Influences of pH control in the organic liquid fertilizer production using MASARO technology

Abstract

Indonesia’s food security compels the government to develop food and land intensification as a long-term national program. It cannot be denied that food productivity is closely related to fertilizer demand considering that Indonesia is an agricultural country. However, to date, 86.5% of Indonesian farmers rely on synthetic fertilizers which are adverse to the environment. On the other hand, Indonesia is the 2nd largest food waste producer and most of them are still unprocessed. Therefore, a practical solution to overcome this problem is to offer the application of MASARO technology. This technology can convert 1 kg of degradable waste into 10 L of organic liquid fertilizer so that it can increase agricultural productivity while replacing the role of synthetic fertilizers. In the organic liquid fertilizer production process, pH is an important parameter of the entire fermentation process where the value should be in the range of 3.9-4.2. However, the manual process still requires a long production duration, 28 days, because of pH value overshoot. By implementing a pH control system, the duration of organic liquid fertilizer production can be cut by 57% (from 672.8 hours to 288.6 hours) so the effect is proven can provide optimal and effective fermentation.