Microbial Compost Booster To Aid Organic Farming In Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh

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Scientists have come up with a potentially safe microbial concoction that can revive the water-conserving traditional dry toilets in cold deserts in India to manage human waste and cater to local agroecological needs.

What is dry toilets?

A dry toilet is a toilet that operates without flush water. The dry toilet may be a raised pedestal on which the user can sit, or a squat pan over which the user squats.
In both cases, excreta (both urine and faeces) fall through a drop hole.
Social apprehensions, unhygienic conditions of dry toilets, urbanisation, modernisation, and increase in tourism have led to the popularisation of septic toilets and the decline in the use of these traditional structures since the 1980s; the easy availability of chemical fertilisers catering to cash crops has also impacted its practice
Scientists at CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) are tinkering around with beneficial bacteria extracted from the night soil compost to cobble together a ‘compost booster’ with carrier materials that substitutes the dry materials to speed up the degradation of the night soil to manage human waste in cold desert areas.
Carrying on the traditional system is also one among the suite of efforts suggested by Ladakh’s action plan on organic development and to make the union territory carbon-neutral.
The plan nudges users to continue using the traditional composting toilets, with improved aesthetics and composting.

Since the booster is prepared using beneficial cold-tolerant bacterial consortia with plant growth-promoting characteristics, it plays a role in boosting the productivity of crops when applied to fields.
The product is very user-friendly as the dry-toilet users have to use a handful of the material after defecating.
The booster is also safe for use in terms of pathogenicity.
This technology saves water, produces quality compost from the faecal material to help sustain the agroecosystem of the region providing opportunities for the generation of local start-ups.
A mix of solutions such as the compost booster-bolstered dry toilet system, vermicompost and bio-fertilisers will underpin the union territory’s strategy to mainstream organic farming in Ladakh by 2025 with one of its objectives to enable farmers to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The total cropped area in Leh is 10,223 hectares and only 0.2 percent of the geographical area is under cultivation. Temperatures drop to minus 30 degree Celsius in the winters.
There is a very narrow window for agriculture (in the summer) when farmers use the snow and glacial melt for farming wheat and barley which are our staples and some vegetables.
It is anticipated that with future climate change impacts and with glaciers receding, It will be needed to strengthen our water conservation measures and traditional measures such as dry toilets, with scientific interventions, will have an important role to play in organic farming,

Organic farming, if combined with minimum soil disturbance, can sequester carbon.
The non-requirement of chemicals on organic farms not only avoids chemical-induced emissions from the field (e.g. carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and nitrogen oxides) but also the emissions associated with production and transportation of such chemicals,
Currently, residents/farmers have to rely on the research institution to source the compost booster as no local entrepreneurs have come ahead to implement the technology in the Lahaul valley.
Besides, the regular supply of the compost booster is disrupted during extreme winters due to snowfall and difficulty in transportation.
An increase in temperature (warming) may ease the process of composting as warmer temperatures may speed up the microbial degradation process in night soil compost.
In cold regions, the low temperature poses a big hurdle in composting due to the limited load of microorganisms and lower metabolic activity.
This can be resolved with the addition of the cold-adapted bacteria as it accelerates the rise in temperature at the onset of composting
Sustainable farming strategies are advocated as one of the ways to shore up climate resilience for vulnerable communities.
The limited success of the Green Revolution in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region represents one of the biggest opportunities for developing successful rural communities that rely on organic farming and agroecology.

Sustainable farming or, in a broader term, Sustainable agriculture is using farming practices considering the ecological cycles.
Sustainable farming is farming ecologically by promoting methods and practices that are economically viable, environmentally sound and protect public health.

According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, snow cover has reduced since the early 21st century, and glaciers have thinned, retreated, and lost mass since the 1970s in high mountain Asia (including the Himalayas) except for Karakoram glaciers.
Snow-covered areas and snow volumes will decrease during the 21st century, snowline elevations will rise and glacier mass is likely to decline with greater mass loss in higher greenhouse gas emissions scenarios
A 2019 study emphasised that rapid urbanisation in the Himalayas, driven mainly by tourism, is threatening water security in the area which will only be worsened by climate change.
Summer-monsoonal snowfall plays an important role in maintaining glacier mass in the western Himalayas and if this snowfall is more frequent and strong in the years ahead, the health of glaciers (in the western Himalayas) will most likely sustain.
Factors like wood burning and forest fires – and not the carbon emitted from the use of fossil fuel – are the primary drivers behind the carbon-induced melting of glaciers in the western Himalayan region.