Photograph: Villagers mostly women involved in vermicompost industry
Unbelievably, a simple technology called ‘vermicompost,’ mainly produced and used by rural farmers, has all aspects of sustainability, including social and economic progression and environmental protection. Recently, vermicompost businesses have been boosting the rural economy and providing tens of thousands of employment to rural youth and women. Vermicompost production has become a promising enterprise where young entrepreneurs, including women from rural areas, have been immensely attracted to this profitable business. Eventually, university graduates have taken vermicompost production as a start-up business. As a whole, a vermicompost is an effective tool for the socio-economic development of rural communities. Vermicompost production has many positive impacts, but this environmentally friendly technology has no disadvantages. Vermicompost reduces landfill waste and greenhouse gases, ensures good public health, and restores the environment by lowering synthetic fertilizers, which lessen environmental degradation. Overall, vermicompost production is considered an effective tool for enhancing the green economy.
By definition, vermicompost is one kind of compost produced from kitchen waste with mixing earthworms. Vermi stands for earthworms. However, vermicompost means using a worm in the compost produced from kitchen waste such as fruits and vegetable wastage, crop residues, and cow dung. Worms’ activities enhance the decomposition of the waste materials and convert them to fine and dried good, quality organic fertilizers. Vermicompost production is an easy process. It requires a few items, such as kitchen waste, a concrete ring, and a polythene sheet, available to a household.
Vermicompost works to the betterment of three P, namely, People, Profit, and Pollution. Vermicompost is an effective tool for income generation, creating employment, conserving the environment and protecting soil health, reducing landfill wastage, and reducing agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. It is an excellent example of a circular economy, providing the scope of reusing food waste.
Astonishingly, vermicompost makes a revolutionary task in women empowerment and extra income for the household in rural areas. When you visit rural areas of Bangladesh nowadays, you can often see the females keep busy preparing and packaging the vermicompost. Vermicompost production takes 30-40 days only, and the production cost is 6-8 Tk per Kg. The price of vermicompost is 10 Tk per Kg, while in Dhaka, it is 40-50 Tk per Kg.
Farmers use vermicompost in vegetable, potato, and rice production fields. Growers apply vermicompost in homestead gardening instead of any fertilizer or pesticides. Additionally, the producers of vermicompost sell the extra portion in the market to earn money. Research done in the Thakurgaon district in 2021 shows that households earn an additional 12000 TK annually by vermicompost sales. These scenarios have significant implications for society and the country’s economic progression. The vermicompost market is emerging and motivating young people to run this profitable business. Among them, many entrepreneurs have become a success in the commercial production of vermicompost. The entrepreneurs supply this in small packets and bulk quantities in the city through the small-sized track. Expansion of urban agriculture extends the increasing demand for vermicompost. Presently, the nurseries of the city’s footpath are frequently selling vermicompost. Urban growers prefer using vermicompost in rooftop gardening.
Vermicompost has the essential plants’ nutrients more than conventional composting because worms feed the composting materials and return to the compost pit as excreta of the worm, reducing the toxicity of wastage. Besides this, vermicompost is a good source of essential plant nutrients. Using vermicompost leads to sustainable agriculture and provides us with the scope of obtaining safe food. In addition, vermicompost ensures sustainable food production and leads to sustainable development. The main reason for expanding vermicompost application in the field, especially in vegetable production, is increasing awareness of the chemical-free food consumption.
Over-exploitation of agricultural land for huge production year after year leads to land degradation. The organic matter content of the soil is declining tremendously; now, the soil of Bangladesh contains only one percent of organic matter, whereas the recommended amount is 5 percent. Applying vermicompost in the soil can restore soil health and increase the soil’s water retention capacity. As a result, the declining trend of crop yield can be stopped, and better crop production can be ensured, which is the ultimate target for securing food security for the vast people of the country.
Among the many successful extension programs, vermicompost production technology quickly gained farmers’ attention due to economic gain. This technology has spread rapidly as the production procedures are simple and positive outputs are easily accessible. As a consequence, the department of agricultural extension emphasizes the production and expansion of the environmentally friendly vermicompost through input support and technical guidance among the rural farmers, especially rural women. Government should allocate more funds and adopt the necessary strategies to promote this sustainable technology of vermicompost production.
The writer is Md. Shahidullah, Additional Deputy Director, Department of Agricultural Extension, Khamarbari, Dhaka; email: shahidullah29_dae@yahoo.com ; This article first published in Daily Asian Age on 30th August 2022
https://dailyasianage.com/news/292540/vermicompost-a-socio-economic-change-maker-in-bangladesh?
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