Dynamics of Microorganisms in Compost of Coffee Waste Mixed with Agricultural Wastes

Abstract

Coffee pulp and husk are the main by-products generated by the coffee processing plants and are disposed into arable land and surface water causing environmental pollution. Therefore, the major objectives of the present study were to isolate and characterize the dominant microbes during the composting periods. Coffee husk + Cow dung, Coffee husk + Poultry manure and Coffee husk + Desmodium triflorum in 3:1 (v/v) ratio were used to prepare the compost. A total of 729 microbial isolates were recovered from composting coffee husk and other combinations. Bacteria (37.04%) were the dominant group followed by actinomycetes (33.74%) and fungi (29.22%). Amongst the bacteria actinomycetes were dominant (78.09%) followed by Bacillus species (48.45%) and Pseudomonas species (37.25%). The mycoflora of coffee husk compost piles were dominated by Rhizopus species (23.09%) followed by Mucor species (23%) Aspergillus species (10.7%) and Pencillium species (10.7%). The successions of microbe in 3 of the compost piles were different during the sampling periods.