Compost application is one of the practices for increasing crop production in Ghana, causing a rise in the use of both organic and inorganic fertilizers. Indeed, the beneficial role of organic resources in the improvement of soil fertility has long been recognized in the extant literature. However, there is a dearth of information as to whether the fertilizing value of these organic resources has improved before application to minimize nutrient loss. This investigated the decomposition and nutrient release patterns of the formulated compost. The treatments were as follows: T 1 (100% mesophilic stage), T 2 (100% thermophilic stage), T 3 (50% mesophilic and 50% thermophilic stage), T 4 (80% thermophilic stage), and T 5 (80% mesophilic stage). The treatments were put into litterbags and buried in the soil. The experimental design was replicated thrice. Treatments from each replication were sampled every two weeks for 12 weeks to assess the compost’s decomposition rate and nutrient release dynamics. It was observed that T 2 (100% thermophilic stage) recorded the highest decomposition rate constant of 0.31 weeks −1 and lowest (0.21 weeks −1 ) in T 1 . The half‐life (t 50 ) at the end of the study were in the following order: T 1 (3.25 weeks) < T 5 (2.79 weeks) < T 3 (2.63 weeks) < T 4 (2.38 weeks) < T 2 (2.18 weeks). The highest N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and C concentration released values of 91%, 95%, 94%, 91%, 93%, and 91.33% were recorded in T 2 at the end of the study. These findings suggest that, T 2 had short‐term effects on nutrient supply and is recommended to smallholder farmers to increase soil fertility, improve nutrient availability, and enhance growth and yield.
Acheampong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.