Composter doubles manure ‘ripening’ time

The pre­par­a­tion time for a tonne of ma­nure from or­ganic mat­ter has been cut in half by a biocata­lyst that speeds up the break­down pro­cess for farm­ers who are keen to use the ma­nure in crop pro­duc­tion.

 Wyc­liffe Kauso of EM Tech­no­lo­gie Lim­ited said hasten­ing the con­ver­sion pro­cess saves farm­ers time, which is a key com­pon­ent in high pro­duc­tion.

“The bio-cata­lyst en­sures that farm­ers meet ma­nure ap­plic­a­tion timelines by speed­ing up the de­cay­ing pro­cess. The nat­ural booster in­creases the speed of break­ing down mat­ter by ac­cel­er­at­ing in­crease of tem­per­at­ure form 35 de­grees Celsius to 65 de­grees Celsius within very short time,” he said.

High tem­per­at­ures are ne­ces­sary for high mi­cro­bial activ­ity on the com­pos­it­ing pro­cess.

Under nor­mal cir­cum­stance, com­pos­ite ma­nure pre­par­a­tion takes up to three months, but with the EM Com­posta, the pro­cess can be com­pleted in four to six weeks.

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Meas­ure­ments

One litre of EM Com­posta can be used to pro­cess at least one tonne of green ma­nure. A stand­ard com­pos­it­ing pit is 2m by 4m. I should be one foot deep.

The or­ganic cata­lyst com­prises pho­to­syn­thetic bac­teria, lactic acid bac­teria, yeasts, molasses, and or­ganic mat­ter with the help of Bokashi, a fer­men­ted sub­stance.

Kauso said timely ap­plic­a­tion of ma­nure may boost pro­duc­tion by up to 50 per cent. Crops will get the re­quired nu­tri­ents at the right time, for in­stance just be­fore form­ing bulbs.

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Com­post­ing and ap­plic­a­tion

The ma­nure also ac­cel­er­ates fo­liage in ve­get­at­ive crop like napier grass.

It is also ap­plied to farm­ing fields ahead of cul­tiv­a­tion to im­prove the tex­ture as well as re­plen­ish­ing lost nu­tri­ents ahead of plant­ing.

Half litre of EM Com­posta is dis­solved into 25 litres of water. The mat­ter that is to be con­ver­ted to ma­nure is sliced and ar­ranged into lay­ers in the com­post­ing pit.

Shred­ding too of the mat­ter would speed up the pro­cess be­cause of the in­creased sur­face area that al­lows for faster re­ac­tions.

Sprink­ling is done layer after layer to en­sure uni­form dis­tri­bu­tion of the or­gan­isms, which will ‘di­gest’ the mat­ter into fer­til­iser.

Thor­ough mix­ing is done after every layer for the even dis­tri­bu­tion of the mat­ter being com­pos­ted. The pit is coved with a soil layer and poly­thene sheet which will pre­vent entry of water.

If water enters the pit, it may re­duce the tem­per­at­ures, which are ne­ces­sary for the de­com­pos­i­tion pro­cess.

Just like in the or­din­ary com­pos­ites, mon­it­or­ing the pro­cess with a rod in­ser­ted into the heart of the com­pos­ite is key.

 The com­posta is avail­able in agrovets and KFAs at Sh300 per litre.

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EM Tech­no­lo­gies can be reached via +254735016557