM strains was attempted. The outcome of the experiment showed that duration of composting was reduced by nearly 18 days. The micro-nutrients such as Mn, K, Na, Zn, Mg and Cu in significant quantity in the EM treated matured compost indicates the role of EM in mineralization process.
