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Ecological Intensification through Nutrients Recycling and Composting in Organic Farming

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Composting for Sustainable Agriculture

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development and Biodiversity ((SDEB,volume 3))

Abstract

In organic agriculture fertilizers are permitted in organic forms, as defined by regulation. Mineralization of organic fertilizers is a biological decomposition that release plants’ available nutrients; hence soil microbial communities are vital in the organic cropping systems. Composting microorganisms can work for the farmer’s benefit recycling agricultural organic wastes into materials that contribute to healthy and biologically active soil. Composting process has been deeply described to highlight the link among starting mixture, process factors and final resulting compost. Composting and crop residues incorporation are fundamental to recycle resources at farm level to improve the nutrients use efficiency and to decrease the off-farm input needs. In the organic farming a balanced combination of compost application and crop residues incorporation increases the microbial carbon use efficiency, which regulates the soil organic matter decomposition and nutrients mineralization resulting both to increase the yield and to decrease the negative impact on the environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Organic Farming Dept., Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari—CIHEAM-IAMB, Via Ceglie 9, 70010, Valenzano, Italy

    Francesco G. Ceglie

  2. Soil Science Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Gamma St., Giza 12613, Egypt

    Hamada M. Abdelrahman

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  1. Francesco G. Ceglie
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  2. Hamada M. Abdelrahman
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Correspondence to Francesco G. Ceglie .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gurukul Kangri Univ. Dept. of Botany and Microbiology, Haridwar (Uttarakhand), India

    Dinesh K. Maheshwari

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Ceglie, F., Abdelrahman, H. (2014). Ecological Intensification through Nutrients Recycling and Composting in Organic Farming. In: Maheshwari, D. (eds) Composting for Sustainable Agriculture. Sustainable Development and Biodiversity, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08004-8_1

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