The Potential of Cow’s Dung in Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Health

Cow worship in India has a long history dating back to the Vedic era, several thousand years ago. Cow being a domestic animal, its milk is as nourishing as one’s mother’s milk, and its utility in a primarily agricultural civilization like India made it a highly beneficial animal whose dung and urine played a key role in Indian medicine system as well as ancient India’s religious rituals. Ayurveda and Charaka Samhita are the examples of Indian writings having detailed description of immense medical, health and general wellbeing benefits of various products obtained from cow. Cow products such as milk, yoghurt, refined butter ghee and even cow dung were regarded as highly useful medicines in ancient India’s medicine system and till date continue to be utilized in Indian household as medicines of great value. Cow products are examined in modern science as well and have been discovered to be quite effective in the treatment and prevention of numerous ailments. Studies on deep microbial diversity of cow dung have been carried out using modern scientific equipment, and these studies provide a coherent insight into the microorganism’s synergistic potential. Compost (dung manure) is widely used in Indian agriculture, indicating its potential for increasing crop output. Considering many uses of cow dung, the scientific community is becoming increasingly interested in its scientific analysis and use, especially now that organic farming and indigenous medicines are garnering a lot of attention across the world.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Amity University Haryana, Manesar, India Pritam B. Sharma, Pardeep Kumar, Shubhansh Tiwari, Sangeeta Kumari & Machiavelli Singh

1. Pritam B. Sharma