Bocashi as a type of compost (rural) (Honduras)

HONDURAS – Making Bocashi Fertilizer

…  The basic recipe is to take a source of dry manure (chicken and goat) and mix it with a source of carbon (coffee hulls) and some soil and then start adding the extras. … three bags of ground charcoal, a bag of rice germ, a bag of agricultural lime, a gallon of molasses, and also a bag of finished bocashi as a starter. You mix it all together with enough water for 50% moisture and then you mix and monitor over then next 7 days. Essentially you have made a big pile of pickles for the earth. Not only does the bocashi add activated minerals, but the main function is to improve the microbial balance in the soil. It is sort of like an acidophillus pill for the soil. …  

Source: Farmer to Farmer Blog

Natural Fertilizer. Bocashi in Central America

The soil’s second chance

One strategy to replenish and maintain soil fertility involves the creation of bocashi. This highly effective and inexpensive natural fertiliser can be made from readily-available materials, including manure, coffee pulp, or rice hulls, together with yeast and molasses. These are then mixed with healthy soil. The yeast feeds on the molasses during a 15-day fermentation and decomposition process, aided by mixing manually twice-a-day. The bocashi mix is then added to crops, and yields either match or improve upon those obtained with chemical fertilisers – at a fraction of the cost.

A young farmer inspects his maize crop, which has benefited from the application of bocashi

 

Source: Learning not to burn – transforming land and livelihoods in Central America

(Note: This is another example of “cutting the EM hype”, as the method described is a simple farm compost recipe. It involves fermenting to avoid putrefaction. No more, no less. In this case, using yeast.)

Bokashi Compost (Nicaragua)

ABONO BOCASHI

INGREDIENTS:
ingredients for making 16 sacks of compost in 15 days.
5 sacks rice hulls or dried grass or leaves
5 sacks fertile soil
5 sacks cow or chicken manure or both
1.5 sacks carbon (charcoal from fire)
23 lbs. semolina
10 lbs. lime
5 lbs. sugar
172 lb. yeast
optional: spent coffee grounds

CONDITIONS OF COMPOST SITE:
choose a spot protected from the sun, wind, and rain or prepare outdoors and cover with black plastic. Work in a site with firm ground bemeath.

PROCEDURE:
Layer the materials, keeping in mind a good mix between green and brown materials. Water should be added to drier layers, not building the pile higher than 50 centimenters.
Mix the sugar and yeast in water and pour lightly and homogenously over the top of pile and mix to spread the mixture to all parts of pile, thus beginning the fermentation.
Once finished, begin to turn the pile twice daily for 5 days and then once daily for 7 days.
Let the pile sit for 3 days.
The pile should always feel moist and warm in the center.
Test pile to make sure everything is well mixed and decomposed.
Place compost into sacks, protected from sun and rain until used.
The compost should not be left for more than 3 months.

Source: Puddle Jumping in Nicaragua Abono Bocashi

(Note: This is another example of “cutting the EM hype”, as the method described is a simple farm compost recipe. It involves fermenting to avoid putrefaction. No more, no less. In this case, using yeast.)

Foliar Fertilizer (Nicaragua)

ABONO FOLIAR CASERO  

INGREDIENTS:
12 lbs. fresh cow manure
1/2 block of sugarcane, or 1 lb. white sugar, molasses
3 litres milk (fresh from cow if available)
4 oz. ash from fire

MATERIALS:
1 5- gallon bucket with lid
syphon or ruber tubing
knife

PROCEDURE:
Dilute cow manure, sugar, milk, and ash in enough water to fill at least half the bucket.
Mix well, removing any clumps from the mixture.
Once mixed, fill the rest of the bucket with water.
Cover with lid. In the lid carve a hole just the right size to place the syphon or rubber tubing.
Place one end of rubber tubing in the lid so it is in contact with the water.
Place other end of tubing in a 1 or 2 litre soda bottle.
Leave bucket in a cool dark space.
Mix daily for 7 days and then let sit 3 days without stirring.
After 10 days, strain the solid material and pour the liquid into a pump sprayer.
Apply 2 or 3 litres to one pump sprayer and dilute with 18- 20 litres water.
Apply every 8 days to the foliage of crops to give them a boost of N, P, K.

RECOMENDATIONS:
The application of this fertilizer has best results when applied in the early morning or evening, when the sun and hot temps cannot burn the fertilizer applied to the leaves.

Source: Puddle Jumping in Nicaragua – Fermentation and Fertilization

(Note: This is another example of “cutting the EM hype” with the use of milk and molasses, out on the farm. Beneficial indigenous microorganisms.)

Bokashi Experiment (Nicaragua)

Evaluation of composting as a strategy for managing organic wastes from a municipal market in Nicaragua

Montserrat Aulinas Maso´ , August Bonmatı Blasi *

Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Girona, Campus Montilivi, s/n, 17071 Girona, Spain

Abstract 

A pilot-scale study was undertaken to evaluate alternatives to the solid waste management of a Central American municipal market located in Estelı ´, Nicaragua. The municipal solid waste from the local market is the second largest contributor to the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream. Waste from the market without any previous sorting or treatment is open dumped. The options evaluated in this study were windrow composting, windrow composting with yard waste, bokashi and vermicompost. Significant differences between the properties of composts produced were found; however, all of them reduce the initial waste volume and are potential useful agronomic products for a survival agrarian milieu. 

(…)

Bokashi (Bk): A layer of organic wastes from the market, a layer of cattle manure (coming approximately to 170 kg of organic wastes), a thin layer of vegetal coal and a thin layer of rice husk (2.3 kg each), all of them watered with yeast and sugar from cane dissolved in water. This procedure was repeated three times and materials were turned over frequently.

[The document includes a table comparing the 4 options evaluated]

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