Poultry Manure Composting: An Innovative Approach to Waste Management
Renu Kumari, Sanjay Singh, Meena Goswami*, Vikas Pathak and Vivek Sahu
1,2 International Institute of Veterinary Education & Research (IIVER), Rohtak, Haryana
3,4,5 Department of Livestock Products Technology, CVS&AH, DUVASU, Mathura
Dr. Meena Goswami (Corresponding author) ⃰
Assistant Professor, Department of Livestock Products Technology,
College of Veterinary Sciences and AH
DUVASU, Mathura, (U.P), India. Pin-281001
e-mail Id: dr.goswami2008@yahoo.co.in
Mob no: +919997323852
Abstract
Poultry industry is amongst the most advanced agribusiness production chains in the world. In India, more than 70% poultry sector comes under organized market. There is an increasing demand for poultry meat and egg mainly due to its acceptance by most societies and its relatively low cholesterol content. In spite of economical and successful, the poultry industry is currently facing a major problem facing i.e. accumulation of wastes including manure and litter which may pose disposal and pollution problems. The poultry wastes also pose serious environmental pollution problems through offensive odours and promotion of fly and rodent breeding. Poultry industry produces large amounts of solid waste like bedding material, excreta, feed, feathers, hatchery waste, mortality waste and waste water like faeces, urine, saw dust, remnants of drugs pesticides, disinfection of chicken houses and abattoirs. Hence, composting or vermi-composting of poultry waste is identified as largest potential management practices to mitigate environmental consequences along with deprivation in dependency on chemical fertilizer. This article explores chemical composition of poultry manure, significance of use of poultry manure for agricultural crops, competition with chemical fertilizers and overcome burden of budgets, processing methods and limitations.
Keywords: Poultry waste, manure, composting, chemical fertilizers, management,
Introduction
Poultry industry is amongst the most advanced agribusiness production chains in the world. There is an increasing demand for poultry meat mainly due to its acceptance by most societies and its relatively low cholesterol content. The total poultry population in India is 851.81 million (according to 20th Livestock census) i.e. an increase of 16.8% over previous census with a waste production of about 6.25 to 8 million tonnes per year. The localized nature of poultry production also means that it can represent a large percentage of the agricultural economy in many states or regions of country. Although economical and successful, the poultry industry is currently facing with a number of highly complex and challenging environmental problems (Bolan et al., 2010). From an agricultural point of view, poultry wastes, especially manure and litter, generated by intensive production, play a major role in the contamination of ground water through nitrate nitrogen. Also, the eutrophication of surface water due to phosphorus, pesticides, heavy metals and pathogens present in the poultry wastes applied to soils are the central environmental issues at the present time. The largest potential market for composted poultry waste has been identified as application to agricultural land for agronomic or horticultural crop production.
In current times, attention has been directed towards organic manure rather than of chemical fertiliser because of the rising cost of inorganic chemical fertilizers coupled with their inability to give the soil the desired sound health (Oyedeji et al., 2014). Poultry manure is an excellent soil amendment that provides nutrients for growing crops and also improves soil quality when applied wisely, because it has high organic matter content combined with available nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) for growth of plant. Addition of poultry manure as a soil conditioner reduced the bulk density of the soil. This is due to the inherent low bulk density of organic materials used which results in lower soil bulk density. Poultry manure can also improve soil water infiltration rates which serve as a good conditioner for soil’s potential to allow water movement in both lateral and horizontal gradients into and through the soil profile.
Chemical composition of poultry manure: Among the animal manures, poultry droppings have higher nutrient contents. It comprises all 13 of the essential plant nutrients that are used by plants. These include nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulphur (S), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), chlorine (Cl), boron (B), iron (Fe), and molybdenum (Mo) (Amanullah et al., 2010). The chemical composition of chicken manure varies with factors such as source of manure, feed of the birds, age and condition of the birds, storage, handling of manure, and litter used for bedding purpose. Poultry waste consists of droppings, broken eggs, wasted feed, feathers, and sometimes sawdust from poultry floor. It also includes the dead birds and hatchery waste, all of which are high in protein and contain substantial amount of minerals i.e. calcium and phosphorus due to high level of mineral supplement in poultry diet.
