If you have agricultural land near Bengaluru, you can now get compost derived from the city’s waste delivered to your farm. What’s more, the Agriculture Department will bear half the cost as subsidy, making the compost available at throwaway prices.
Though the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) set up six waste processing plants two years ago, it has failed to market the compost generated there. Today, the plants have a stock of more than 30,000 tonnes of compost of various grades. This is taking up all the available space and has rendered the plants non-operational, leaving the BBMP with no choice but to launch a special drive to sell the compost.
The civic body has already delivered 1,542 tonnes of fine compost (less than 4 mm) to farmers in Chickballapur, Tumakuru and Kanakapura in the past week. While it has set the price at ₹1,600 a tonne, farmers need to pay only ₹800 as the Agriculture Department will bear the remaining amount. “Taking the transportation cost into account, farmers get the compost at an effective price of ₹300 a tonne,” said N. Manjunath Prasad, Commissioner of BBMP.
C.N. Chandru, a farmer from Chickballapur who grows capsicum and potato on 20 acres, has bought 60 tonnes of compost. “Delivering it to the farm is a good initiative. The quality is very good,” he said.
B.Y. Srinivas, director of the Department of Agriculture, said the response has been overwhelming; in the open market, a tonne of compost would cost more than ₹3,000 a tonne.
Different sizes
Apart from the fine-grade compost, the civic body has over 12,000 tonnes of compost of medium lumps (16-35 mm) and over 10,000 tonnes of larger lumps (more than 35 mm). Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda recently visited some of the plants and cleared sale of the remaining compost, said BBMP officials. However, officials are yet to work out the modalities.
Leading organic farmer L. Narayana Reddy said even the compost lumps can be used for agriculture as they act as good manure. “Lumps have to be broken into finer particles before use, as they will not disintegrate easily in the soil. It would be better if the civic body breaks the lumps before offering them to farmers,” he said. He also said farmers need to be educated on avoiding excess usage. “I would recommend that farmers not use more than three tonnes for an acre,” he said.