Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
importance in the vermicomposting process. Their excretions of ammonia and urea add to the
nitrogen content. Other organic acids and mucus secretions provide nourishment for microbial
populations. With the organic amendments to the fields and use of minimum tillage practices, the
soil organisms become more important.
SOLID ORGANIC WASTE UTILIZATION FOR COMPOST
PRODUCTION USING EARTHWORMS
(Kale et al.
1982), a species that is distributed all over India. These earthworms can be found congregated near
cattle sheds and in biogas slurry pits. Plantations with a good litter cover also form a habitat for these
worms. Similarly,
We tried vermicomposting animal waste under laboratory conditions using
P. excavatus
in Maharashtra have been tested for
their potential use in organic waste degradation. Apart from these species, polyhumic worms such as
Perionyx sansibaricus
in Kerala and
P. pallus
Lampito mauritii
have also been tried for vermicomposting. As in temperate countries,
E. eugeniae
and
E. fetida
are also gaining importance as the most suitable species for humus production.
Eudrilus eugeniae
, a tropical species, is establishing well in southern peninsular India, whereas
E. fetida
establishes best in the more temperate part of the country.
Eudrilus eugeniae
is preferred
for the degradation of agricultural waste, and
is used for urban waste degradation at the
community level and in households. The systems for utilizing these earthworms were developed
at different stages in the laboratory. Methods were aimed at minimizing the time of vermicompost-
ing, improving the quality of the vermicompost, and minimizing the cost of labor and making it
an economic venture for the spread of the technology to the rural areas.
The work started with using organic matter that breaks down slowly to form the first tier in a
vermicomposting container, followed by a layer of finely sieved sand and garden soil. Populations
of
E. fetida
are introduced into these prepared containers. Soft organic
wastes, like many animal wastes or vegetable wastes, were spread on the surface. In the initial
stages, earthworms fed on the surface organic layer and produced casts. The feed mix was added
as needed in layers after collecting the casts. Every 3 months, the contents of the culture containers
were emptied; by this time, the entire organic matter, including stubbles from agriculture fields,
sugarcane trash, or coir waste, had decomposed. This was shown by the reduction in levels of
residual cellulose and lignin in the earthworm-worked materials (Kale et al. 1991). Because this
procedure was not viable for the farming community, an alternative and a much simpler method
was evolved.
In older agricultural practices, when the available land area for food production per individual
was larger, farmers were in the habit of reserving a part of their land for growing certain shrubs
and grazing cattle. These shrubs were pruned periodically to mix the green matter into the soil to
serve as green manure. Most of these plants had a high level of nitrogen.
Based on this practice, green leaves from different plants, weeds, hedge cuttings, and dry leaves
were mixed with cow dung slurry and left in the earthworm culture containers for 2 weeks. During
this period, two turns were given to the mix to aerate the material. After 2 weeks of conditioning,
the earthworms were released to the waste surface, where they fed on the surface organic materials
and moved down as most of the material was converted into earthworm casts. Occasionally, water
was sprinkled on the surface. Earthworms fed on the soft material at the beginning, and the hard
and unfed materials were mixed again with fresh material. The collection and preparation of organic
mixes are simple and time saving; farmers further simplified the method and have developed their
E. eugeniae
,
E. fetida,
or
P. excavatus
own techniques for vermicomposting the wastes listed in Table 19.1 .
To minimize nutrient losses from the wastes during vermicomposting and to provide a vent for
released carbon dioxide or other gases during the decomposition process, a 2.5-cm thick mud pack
was placed on the surface of the decomposing material, and polyvinyl chloride tubes Ð or even
the hollow shoots of the plants 3 cm in diameter with a series of holes were inserted into the packed
 
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