FEASIBILITY OF COMPOST PREPARED FROM PADDY STRAW AND POULTRY MANURE USING MICROBIAL CONSORTIANANDNI, SUSHILA DEVI AND SAVITA RANIAbstract A major portion of the paddy straw is subjected to open field burning leading to many environmental problems. Similarly, high rate application of poultry manure decreases the yield of crops which may be attributed to the toxic concentrations of nitrite, nitrate. So, the present investigation was planned to co-compost paddy straw and poultry manure using microbial consortia. Total organic carbon (%) declined to 30.70% and amount of total N (%) content increased up to 1.91 % in the treatment 4 after 90 days of co-composting. Ammonical nitrogen contents decreased from 8.20 to 5.12 and 49.02 to 10.09 (mg/ Kg) in controls, and from 14.01 to 5.08 (mg/ Kg) in the treatment 4 prepared from 5:1 ratio of paddy straw and poultry manure along with microbial consortia and cattle dung. Nitrate nitrogen was maximum (510 mg/Kg) in the treatment 4. Initially temperature was around 33°C and elevated to 56 °C after 45 day of composting and then dropped down to 31 to 34°C in different treatments after 90 days of composting. |