Fertile idea: Govt to sell manure made from city's waste to farmers

The state government has come up with a new idea to dispose of wet waste generated in the city.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) and the Agriculture Department have jointly taken up an initiative to sell organic manure produced using wet waste generated in Bengaluru directly to farmers. The manure – City Compost – will be sold to farmers near Bengaluru at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 800 per tonne, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told reporters on Wednesday.

Currently, KCDC has been generating the manure by using wet waste supplied by BBMP. The corporation currently has a stock of about 5,500 tonnes of manure. The farmers are unaware of the availability of good organic manure with KCDC. The Agriculture department will publicise it. The farmers can place orders at Raitha Samparka Kendras at hobli levels and the manure will be delivered to their farms directly, the minister said.

Sale of manure will be taken up on a trial basis in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapur and Ramanagaram districts. The actual cost of KCDC’s City Compost is Rs 1,600 a tonne. The Agriculture department will provide it at 50% subsidy to farmers.

“If the initiative proves to be a success, then BBMP and KCDC will scale up the production of organic manure. It will help solve the problem of garbage disposal in Bengaluru city,” Gowda said.

KCDC is floated jointly by Karnataka Agro Industries Corporation, BBMP and Karnataka State Co-operative Marketing Federation Ltd with 52%, 24% and 24% shares respectively.

Though BBMP has of late managed to segregate a large quantity of garbage into dry and wet wastes, KCDC has not been able to convert all wet waste into manure and sell it.

Besides, BBMP has urged the Agriculture department to make arrangements to buy manure being produced by some apartment complexes in Bengaluru. The department will look into the proposal. Currently, residents at these apartments have not been able to sell the manure, Gowda said.