Abstract
Trichoderma is an environment friendly soil borne fungus that speeds up decomposition of organic materials into compost. Many farmers in Bangladesh are now using Tricho- compost to increase soil fertility and to get higher crop yield. Therefore, the study was conducted with the purpose of determining (i) suitable waste materials and dose of Trichoderma harzianum suspension for the preparation of quality tricho-compost, (ii) the impact of tricho-compost application on soil properties (iii) the assessment of people's livelihood as a result of tricho-compost application in soil, (iv) the personal and socio- economic characteristics of the farmers and their description, and (v) the contribution of socio economic characteristics of people to their livelihood status. The research work was carried out at RDA demonstration farm and at farmers' field on five districts e.g., Bogra, Joypurhat, Sirajgong, Gaibandha and Naogaon. To find out suitable waste materials and dose of Trichoderma suspension for the preparation of quality tricho- compost, two experiments were carried out by following Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). Six biodegradable organic material e.g., water hyacinth, rice stubbles, potato plant, cow dung, household waste and bio-slurry were used as substratum and mixed with Trichoderma suspension in each pit. Five doses of Trichoderma suspension e.g., 0, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 ml per 100 kg materials were applied three replications for each treatment and therefore, a total of 6×5x3 = 90 pits were prepared to conduct the experiment. Data were collected on duration of decomposition in the pit, quantity of compost prepared from each pit. For the field research, the rural farmers who used Tricho-compost under the said locations were the population of the study. A total of 20 locations were purposively selected from among 120 locations and 10 respondents from each of the location were randomly selected to make the sample size 200. The status of nutrient in soil like N, P, K, B, S, Zn, soil pH and organic carbon were analysed at the Laboratory of Soil Resources Development Institute, Rajashahi and compared before and after interventions of Tricho-compost. Livelihood status of the farmers was the dependent variable. The personal and socio-economic characteristics of the famers were the independent variables which included age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, extension media contact, cosmopoliteness, agricultural knowledge, innovativeness, housing condition, sanitation, livestock possession, household asset, receipt of loan and environmental awareness were measured by using standard scoring techniques. Among the composting materials, the potato plant, water hyacinth, cowdung and household waste produced better compost than rice stubble and bio- slurry. The rice stubble showed lower performance. For the production of Tricho- compost, 750 and 1000 ml Trichoderma suspension dose for 100 kg waste materials showed better efficacy than other doses in terms of decomposition time, quantity of produced composed and nutrient value. Before and after interventions of Tricho- compost, the status of nutrients in soil were analysed and compared by means of using paired t-test and was found that soil pH, K, S, Zn, N and B were increased significantly, organic carbon increased slightly but P decreased significantly. The regression coefficient of eight variables namely education, annual income, extension media contact, cosmopoliteness, agricultural knowledge, material possession, household assets and environmental awareness were statistically significant indicating that these variables had significant contribution to the livelihood status of Tricho-compost using farmers. The other seven variables had no significant contribution on the livelihoods of farmers.