Here is detailed response I posted to Archita as comment but she
quoted only one line.


Pankaj Oudhia

------------

Indian farmers as well as researchers are conducting research on making
compost from Parthenium and they got much success. Researchers have
published
their findings through research journals but farmer's works are still
unpublished. I am not aware about the exact method through which Dr.
Kohli and
his team members are preparing compost.

In general Parthenium growing in different conditions possess different
nutritional values. This is the reason before use of compost there is
need to
analyze every batch before sending it to market.

Instead of using Parthenium alone as traditional practice farmers are
using
mixed population of Parthenium and other weeds. Collection of
Parthenium for
preparation of compost is another problem. As it is allergy causing weed,
manual uprooting is avoided. For composting, uprooted Parthenium will be
required in bulk. We are not having equipments to collect Parthenium
plants in
bulk from wasteland. From this prospective, this research by Dr. Kohli
seems
having much of academic importance than ground level utility. But it
is good
to see that researchers are taking interest on Parthenium utility.

You can also see this paper on retention of allergic potential of
Parthenium
following composting.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117986650/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Here is link for work by other researchers on this aspect.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=parthenium%20vermicompost&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-\
8&sa=N&tab=ws

I would also like to comment on use of Hair. If you search the
literatures you
will find that rural natives especially farmers in India have tried this
method successfully and unfortunately their contributions have yet not
been
documented. Here is link to research article related to uses of human
hair by
natives of Indian state Chhattisgarh.

http://www.botanical.com/site/column_poudhia/257_bal.html

You can contact Prof. Anil Gupta for innovators of Gujrat who have
tired it
successfully. I have read it in Srishti magazine many years back.


Pankaj Oudhia
Convenor, International Parthenium Research News Group [IPRNG]
http://www.IPRNG.org

--- In IPRNG@..., Vinod Kumar Bhatt <vinodkbhatt@...> wrote:
>
> Thankyou very much for sharing this info.
>
> We'll also try this at our farm, lets see if it works well! We'll
definitely promote this technique in future.
>
> regards,
>
> Vinod Bhatt
> Navdnnya
>
>
>
> To: IPRNG@...: pankajoudhia@...: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 22:36:18
+0000Subject: [IPRNG] FW: No hair-raising experience this
>
>
>
>
> No hair-raising experience thisARCHITA BHATTAGURUCourtesy
earthworms, hair, weed easily converted to manurein 2003, the
government ordered the closure of several hair processingunits, which
made wigs, in Karnataka because of pollution. Burning ofhair resulted
in toxic elements, which caused allergies. The problemwith human hair
is it takes hundreds of years to decompose (see ‘Indistress’, Down To
Earth, July 15, 2003). In 2004, researchers inPunjab found a method to
convert the seemingly indecomposable hairinto organic manure with the
help of earthworms. The process is calledvermitechnology. Now, four
years later, the researchers have receiveda patent for the process in
India.“It was said that hair does not decompose. I was not convinced.
Itried out various methods and zeroed in on vermitechnology in
2004,”said R K Kohli of the Centre for Environment at Punjab
University.Explains Kohli, who carried out the study with other
researchers: haircontains keratin, a fibrous structural protein that
is hard andinsoluble in most substances. Keratin makes it difficult
for hair todecompose easily. He says that an enzyme in the gut of the
earthwormbreaks down keratin. While working on right conditions
forvermitechnology, the researchers found that it worked best
withoutusing any chemicals or diluting it.The technology is a
multi-layered process where decomposable mattersuch as wheat husk,
bamboo leaves and sawdust forms the base. Amixture containing cow dung
and hair is placed on the base. This istopped with more cow dung. A
dough is made out of this mixture andkept in shade at temperatures
varying from 21-31°C. Earthworms arereleased into it and left for two
months to produce the compost.Though this is the first instance of
documentation of this technology,experts working on traditional
knowledge in agriculture say farmers insome parts of India do convert
hair into organic manure. “Farmers inIndia have tried this method
successfully but their contributions haveyet not been documented,”
said Pankaj Oudhia, convenor, InternationalParthenium Research News
Group, a group of researchers who discussways and means to manage the
weed parthenium.Kohli has plans. “I have requested barbers to store
hair. It could becollected at intervals and used for the production of
manure insteadof disposing it,” he said. Also, perhaps the hair
processing unitscould make use of this technology to avoid
pollution.Having taken care of the hair issue, the researchers decided
to tryout the same technology on parthenium, the problem weed. It
producesabout 10,000 seeds per plant, which propagate fast. It
causesdermatitis and allergies. Using a method similar to that
ofdecomposing hair, the researchers found that parthenium
degradedcompletely in 40 days. A problem that arose during the process
was toterminate the extremely high seed potential of
parthenium.“Vermitechnology could not decompose the seeds. We let the
seedsgerminate and kept the manure with the germinated seeds in a dark
roomfor about 15 days. This wilted off the seedlings and terminated
theseed sprout potential of the plants,” said Kohli. He claims that
theirexperiments showed that parthenium vermicompost showed greater
proteincontent and larger shoot length than normal vermicompost.
Experts,however, say commercializing the process will be difficult
becausethere will be toxic reactions while collecting the parthenium
in bulk.Such issues can be taken care of by using masks and gloves,
says Kohli.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20080831&filename=sci&sec_id=\
12&sid=5

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