Composting as manure disposal strategy in small/medium-size livestock farms: Some demonstrations with operative indications

Abstract

The livestock sector plays a fundamental role in human beings' livelihood all over the world. However, significant changes have occurred in the last decades, transforming the livestock sector into a highly intensive economic activity with negative impacts on human health and the environment. Such a reality requires the identification of easy methods to apply to sustainable manure management. Composting is a clever approach to transform manure into a resource. Very limited scientific literature is available on techniques for composting in small and medium livestock farms. This paper describes, in detail, some on-farm composting plants made in Southern Italy within different rural contexts. A depth analysis of farm starting situation and nearby territory (resources/services) was performed to identify the least expensive/impactful composting logistics (reduction of ex novo farm investments and transport costs, etc.), making the action economically sustainable for farmers. This approach appears to be successful in guiding farmers towards the best composting technological option, based on pre-existent on-farm resources. These small-scale composting plants, reproducible in other similar contexts, allow one to turn manure into a product with a profitable placement on the market. For this reason, these manure management options should be widespread, especially under organic farming systems.