Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

4. Current on-farm and urban organic waste management practices
in Egypt: gap analysis.
The most important material for compost production is the organic material. There are
two main sources of organic matter: farm wastes and urban wastes. In order to obtain
such materials, one should understand waste management practices in the area. This
chapter covers such an important subject.
4.1. On-farm organic waste
Agricultural wastes are defined according to the relevant legislation as “waste from
agriculture that includes any substances or object which the holder discards or intends
or is required to discard”. The disposal of biomass represents a problem for industries
and society. It has been estimated that the off-farm disposed plant and animal wastes
are 27 and 12 million tons annually, respectively. Burning of crop residues is a
problem in Egypt, especially rice wastes. Egypt cultivates about 360.000 ha of rice
according to 2008 statistics, with a production of 6 million tons of straw.
It is up to the grower to decide the way of disposing his agriculture wastes. The most
common practice for disposing is by dumping it at municipal waste sites, dumping it
in the desert or by simply burning it. The failure of any management plan to tackle the
agriculture waste, especially rice straw, is based on the assumption that this waste is
free, and the grower has to give it away. In fact the grower realizes that the waste
becomes valuable once collected and ready for transport. On the other hand, as long
as the residues are in his property, no one could force him to hand it over. For him,
burning the residue in site has some agricultural benefits, such as use of minerals of
the ash, or getting rid of insects and diseases on above the ground as a result of
burning.
Even though the practice is well known, farmers in many parts of the world especially
in developing countries find themselves at a disadvantage by not making the best use
of organic recycling opportunities available to them, due to various constraints which
among others include absence of efficient expeditious technology, long time span,
intense labor, land and investment requirements, and economic aspects.
In rural areas, in particular, the implementation of effective solid waste management
systems is faced with a number of constraints. These constraints are related to
environmental conditions, institutional/ administrative issues, financial matters,
technical deficiencies and planning and legal limitations.
As for agriculture waste, two options for treating rice straw are recommended. The
first is to collaborate with the fresh universities graduates to collect such dispersed
produced amount in order to be used in the compost making activities, the other
option is to install small manufactures for fiber processing to produce packages for
exported crops as rice straw could be used as a virgin material.
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