Vermiculture

Vermiculture means cultivation of earthworms. And Vermicompost means excreta of earthworms.Vermicompost is one of the most effective and environment friendly fertilizers without any harmful side effects.

 
One major disaster that our world faces today is the fastly deteriorating environment of ours.This includes many causative factors the major one being the loss of plantation cover.Another problem that is fast incrementing is the deficient foodsupply .

One of the major reason for the same is the loss of land under crops to ever increasing population and deteriorating quality of land already under cultivation due to the overuse of artifiscial fertilizers.
Sighting these two problems Aniruddha’s Academy of Disaster Management-AADM , undertook the project of vermiculture under its wings.

 The vermiculture project took shape in the year 2003. Aims and Objectives :

1.Working towards better environment
2.Production of vermicompost thru’ Vermiculture technology which can be put to effective use for-


i) Tree plantation project
ii)To supply the produce to the drought prone areas and to the needy farmers.


Mission of this project is to spread this technology to everyone willing to adopt this system and provide Consultancy and Supervision for the same along with hands-on training for the project on Free of Cost basis.
 
Our beloved P.P.Aniruddha Bapu had once said that there is no other organism as helpful to mankind as the earthworm. The project was first started at residence of volunteers who created vermiculture bins from household items and with initial seed of earthworms provided by the Academy.

• Vermiculture project encompases two components.

a) Vermiculture undertaken on large scale basis such as in Cooperative Housing Societies.
b) Vermiculture on household basis.

• The Basics for any vermiculture projects are

 1. A living environment usually called “ bedding”
 2. A food source
3. Adequate moisture
4.Adequate aeration
5. Protection from extreme temperature

1. Bedding : - Selection of proper bedding material is key element of success of project. Worms can be enormously productive (and reproductive) if conditions are good; however their efficiency drops if the basics are not meet.


2. Food source: - Compost worms are big eaters. Under the ideal conditions, they are able to consume in excess of their body weight each day, although the general thumb rule is ½ of their body weight per day.


3. Adequate Moisture : -The bedding used should be able to hold sufficient moisture if the worms are to have a livable environment. They breathe through their skin and so moisture content is very crucial for their existence.


4. Adequate aeration:- Worms are oxygen breathers and cannot survive anaerobic conditions. They operate best when ventilation is good and the material they are living is porous and well aerated.


5. Protection from extreme temperature: - The temperature control is essential for both vermicomposting and vermiculturing process.


The other important parameters are ph, salt content and proper shadow.
Vermiculture project on a household basis requires a bucket, a nylon mesh, dried cowdung, hay and most importantly earthworm seed.Once the earthworm seed is released in the vermiculture bed ,the vermi bucket is ready to devour our household waste.
 
After a period of two months we have to stop putting the wastes in the bucket for fifteen days. Within this fifteen days all the waste that we had put gets converted to manure. After this period the entire content is removed and put on a sheet of newspaper making a heap.
 
The earthworms have a tendency to move away from light and they go deeper into the heap away from the surface. So we can slowly start collecting the upper layers of manure which are without the earthworms. By continuing this process we are left with little manure alongwith the earthworms.
 
This are then put back into the buckets with a ready bed. Thus a new cycle can be started and the Vermiculture bucket is ready for use.

At first one feels reluctant to touch the earthworms, but once familiar with their touch it is so fantastic to feel them move on slowly on our fingers shying away from light and finding a place to hide within our fingers. There is definitely a sense of attachment that develops within them.

Thus rather than having a single pet we can have hundreds of such pets in the form of this Vermiculture bucket which neither demands a evening walk nor does it dirt your floor, but just ten minutes from your routine.

For more details plz visit ,
http://www.aniruddhasadm.com