Optimizing Sustainable Agriculture: Composting Solutions for Oyster Mushroom Baglog and Livestock Excrement to Enhance Sweet Corn Cultivation

Agricultural activities play a vital role in providing essential human sustenance, yet concurrently generate biomass waste, necessitating careful management to prevent environmental pollution. This study emphasizes the significance of proper agricultural waste management to prevent the underutilization of livestock excrement and the indiscriminate burning of crop residues, thereby ensuring food and health security, as well as sustainability in agriculture. The decomposability of agricultural wastes offers an opportunity to harness valuable products that furnish essential nutrients for plants, enhancing soil porosity, aeration, and water availability. Oyster mushroom baglog (OMB) containing wood sawdust, rice husks, and bran presents an environmental challenge when improperly handled in post-cultivation. This mismanagement can lead to pollution and unpleasant odours, and attract pests and diseases. This research explores the potential of composting OMB, incorporating animal manure, to produce composted materials suitable as a growth medium for crops. The study investigates four different compost compositions derived from OMB, evaluating their effectiveness in cultivating sweet corn (Zea mays sacharata Sturt) with a focus on determining the composition that yields optimal results for the Bonanza F1 variety. Four distinct treatments were examined: OMB without added animal manure (Ko), OMB with chicken manure (Ka), OMB with cow manure (Ks), and OMB with goat manure (Kk). The treatment involving the addition of chicken manure (Ka) to the OMB demonstrated superior effectiveness in terms of both vegetative growth and sweet corn yield. This study provides valuable insights into sustainable agricultural practices, highlighting the potential of composted materials from oyster mushroom waste to enhance sweet corn cultivation.