Organic Fertilizer and Water Hyacinth

Organic Fertilizer and Water Hyacinth

Organic fertilizers became a hot topic in Sri Lanka just after the Sri Lankan government put a ban on the importation of chemical fertilizers to the country. With this situation, the farmers were forced to find ways to produce organic fertilizers for their cultivation. 

That is when water hyacinth captured the attention of many people in Sri Lanka. Until then it was used to be just an aquatic invasive plant for a majority of Sri Lankans. However, the people who found out that there is a great value of water hyacinth for the production of organic fertilizers are now wade deep into the water tanks and uproot water hyacinths for the production of organic fertilizers. 

What exactly are water hyacinth? 

Water hyacinth or Eichhornia crassipes belongs to the family Pontederiaceae is a free floating perennial aquatic plant with broad, thick, glossy, and ovate leaves. They reproduce primarily by runners or stolons and can produce thousands of seeds per year. These plants are native to tropical and subtropical South America, however, introduced to Sri Lanka in 1904 for ornamental purposes. But it turned out to be invasive resulting in poor water transparency. 

Why is it so important in producing organic fertilizers?

For centuries, people were used to make fertilizers on their own. However with the time being, industrialization and many other revolutions took place all over the world and people automatically got used to chemical fertilizers. Actually they got much benefits out of chemical fertilizers since they can focus on more production.  However, health-conscious consumers wanted food grown in healthy soil which means that they wanted a chemical free soil but saturated with organic fertilizers so that, the food grown in that organic soil gives the best quality food for their consumption. 

Why water hyacinth became one of the best source for organic fertilizers? 

A bunch of scientists have done a research on water hyacinth and they were able to identify a key characteristic of this plant. That is that this weed is a good absorber of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. The water that water hyacinth grows is enriched with nutrients. Therefore, the roots absorb these nutrients and store them in trunks and leaves of this weed. This nutrient absorption productivity of water hyacinth is the reason why it is selected as a biomass source for organic fertilizers. As well as it produces pathogen free nutrient enriched compost that can increase the quality of soil. On the other hand, water hyacinth can release nutrients to the soil in long period and it resists acids and alkaline in soil and provides a good food source for microbes that helps in soil fertility. Therefore, a large number of microbes are available in the soil and their microbial activity further enhances the fertility of soil.