Abstract:
Livestock waste has become an environmental
issue in Sri Lanka today. A group of farmers had been
given a training to utilize livestock waste for compost
production by the Southern Provincial Council. Thus the
present study was planned to investigate the effectiveness
of composting as a livestock waste management option
among the trained farmers. A structured pre-tested
questionnaire was used to collect the information from
49 farmers who received training. Compost samples from
all the farms which were having active compost piles
were analyzed to determine the quality A comparison
study was done to evaluate the knowledge on composting
using all the farmers involved in composting, agriculture
undergraduates who yet to study about composting and a
randomly selected sample to represent the general public.
Germination index was calculated for all 39 samples
collected from the field. Among the farmers surveyed,
84% of famers practice composting as a source of income,
whereas the rest (16%) used the compost in their home
gardens. All farmers considered composting as the most
effective and cheapest strategy for waste management.
However, majority had a poor knowledge about moisture
and temperature management as well as the maturity of
compost. Awareness on the quality of compost was poor.
The composting site evaluation revealed that 47.9% sites
are located in sloppy lands while 27% sites located close to
a wetland or a water body. According to the condition of
the site location, 33% of the sites create high level impact
and 45% of the sites pose middle level impact on the
surrounding environment. Most of compost samples were
within the standards stipulated by the SLSI. However,
majority (89.7%) of compost samples had standard C:N
ratios. It could be concluded that composting could be used
as a strategy for livestock waste management. However
further training is required to improve the quality of the
final product.
