Manures are the organic materials derived from animal, human and plant residues which contain plant nutrients in complex organic forms. Naturally occurring or synthetic chemicals containing plant nutrients are called fertilizers. Manures with low nutrient, content per unit quantity have longer residual effect besides improving soil physical properties compared to fertilizer with high nutrient content. Major sources of manures are:

Cattle shed wastes-dung, urine and slurry from biogas plants,

Human habitation wastes-night soil, human urine, town refuse, sewage, sludge and sullage,

Poultry Jitter, droppings of sheep and goat,

Slaughterhouse wastes-bone meal, meat meal, blood meal, horn and hoof meal,

Fish wastes,

Byproducts of agro-industries: oil cakes, bagasse and press mud, fruit and vegetable processing wastes, etc.

Crop wastes—sugarcane trash, stubbles, and other related material,

Water hyacinth, weeds and tank silt,

Green manure crops and green leaf manuring material,

Coir Pith

A spongy material that binds the coconut fibre in the husk, coir pith, is finding new applications. It is an excellent soil conditioner and is being extensively used as a soilless medium for agri-horticultural purposes. With its moisture retention qualities, coir pith is ideal for growing anthuriums and orchids.

Oil cakes

After oil is extracted from oilseeds, the remaining solid portion is dried as cake, which can be used as manure. The oil cakes are of two types:

Edible oil cakes that can be safely fed to livestock, e.g., Groundnut cake, Coconut cake, etc.

Non edible oil cakes that are not fit for feeding livestock, e.g., Castor cake, Neem cake, Mahua cake, etc.

Both edible and non-edible oil cakes can be used as manures. However, edible oil cakes are fed to cattle, and non-edible oil cakes are used as manures, especially for horticultural crops. Nutrients present in oil cakes, after mineralization, are made available to crops 7 to 10 days after application. Oil cakes need to be well powdered before application for even distribution and quicker decomposition.