Development of eco-friendly bio-fertilizer using feather compost

Abstract

The present study, focused on preparation of feather compost, characterization and effect of feather compost in fields. During the study period, Streptomyces albus was used to degrade the feather material. The degradation of chicken feathers was observed through morphological and microscopic level changes at regular intervals. During the compost preparation the temperature were recorded on 8^th day (51.1⁰C) and decreased trend was observed up to 14^th day (29.5⁰C) respectively, while increase trend in pH was noticed up to 8^th day (8.2) and low pH was observed on 14^th day (7.34). The moisture content was also shown wide fluctuation during the compost preparation. The highest moisture content on 10^th day (61%) and sudden decreased moisture content in feather compost at 14^th day (29.5%). The nutrient composition of feather compost results indicate that C (43.26%), N (6.94%), H (6.72%), P (0.063%), Fe (3.74%), Mn (0.95%), Ca (0.42%), SO4 (0.084%), and Mg (0.007%) respectively. The field experiments were conducted with up to 90 days with comparison of different composts on growth of plants. The results indicate that the impact of feather compost treated plants showed maximum growth than the mulberry, control, cow dung, and urea. Therefore, the obtained value-feather compost showed macro and micronutrients in C, N. H, P, Fe, Mn, Ca, SO4 and Mg could be used for effective for preparation of feather compost or soil amendments, in  growth of the plants. To our knowledge, this is first report of using eco-friendly bio fertilizer feather compost. The proposed ecologically safe method is simple and economically viable thus applicable on agricultural fields.