Novel approach to overcome limitations of humanure usability for farming

Abstract

Disposal of humanure is a big challenge as well as has huge potential for farming. The major drawback of humanure is high levels of potassium, nitrogen, phosphorus, which enhance pathogenicity by degrading water quality which results in crop-causing cardiac problems. It also has a low level of organic contents and high levels of pathogenic fungus and bacteria affecting both crop and consumer. Trichoderma is a biocontrol agent known to have potential antimicrobial and antifungal activity against pathogens, which are also commonly present in humanure. Hence, the present study investigated treatment (8 days of incubation) of humanure with Trichoderma to find the effect on humanure’s limitations for farming use. Afterward, germination of seeds was done in the 4 mediums: (i) Soil, (ii) Untreated Humanure, (iii) Treated Humanure, and (iv) Untreated Humanure with Soil, to see the effects of treatment of humanure on crops compared to other samples. The study interestingly found that Trichoderma treatment reduced high levels of potassium and phosphorus in humanure from 610.6 to 244.5 (kg/ hectare) and from 103 to 98.56 (kg/hectare) respectively, while increased low-level organic matter (2% to 10.28%) and sulfur (for immunity) (34.51 to 276.54 unit) indicating its potential. Moreover, Trichoderma treatmentmediated reduction of potassium and phosphorus shall also be reflected in the reduction of germination rate because high levels of potassium and nitrogen in humanure promote the rate of germination. The study showed that Trichoderma treatment reduced germination rate in humanure i.e. coefficient of the velocity of germination from 75.68 to 72.22 units, germination rate index from 21.79%/day to 17.78%/day and final germination percentage from 73.1% to 66.2%; though these values were higher compared to soil, yet indicating the potential of Trichoderma treatment. In addition, the increase in electric conductivity by Trichoderma treatment demands optimization of the approach for farming. Summarily, trichoderma treatment stands as the novel and potential approach to overcome the limitation of humanure to balance nutrient levels to that of ideal soil contents and to reduce pathogenicity of humanure.