| Table.1 Chemical composition of poultry manure (Sources; Research Gate) | |
| Nutrient element Value | (%) |
| N | 4.50 |
| P2O5 | 2.50 |
| K2O | 2.00 |
| CaO | 2.00 |
| MgO | 1.00 |
| S | 0.50 |
| Fe | 0.04 |
| Mn | 0.09 |
| Zn | 0.09 |
| Other characteristics | 0.50 |
Significance of poultry manure in Agriculture
A good and fertile soil is often compared to a womb. Most of farmers do not realize that a soil with poor fertility is directly linked with poor yield. Rather than few, there are many farmers in our country who do not show interest in testing their soil for micronutrient deficiencies. In general, farmers apply micronutrients only when crops show their deficiency symptoms, while micronutrient deficiencies decrease yields before symptoms appear. Enrichment of the soils with micronutrients, by using organic fertilizers, not only affects plant deficiencies, but also on humans and animals, through the food chain. Rather improving the soil conditions and plant growth, animal oriented manure has a salutary effect on physical fertility of soil. In this context, poultry manure occupies the pride of place as we know it is rich in all essential nutrients than the other manures.
For centuries now, farmers accepted that organic manures of cattle, poultry and green leaves wastes (mulching) to rejuvenates their soil physically, chemically and biologically but in last decade, organic manure somewhat replaced by chemical fertilizers due to high consumption (Table 2). But in current times, again attention has been directed towards organic manure rather than of chemical fertiliser because of the rising cost of inorganic chemical fertilizers coupled with their inability to give the soil the desired sound health. Data presented by the govt. in the Rajya Sabha indicates that the consumption of chemical fertilizers has increased from about 510 LMT in 2015-16 to 590 LMT by rate of 16%. As figure 1 showing the trend in the quantity of chemical fertilizers used in India since 2015-16, urea stands on top position with around 300 lakh metric tonne (LMT) consumption among most consumed fertilizer each year (accounting for 55-60% of the chemical fertilizer consumption in the country).
| Table 2: Consumption of major chemical fertilizers along with N,P,K nutrients since 2010-11 | ||||||||
| (lakh tonnes) | ||||||||
| Year | Urea | DAP | MOP | Complex | Nitrogen
(N) |
Phosphate
(P) |
Potash
(K) |
Total
(N+P+K) |
| 2010-11 | 281.12 | 108.70 | 39.31 | 97.64 | 165.58 | 80.50 | 35.14 | 281.22 |
| 2011-12 | 295.65 | 101.91 | 30.29 | 103.95 | 173.00 | 79.14 | 25.75 | 277.90 |
| 2012-13 | 300.02 | 91.54 | 22.11 | 75.27 | 168.21 | 66.53 | 20.62 | 255.36 |
| 2013-14 | 306.00 | 73.57 | 22.80 | 72.64 | 167.50 | 56.33 | 20.99 | 244.82 |
| 2014-15 | 306.10 | 76.26 | 28.53 | 82.78 | 169.46 | 60.98 | 25.32 | 255.76 |
| 2015-16 | 306.35 | 91.07 | 24.67 | 88.21 | 173.72 | 69.79 | 24.02 | 267.53 |
| 2016-17 | 296.14 | 89.64 | 28.63 | 84.14 | 167.35 | 67.05 | 25.08 | 259.49 |
| 2017-18 | 298.94 | 92.94 | 31.58 | 85.96 | 169.58 | 68.54 | 27.79 | 265.91 |
| 2018-19 | 313.98 | 92.08 | 29.52 | 90.88 | 176.28 | 69.68 | 27.79 | 273.75 |
| 2019-20 | 335.41 | 100.90 | 28.67 | 96.50 | 191.00 | 76.62 | 26.07 | 293.69 |
| Source: State Government, NPK-mFMS Port | ||||||||
Figure 1 |
Chemical fertilizer deteriorates the structure of soil that leads to detract the crop production. Most of the manure and litter produced by the poultry industry is currently applied to agricultural land. When managed correctly, land application is a viable way to recycle the nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in manure. However, pollution and nuisance problems can occur when manure is applied under environmental conditions that do not favour agronomic utilisation of the manure-borne nutrients. The continued productivity, profitability, and sustainability of the poultry industry will likely be dependent on the formulation of best management practices to mitigate environmental problems associated with air and water quality parameters that are impacted by land application, and the development of cost-effective innovative technologies that provide alternative to land application of poultry wastes.
