Reuse of Stabilized Fowl Manure as Soil Amendment and Its Implication on Organic Agriculture Nutrition Management

Abstract

A major input in intensive organic agriculture is nutrient-rich liquid fertilizers. Guano and other fowl manure are frequently digested in water extracts, and the supernatant is supplied as fertilizer. The resultant manure biowaste (MBW) is commonly disposed of to the environment, posing potential pollution and health risks. The study aims were to determine two types of fowl MBWs for their chemical properties before and after lime treatment and to test their reuse potential as soil amendment. Guano and layer manure were digested, and the residues' chemical properties were analyzed before and after lime treatment. MBWs were then air-dried and used as a soil amendment in a parsley-growing experiment. The lime-treated MBW composition met the European standards for high-quality biowaste compost. Both digested and lime-treated MBWs had residual nitrogen, 3% and 1% in guano and layer manure, respectively. Parsley grown in soil amended with layer MBW had 100% survival, high yield, and good crop quality compared with controls. Plants grown with soil amended with guano biowaste exhibited lower yield and only 50% survival. These findings indicate that the current practice of disposing guano biowaste to the environment may pollute soil and water bodies, while the land spread of lime-treated layer MBW is safe and may improve soil fertility.

Anaerobic Treatment of Brackishwater Aquaculture Sludge: An Alternative to Waste Stabilization Ponds

“…Subsamples were characterized for BOD 5 and OM content as described above. Estimation of BOD 5 using dry samples allowed normalizing and comparing the data of the two systems (Posmanik et al 2011). The differences between initial and final values for BOD 5 and OM were used for the calculation of digestion efficiency.…”

A Novel Method for Combined Biowaste Stabilization and Production of Nitrate-Rich Liquid Fertilizer for Use in Organic Horticulture

“…The FC count was below detection limits, and lower than the upper limit of 10 3 CFU g −1 for (not detected) <10 2 <10 3b a High quality standards = suitable for biowaste reuse in organic farming (Amlinger et al 2004) b Meets the EU standards for "category 3 low-risk biowaste" (European Parliament and Council 2002) c "Class A" standards for biosolids, allowing unrestricted land application (USEPA 1994) unrestricted agricultural land spreading (Table 3). Yet, it should be noted that an earlier report by Posmanik et al (2011) suggested that digested guano should be land spread with care as it might have some negative effect on plants such as parsley.…”