Compost from cow dung boon for farmers
The fertiliser increases fertility of the soil, earlier the farmers used to make fuel stick from it in Lalmonirhat
Some farmers in the district are using cow dung to produce compost fertiliser, which is an excellent manure that increases fertility of the soil, instead of using it to make fuel sticks.
Sabitry Rani, 50, wife of Nani Barmon of Dalgram village in Kaliganj upazila, uses cow dung properly to produce compost fertiliser. Other farmers in the village also produce compost fertiliser instead of fuel sticks with cow dung.
“We produce compost fertiliser by rotting cow dung and waste in a hole in the ground,” said Sabitry. “We use cow dung from our six cows,” she said, adding that compost fertiliser makes the soil fertile, which helps in producing high yield.
Nani Barmon said he buys cow dung from neighbours for producing compost fertiliser. “I always try to avoid using chemical fertiliser,” he said. “Farmers produce fuel sticks with cow dung as they do not know that cow dung is a natural resource to make the soil fertile for a long time,” he added.
“Sometimes we sell the compost fertiliser to our neighbouring farmers, but we are not interested in producing fuel sticks,” said Hamidul Islam, 58, of the village.
Probhas Chandra Barmon, 48, of Gobdha village in Aditmari upazila, said he uses cow dung for producing fuel sticks every day. “I sell the fuel sticks for Tk 250 to Tk 300 per maund,” he said, adding that he has four cows that produce a large quantity of cow dung every day.
Probhas has two bighas of arable land where he uses chemical fertiliser for farming crops. “It needs time and labour to produce compost fertiliser with cow dung,” he said.
Delowar Hossain, Mrinal Barmon, Shamsul Islam, Tareque Miah and other farmers in the village also produce fuel sticks with cow dung as they do not know about the advantages of compost fertiliser made with cow dung.
Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer Enamul Haque said around sixty percent farmers are unaware of the advantages of using cow dung for producing compost fertiliser, while the rest forty percent use cow dung properly.
“Cow dung is an element for producing fertiliser to keep the soil fertile,” he said. “We always advise farmers to use cow dung to produce compost fertiliser to increase and maintain soil fertility,” he added.