At present, vegetable farmers and gardeners are mostly apply poultry manure in combination with inorganic nitrogen-based fertilizers such as Urea and NPK, because poultry manure alone is believed to dissolve slowly and may not meet up the yield of vegetables and fruits. Similarly, poultry manure adds organic and inorganic plant nutrients and increase the water holding capacity, water quality and beneficial biota in soil as well as the economic impact of integrating poultry manure into cropping systems. The addition of poultry manure enhances the dry matter production of crop in both cultivated and the grazing soils because of it has property of repairing the physical fertility of soil. Composting of poultry litter is seldom used as a mulching material for horticultural and agricultural crops for conserving soil moisture. It also reserves the surface feeding roots from drying during the summer periods. In spite of the poultry litter also used to enhance the biological fertility of mine tailings and also have importance in resettlement of disturbed land resulting from mining and any other industrial activities. In developed countries, Farmers are now more conscious and are switching over to organic manures happening in more than 10% drop in chemical fertilizer production however, we in India are ignoring the benefits of organic fertilizers and importing huge quantities of chemical fertilizers.
Limitations on the use of poultry manure
- The problems related to heavy application of poultry manure is leaching and runoff of phosphorus and nitrate nitrogen.
- Management practices to minimize phosphorus loss in comparison to nitrogen in soil have been of little concern still.
- It plays a major role in the contamination of ground water through nitrate nitrogen.
- The eutrophication of surface water due to phosphorus, pesticides, heavy metals and pathogens present in the poultry wastes applied to soils are the central environmental issues at the present time.
- Fresh manure is difficult to handle due to high moisture content and do not apply on crops due to its caustic impact on foliage. However, the manure must be processed before it’s applied to plants. This leads much more labor using poultry manure as fertilizer in compare to using a commercial fertilizer or even some other types of animal manure for fertilizer.
- Several difficulty i.e., ammonia emission, surface and ground water pollution, fly attraction and public nuisance also associated with storage of poultry manure.
- Limited acceptance of processed poultry manure and more attraction of farmers towards application of chemical fertiliser in India.
Confined to pockets
Though cattle compost manure is known across the country but many farmers are not familiar with poultry manure; because modern poultry farms have emerged in India just four decades back, though it is concentrated confined to a few advanced farmers’ pockets.
Cage manure
By application of deep litter poultry manure, dose of chemical fertilizers can be decreased due to high fertilizer value of dried cage poultry manure. It is observed that one tonne of dried poultry manure is equivalent to 100 kg urea, 150 kg super phosphate, 50 kg potash, 125 kg calcium carbonate, 30 kg sulphur, 12 kg sodium chloride, 10 kg magnesium sulphate, 5 kg ferrous sulphate, 1kg of other trace minerals each and it is available at a cheaper rate than other market available inputs.
Why we need to process of poultry waste
At this time, poultry is reared under modern housing system i.e. deep litter system for meat bird and multi-tier cage systems for layers. In these rearing system, produced much of the poultry manure having about 70 % of moisture. Moist manure is favoured growth of microbes that leads deterioration of nutritional value of unprocessed poultry manure. Hence, the immediate processing of poultry manure to prevent its rapid decomposition and save its nutrient properties is, thus essential. At the same time, if manure is stored to reduce the moisture content, nutrient losses (nitrogen due to high proteolytic activity) also occur.
Processing method of poultry waste for agricultural use
- a) Composting
It is a simple and natural biological process in which microorganisms transform organic waste matters into useful end product known as compost and provides a practically and economically feasible way for stabilizing poultry manure and litter before land application. Properly managed composting has ability to binds nutrients viz., nitrogen and phosphorus in organic forms efficiently and reduces pathogens load, insect eggs and weed seed owing to the heat generated during the biological processing. Composted poultry waste is a more stable and more consistent material than fresh litter, so it can be used as a soil conditioner or fertilizer because it would likely increase carbon in the soil, may help to reduce soil erosion, and can reduce nitrate leaching from the soil. It can also alleviate nuisance odour arise from poultry waste storage and treatment areas. It is also proved an environment friendly method and can be an important way to protect our ground and surface waters from the excessive loading of litter nutrients.
