Industry & Investment NSW | CSU Homepage
12 February 2009
Decreasing fertiliser requirements with compost
Recent national media coverage of one of our honours students, Melanie Bower, provides important promotion of our research to the Sydney metropolitan community. The Sun-Herald newspaper featured Melanie's university progress as part of a university/education supplement.
Melanie's project will address the question "can compost decrease the requirement for inorganic fertiliser". It is hypothesised that nutrient utilisation efficiency and uptake efficiency of applied fertiliser will be improved when compost is applied. Her project aims to optimise efficiency of fertiliser with the simultaneous addition of compost. Improved efficiency of fertiliser use will decrease input costs and therefore improve the profitability of farming systems. The use of compost is also a mechanism for increasing soil C concentrations.
The project comprises two experimental components, a glasshouse pot trial conducted in Wagga Wagga ( to quantify the changes in fertiliser uptake and utilisation efficiency when compost is applied with fertiliser) and field validation which will be conducted at Can Tho University, Vietnam (to determine if compost can be used to decrease the requirement for inorganic fertilisers within the agricultural systems of Vietnam).
Further information: Melanie Bower, mbower@csu.edu.au , (02) 6933 2749.