Composting as Manure Disposal Strategy in Small/Medium-Size Livestock Farms: Some Demonstrations with Operative Indications

Assunta Maria Palese, Alessandro Persiani, Carmine D’Adamo, Maria Pergola, Vittoria Pastore, Rocco Sileo, Giuseppe Ippolito, Maria Assunta Lombardi and Giuseppe Celano
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Assunta Maria Palese: Ages s.r.l. s—Spin-off Accademico, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo, Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Alessandro Persiani: Ages s.r.l. s—Spin-off Accademico, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo, Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Carmine D’Adamo: Ages s.r.l. s—Spin-off Accademico, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo, Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Maria Pergola: Ages s.r.l. s—Spin-off Accademico, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo, Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Vittoria Pastore: Ages s.r.l. s—Spin-off Accademico, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo, Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy
Rocco Sileo: Agenzia Lucana di Sviluppo e di Innovazione in Agricoltura (ALSIA), Via Annunziatella 64, 75100 Matera, Italy
Giuseppe Ippolito: Agenzia Lucana di Sviluppo e di Innovazione in Agricoltura (ALSIA), Via Annunziatella 64, 75100 Matera, Italy
Maria Assunta Lombardi: Agenzia Lucana di Sviluppo e di Innovazione in Agricoltura (ALSIA), Via Annunziatella 64, 75100 Matera, Italy
Giuseppe Celano: Degree Course of Agriculture, Dipartimento di Farmacia (DIFARMA), Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-19

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.

Keywords: livestock farms; manure; demonstration tests; environmental impact; compost on-farm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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