| Fig.2: A heap of chicken manure
(source;https://thisnzlife.co.nz) |
Fig. 3: Composting chicken manure
(source; Poultryproducer.com) |
- b) Vermicomposting
It is an effective way of minimizing environmental dumping of poultry waste. It referred as the organic manures (vermicompost) which are prepared with the help of bio-oxidation and stabilisation process of organic material by the combined activity of specific earthworm and microorganism. Eisenia fetida earthworm species is commonly used to degrade poultry droppings and transform in to useful end product vermicast (humic rich) or vermimeal (meat meal). Traditionally, the vermiculture process has primarily been accepted to produce vermicast (organic fertiliser). Vermifertilizer improves the soil porous nature with improved sustainable agriculture. On treatment of poultry waste with Eisenia species, pH and total organic carbon decrease while availability of macro minerals in the soil increases due to improvement of these elements in vermicompost by the microbes in gut of earthworms and their metabolic process. Similarly, there is significant reduction in C:N ratio and improve nitrogen bioavailability in the soil. These features express that the vermitechnology can be a potential technology to convert the deleterious poultry waste into nutrient rich, toxic-free valuable feedstock for the crops and also provide a new dimensional approach to manage poultry waste biologically. During vermin-composting process, some extent of metal toxicity was reduced possibly due to the bioaccumulation of some fractions of metals by the inhabiting earthworm’s enzymatic milieu.
Precautions:
- i) As we know, poultry feed has high protein content and undigested feed excretes as manure. This poultry manure is always a problematic feed substrate for earthworm due to high ammonia content, uric acid and use of other feed supplements and antibiotics in intensive poultry feeding also detrimental to earthworm survivability in poultry manure.
- ii) High C:N ratio of poultry manure also harmful for earthworm growth. So attempts should make to optimized C: N ratio as 30: 1 or 35:1 of feed substrate for earthworm.
iii) The reduction in pH plays an important role in nitrogen retention, as at high pH, nitrogen lost is more as volatile ammonia.
- c) Other innovative waste management methods
(i) Manure belt systems in layer production, (ii) Pelletization and packaging of dried manure decreasing dust and increasing stability, and (iii) Some countries are using Black soldier fly (BSF) larvae are an alternative system for manure treatment.
Foreign exchange
Recently, fertilizer manufacturers in our countries including the Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO) announced a steep hike in the cost of agricultural inputs i.e. di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) as a result of increased costs of raw materials in the international market. In the last few months, the prices of potash, DAP, phosphoric acid, etc. have also enhanced significantly forcing the fertilizer manufactures to hike the costs of the de-controlled nutrients. Our country imports about 18,552.3 MT total fertilisers along with 9,931.6 MT NPKs in 2019-20. For this, Indian govt. spend 71,309 crore estimated budget for total subsidy on all fertiliser in 2020-21(FAI, 2020-21).
As we know, Indian poultry sector produces about 8.25 and 10.0 million tonnes of manure which is sufficient to fertilize approx. 3.56-4.45 million hectares of land annually. If poultry manure properly utilized, we can save billions of foreign exchange, by replacing huge imports of chemical fertilizers.
Conclusion
Poultry industry contributes an vital role in economy of nation as well as improving the standard of living of people. The proper utilization and disposal of poultry sector will not only helping this industry but also avoiding the unnecessary discomfort to living beings and environment. The decomposition of the waste must be done with proper handing and care to avoid any risk of disease outbreak and to prevent environment pollution. Poultry waste is one of the major problems if not properly managed. But use of processed poultry waste as manure could be a potential alternative for chemical fertilizers due to its high nutrient status, economic viability and high willingness for use being its strength. Use of poultry manure as fertilizer in agricultural production can solve the fertilizer deficit situation existing in country and may decrease price of exported nutrients. Poultry waste can be treated biologically with microbes to improve the nutritive value of wastes which can be used as organic fertilizer for agricultural purpose. The composting of poultry waste acts as soil conditioner or fertilizer. It is used as a very good source of fertilizer.
References
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