LPM 121: Fodder Production and Grassland Management (1+1)

BENEFITS OF VERMICOMPOST

•  By establishing vermiculture units entrepreneurs can recycle their own resources and create an effective fertiliser in the process. The extra worms that are produced can be used as feed for poultry and fish. The advantages of this technology include:
  • Recycling of organic wastes.
  • Production of energy rich resources.
  • Reduction of environmental pollution.
  • Provision of job opportunities for women and jobless people.
  • Improvement of soil pH. (vermicompost acts as a buffering agent).
  • Improvement in the percolation property of clay soils (from the compost's granular nature).
  • Improvement of the water holding capacity in sandy soils.
  • Release of exchangeable and available forms of nutrients.
  • Increase of oxidizable carbon levels, improving the base exchange capacity of the soil.
  • Improvement of the nitrate and phosphate levels.
  • Encouragement of plant root system growth.
  • Improvement in the size and girth of plant stems.
  • Early and profuse plant flowering
  • Creation of a substitute protein in poultry and fish feed.
• One disadvantage of this technology is that pesticides and heavy metals accumulate in the bodies of the worms that are raised on contaminated organic wastes. If such worms are used as protein source in animal feeds, health hazards may result.