Production Efficiency of Organic Fertilizer from Different Composting Methods

Compost pit or natural composting is the common method of composting and the product as organic fertilizer is used as soil conditioner or fertilizer. Thus, this study focuses on the efficiency of different composting methods in terms of organic fertilizer produce, decomposition rate and economic viability. Combination of rice straws and sheep manure as substrates were used due to availability in the area. Four treatments employed and replicated four times. Treatment 1 is the natural composting, treatment 2 is the application of urea, treatment 3 is the application of indigenous microorganisms and treatment 4 is vermicomposting. Treatments were subjected in the analysis of variance using Randomized Complete Block Design. Comparison among means uses Least Significance Difference at 5% level. Results show that among four composting methods, application of IMO significantly produces organic fertilizer with 12.36 kilograms and higher decomposition rate of 61.81% among the other three composting methods. However, natural composting has higher return on expenses with 53.88% due to low expenses incurred. In terms of production cost efficiency, natural composting needs Php 13.00 to produce one kilogram of organic fertilizer, lower compared to others. Natural composting is recommended for the production of organic fertilizer due to low expenses and higher economic return though production was higher in the IMO applied composting. Further research on other composting methods in long run production to lower the expenses is also advised.

Keywords: composting methods, IMO composting, vermicomposting, decomposition rate, production

cost efficiency