Author(s):

Rekha VR Nair, Sunil Kumar V and Sushama PK

Abstract: The study on elephant dung as a promising organic source for tropical soils of Kerala was conducted at College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara from January 2009 to May 2011. In order to study the effect of micro fauna on the <em>in situ</em> decomposition of elephant dung, a field monitoring at Padukkad was undertaken by identifying six stages of degradation of dung <em>viz</em>. more than one year old, one year old, eight months old, four months old, fresh sample constituting of body washings and fresh faecal bolus. Since the dung was rich in lignocellulose, isolation of native lignocelluloses degraders was carried out. Vermicomposting mainly focused on identification of suitable microbial degraders for pre composting and selection of the best substrate for vermicomposting. The factor without microbes was compared with <em>Pleurotus platypus</em>, combination of <em>Aspergillus flavus </em>and <em>Bacillus subtilis </em>and native microbes efficient in lignocellulose degradation. Different substrate levels included FYM and elephant dung in 1:1 and 1:8, elephant dung and banana pseudostem in 1:1 and 1:8 proportion.The compost worm used was <em>Eudrillus euginae.</em> Worm multiplication was influenced by the substrate controlled micro environment with the combination of FYM and elephant dung in the ratio 1:8 registering an eight fold increase in worm count at the time of compost harvest. Consortium of <em>Aspergillus flavus</em> and <em>Bacillus subtilis</em> have taken minimum maturity period for composting. The compost from the substrate combination of ED: FYM (8:1) pre composted with <em>Aspergillus flavus</em> and <em>Bacillus subtilis </em>recorded manurial value of 10.78% C, 1.34% N, 0.66% P, and 0.61% K⁺, 0.67% Ca²⁺,0.04% Mg ²⁺and 0.12% Na⁺ with a pH value of 7.3. The study on utilization of elephant dung for vermicomposting revealed that elephant dung and FYM in the ratio 8: 1 must be pre composted with <em>Aspergillus flavus</em> and <em>Bacillus subtilis</em> in order to get biotically enriched elephant dung suitable for tropical soils having minimum maturity period.

Pages: 366-370  |  1415 Views  583 Downloads

Download (1107KB)