THE BENEFITS OF COMPOSTING WASTE (PART 1)

COMPOSTING is the natural process of recycling organic matter, such as leaves and food scraps, into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants. The resulting for the decomposed matter in which often ends up looking like fertile garden soil is called 'compost'. Compost is a mixture of ingredients used to fertilize and improve the soil. It is commonly prepared by decomposing plant and food waste and recycling organic materials. The resulting mixture is rich in plant nutrients and beneficial organisms, such as worms and fungal mycelium. Did you know that when applied to soils, compost helps retain water so well that it can help reduce the need for irrigation?. That goes for big farms as well as your own home garden. Composting has environmental, economic, and social benefits on scales large and small. Some are direct and immediate, and others happen over the longer term. Learn about the full spectrum of benefits composting has to the soil, ecosystems, municipalities, waterways, and home gardens. Listed below are many of the soil benefits of using compost produced by composting the organic waste. The fact that compost can improve soil is especially important since soil quality is diminishing in the Malaysia and in many agricultural areas where food is grown. One of the simplest and easiest ways to improve soils, whether that's in city parks, or your own veggie patch, is adding compost. This article in "Anim Agriculture Technology" I rewrite a report on the benefits of compost to soil quality are many, as you'll read below. 

(1) Compost Feeds the Soil Food Web
As compost breaks down and it delivers important nutrients into the soil. Compost contains the three primary nutrients plants need known as nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K). Not only does compost feed the plants that grow in this soil, but it does so using existing materials, many of which are free or byproducts of the food system already. Compost also increases the number and variety of beneficial bacteria and fungi in the soil, which helps plants grow.

(2) Reduces the Need for Chemical Fertilizers
Chemical fertilizers have a host of environmental consequences, beyond providing nutrients to the soil where they are applied. First, they need to be manufactured, shipped, and applied, all of which take time and money as well as carbon emissions, since many fertilizers are made from nonrenewable petroleum products. Getting those fossil fuels from the earth has a huge carbon footprint, and then it takes energy to make them into fertilizers, as well as move them to where they need to go. Not only do the chemical fertilizers have these various costs, they have also been found to harm the waterways they flow into after they are used on crops. The excess nutrients run off into waterways, and regularly cause algae blooms, which eventually die and during their decomposition, oxygen is lost from the water. These "dead zones" then kill fish or force them to move. Compost can prevent these carbon emissions and not just go easier on waterways, but even actually improve them. Using compost can increase the soil's ability to retain water to such a significant degree that it can reduce the need for irrigation, which is especially important for farmers who live in areas that are drying out or experiencing more drought. Of course, it depends on the compost as well as soil conditions and ambient air temperature and moisture levels precisely how much more water a soil mixed with compost can hold. However, studies have shown that, for every 1% of organic matter content, "soil can hold 16,500 gallons of plant-available water per acre of soil down to one foot deep. That doubles if you can get the organic matter to 2% (it's hard to get it too much higher than that since the organic matter. 

(3) Compost Increases Soil Moisture

Other studies have shown that compost reduces crust forming on soil (so water can get into the soil more easily), and helps disperse water laterally from where it hits the ground, which means it will evaporate less quickly. All of these things help water get to plant roots more effectively.

(4) It Prevents Soil Erosion
From highway embankments in Malaysia, to sloped and tilled fields in many places, the addition of compost to soils has been found to reduce soil erosion, preventing run-off of soils, which protects streams and other waterways from turbidity (muddy waters) that can harm fish and aquatic invertebrates. This happens because composted soils are better able to retain water.

(5) Compost Benefits to Plants
Not surprisingly, when soil health and water availability are improved by compost, the plants that grow in that soil also reap the benefits.

(6) It Aids Plant Growth
Plants that grow in soils amended with compost produce significantly more biomass. That means 50% or more grass in grasslands that cattle graze on, or more veggies. In an Italian study, compost increased lettuce and kohlrabi growth by 24% and 32% respectively. 

(7) Composting Improves Plant Nutrition
The quality of produce grown in compost tends to be higher as well. Reported from studies that the Quinoa plants in India improved antioxidant defense machinery leading to a significant increase in the ability of the plants to take nutrients from the soil. In a long-term study in China, wheat fields had significantly increased yields versus a control field of uncomposted soil.

(8) It Can Reduce Plant Mortality Rates
Not only do more plants grow in soils that have been composted, but they also grow stronger, reducing the diseases plants can get.2 Since crop failure is a cost for home gardeners as well as farmers, this makes compost another way to save money when growing food or other plants.

This article devided in 2 segment as Part 1 and Part 2 respectively. Thanks...

By,

M Anem,

Melaka City, 

Malaysia.

(August 2021)

Updated August 2023.