As part of Swachhata Pakhwada 2021 programme, a demonstration on windrow composting of farm and kitchen wastes was conducted at the Association of People with Disability (APD), Lingarajapuram, Bangalore on 28th December, 2021. This programme was mainly organized to train differently abled peoples and housekeepers at APD on compost preparation using farm waste like fresh and dried leaves, crop residues, weeds, twigs materials, kitchen wastes etc. Composting serves the dual objective of keeping the country clean, whilst converting waste to useful nutritious organic manure and thereby increasing the productivity of our soils. In the beginning of the programme, Shri. Ganesh Hegde from APD introduced about the demonstration on farm and kitchen waste composting to the participants. Dr. D. Kalaivanan, Scientist from the Division of Natural Resources, ICAR-IIHR, highlighted the importance and need of composting of farm and kitchen wastes. He has explained the process of fast decomposition of farm and kitchen waste into compost and the benefits of using microbial consortium developed at ICAR-IIHR and cow dung slurry in composting farm and kitchen wastes. He further mentioned that all types of crop residues, cattle dung, leftover feed material from cattle sheds, household food waste, papers, etc., can be composted and converted to nutrient-rich compost. He has also stressed that non-biodegradable materials like plastics, polybags, tins, aluminum foils, rubber, etc., have to be segregated from household waste before being added to the compost piles. He has further explained about the use of cocopeat and compost in soilless vegetable cultivation and market demand for compost both in urban and rural areas. More than 75 differently abled persons and housekeepers were participated and benefited in the demonstration. During the demonstration, persons of differently abled and housekeepers interacted with resource person and cleared their queries about compost making. Dr. S. Ramachandran, Scientist from Division of Natural Resources, ICAR-IIHR informed about Swachhata Pakhwada programme and its importance to the society.
