Pengomposan jerami padi organik menuju "zero waste production management"

Abstract

Rice straw which is nowadays normally concerned as agricultural waste was used in this research as raw material to produce compost. The objectives of this research were to compost organic rice straw, to analyze the nutrient content of compost, and to justify compost quality compared with the national standard of compost quality (SNI 19-7030-2004), to analyze water and sludge quality, and to develop waste-compost mass balance. Results of this research showed that the time required to compost rice straw under aerobic condition to become compost takes approximately 8 weeks for turned piles and aerated system, app. 5 weeks for cylinder system, whereas under anaerobic condition takes app. 6 weeks. Under anaerobic condition eight weeks of composting period in plastic drum was not sufficient as indicated by unfinished biodegradation process. The compost produced from rice straw contains macro and micro nutrients required by plants. Implemented of organic fertilizer did not cause pollution in the bodies of water and the nutrition organically bound so it often was used as a soil conditioning. The waste-compost mass balance in the organic rice cultivation system was developed where the amount of rice straw was in the order of 14.1 ton/ha and the amount of the resulted compost was about 11.3 ton. In general, compost nutrients content complies with the national quality standards. It can be concluded that the rice straw composting process required approximately 5-8 weeks, and the produced compost contains nutrients required by rice field according to national standard.

Budidaya padi sawah merupakan kegiatan yang lazim dilakukan oleh masyarakat Indonesia, terutama daerah pedesaan. Konsep yang diterapkan petani saat ini adalah dengan memberikan kebutuhan unsur hara tanaman menggunakan pupuk kimia sintetik menurut dosis yang telah ditentukan. Pemberian pupuk kimia sintetik secara tidak langsung telah menyebabkan degradasi lahan pertanian dan dalam proses produksi pupuk tersebut juga dikeluarkan emisi gas langsung ke udara. Budidaya padi selain menghasilkan beras, juga menghasilkan limbah berupa jerami, sekam, dan gas metana serta non metana. Jerami merupakan limbah potensial yang dihasilkan dari kegiatan budidaya padi dengan potensi 12-15 ton/ha jerami segar. Pada umumnya Jerami dibakar oleh petani untuk mereduksi volume limbah dan kegiatan ini menghasilkan emisi CO2 yang akan meningkatkan pemanasan global sebagai gas rumah kaca dan menimbulkan limbah baru berupa abu (ash) sisa dari pembakaran.