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Sustainable reuse of rice residues as feedstocks in vermicomposting for organic fertilizer production

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Abstract

Over the past decade, rice (Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima) cultivation has increased in many rice-growing countries due to the increasing export demand and population growth and led to a copious amount of rice residues, consisting mainly of rice straw (RS) and rice husk (RH), being generated during and after harvesting. In this study, Eudrilus eugeniae was used to decompose rice residues alone and rice residues amended with cow dung (CD) for bio-transformation of wastes into organic fertilizer. Generally, the final vermicomposts showed increases in macronutrients, namely, calcium (11.4–34.2 %), magnesium (1.3–40.8 %), phosphorus (1.2–57.3 %), and potassium (1.1–345.6 %) and a decrease in C/N ratio (26.8–80.0 %) as well as increases in heavy metal content for iron (17–108 %), copper (14–120 %), and manganese (6–60 %) after 60 days of vermicomposting. RS as a feedstock was observed to support healthier growth and reproduction of earthworms as compared to RH, with maximum adult worm biomass of 0.66 g/worm (RS) at 60 days, 31 cocoons (1RS:2CD), and 23 hatchlings (1RS:1CD). Vermicomposting of RS yielded better results than RH among all of the treatments investigated. RS that was mixed with two parts of CD (1RS:2CD) showed the best combination of nutrient results as well as the growth of E. eugeniae. In conclusion, vermicomposting could be used as a green technology to bio-convert rice residues into nutrient-rich organic fertilizers if the residues are mixed with CD in the appropriate ratio.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Department of Higher Education, Malaysia, for sponsoring this research work under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme of FRGS/1/2013/STWN03/MUSM/02/1. In addition, the authors would like to thank Monash University, Sunway campus, for providing K.P.Y. Shak and S.L. Lim with Ph.D. scholarships.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, 46150, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

    Katrina Pui Yee Shak, Ta Yeong Wu, Su Lin Lim & Chieh Ai Lee

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  1. Katrina Pui Yee Shak
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  2. Ta Yeong Wu
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  3. Su Lin Lim
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  4. Chieh Ai Lee
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Correspondence to Ta Yeong Wu.

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Shak, K.P.Y., Wu, T.Y., Lim, S.L. et al. Sustainable reuse of rice residues as feedstocks in vermicomposting for organic fertilizer production. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 1349–1359 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1995-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1995-0

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