Compost or burn, is the choice that simple?

We held a composting workshop at the farm on December 13. Ram Singh took the trainees through Sir Albert Howard’s Indore method, the “Bangalore” method (a.k.a lazy man’s composting as you harvest the compost after 3 months without turning the heap) and vermicomposting.
The Indore method was derived more than eighty years ago from the age old traditional practices of Indian and Chinese peasants. Sir Howard, who lived in India then, was alarmed at the misuse of dried cow dung for firing the traditional chullahs or stoves. The best use of dung and for that matter any other farm waste was in his view composting so that you could return to the soil what you took out directly or indirectly through dairy animals.

This is true even today. Both traditional and green revolution farming practices have ruined soils across India. There is a fundamental need to regenerate soils by returning biomass to earth. You only have to see the dust flying around Delhi these days to realize what we have done to the topsoil, our foremost resource. However, the dung for compost versus dung for the stove dilemma is getting a new garb – mitigating climate change. The Government of Punjab, India’s richest agrarian area plans to set up 3000 MW of power capacity using 2 million tons of farm ‘waste’ or biomass. The idea is that instead of burning paddy straw in situ, farmers should be paid approximately $75 per acre for their biowaste, which would then be supplied to power plants run on biomass. Apart from generating power in a chronically undersupplied area, this would advance climate change mitigation goals and earn carbon credits. A smart green alternative to current practices, right?

From another, admittedly less fashionable perspective the best use of that straw would be for composting, mulching, litter (for dairy and poultry), starter for growing mushrooms etc. It came out of the earth, it must return there via the humble compost heap. Apart from robbing the soil, a more insidious side effect of the burn and earn approach is the reinforcing of the notion in the mind of the farmer that there is ‘waste’ in agriculture to be disposed off at the best price available. Earn Rs 3000 per acre, then spend Rs 30,000 on urea and DAP. Who wins? Who loses? Now and in the long run?

A biomass power for carbon credits scheme plays well in the current atmosphere of concern for climate change but as the venerable Nepalese magazine Himal says in a recent editorial “in the current cacophony about climate change, it is easy to forget that development – that by now beleaguered notion – has also bypassed the large majority in the region. While tackling climate change is advocated today from every podium, programmes for afforestation, water-shed development and agricultural improvement take a backseat, unless they are garbed in the language of ‘adaptation’.”

Should we do away completely with biomass energy then? I hesitate here. And in full transparency I must disclose that FFF has a technology cooperation agreement with BARC, Mumbai for a two-stage biogas plant (Nisargruna) for use with large dairy operations. I believe that in certain situations using biomass for energy is a good idea. Municipal or farm waste, which cannot be composted, and which is patently excess to local needs for soil conditioning could be an exception. However, the soil and those who depend on it must come first. Otherwise we will resolve one problem and create two more. A pattern that is now painfully obvious.

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Dec 6: Mushrooms are strange beings. They cannot be characterised as plants as they convert starch to carbohydrates and proteins without the benefit of chlorophyll or solar energy; for the mystically oriented they run on moon energy. Nor can we put them in the animal kingdom – they need a substrate to ‘grow’ and you need seeds or more precisely spawn to grow them. For our purposes – sustainable integrated agriculture – they are a key ingredient. They supplement farmers’ incomes and nutrition and they can be grown with little effort using easily available farm ‘waste’ like straw and chicken manure. Mushroom cultivation is also economical of space; a 50 kg per day unit could be set up in about 250 sqms. And they are a great way to involve women in agriculture.

In India three varieties are mushrooms are grown commercially – button mushrooms, milky mushrooms and oyster mushrooms or dhingri. Medicinal mushrooms such as the rishi mushroom are grown on a smaller scale and the gourmet mushrooms available in Japan, Europe and North America – the meaty Portobello or Shiitake for example – are rarely found.

At our Model Farm we have decided to concentrate on growing the Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus). Our logic is that this does not require an elaborate method for preparing the compost base. Our institutional partner in this is the National Research Centre for Mushroom in Solan in the foothills of Himachal Pradesh. We buy spawn from them in one Kg bags at Rupees 60 a kilo. The starting material is paddy straw, sourced free of cost from a neighbouring farm and chopped coarsely in our chaff cutter. It is soaked overnight and then pasteurised in a drum over a traditional wood stove. Here are some images from a training session on November 15, 2009 with our self help group. Vish, Vidya and their daughter Laxmi from our consumer group chipped in. Nanya was at hand with the cameras.

We spread it out over corrugated sheets and pack it in plastic bags about 24 cms in diameter and about 36 cm in height with three layers of spawn in between. The top of the bag is closed with rubber bands or string and a few holes made at the bottom and along the sides for the excess water to come out. The bags are then placed in a room whose temperature and moisture is roughly monitored. The room is disinfected first using smoke from neem leaves. In ten days the bags turn white and after about three weeks the mushrooms start to get ready to harvest once you cut the top of the bag. It is important to keep the room safe from mice and flies. he yield improves if you spray the bags with water twice a day. Oyster mushrooms can be cultivated without fuss most of the year (you will need a shaded room with a desert cooler in summer).

Oyster mushrooms are a great source of protein and Vitamin B. They are a boost for vegetarian menus - witness the venerable Indian dish – dhingri mutter(http://www.tarladalal.com/Recipe.asp?id=203) .

Here's a happy family photo at the end of the training. Kuldeep, the lead trainer is at the centre in a black tee. Our first harvest today (Dec 6) was about two pounds.

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