MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT Project Title “A novel Vermitechnology approach to improve the soil fertility by the Production of Vermibricks - Farmers user-friendly.” UGC Reference No. F MRP-6648/16 (SERO/UGC) Dated 30th June 2017 Period of report: from 30.06.17 to 31.07.19 Final Report of the work done on the Minor Research Project 1. Introduction Soil provides food, fodder and fiber and 99 % of our food comes from land. Only 22 % of our global land area (13.9 x 10 9 ha) is suitable for agriculture and only 3 % is suitable for high level of productivity. The low level of yield in the developing countries is due to poor management of soil, water and crop. There is an essential link between soil, plant, animal and man. An understanding of this vital ecological balance is the pre requisite not only for sustaining agriculture practices but also for a healthy life of man. The old traditional agriculture practice, in the tropical region was based on some kind of rotational system and was entirely dependent on soil organic matter and manure, particularly farmyard manure. The modern agriculture practice, intensive and continuous due to increased human population and pressure on land, is based on development of improved varieties of crops, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. But the modern agricultural practices necessitate the use of a wide range of chemicals, which may adversely affect non-target organisms. These animals often exposed to a wide range of anthropogenic compounds released into the terrestrial environment; as a consequence, they suffer from the toxicity of these compounds. The abundance or activity of earthworm has been considered as an indicator of the biological health of soil. In such a context it is essential that agriculture practices give priority to agro-forestry or herbaceous legumes based cropping system based on local conditions and regulate soil fertility by biological processes. This could be done by increased efficiency of the use of natural resources, which is otherwise known as organic farming. Vermicomposting is one of the practices of organic farming. Objective of the project: ✓ To facilitate the farmers to use the vermicompost in a user friendly and potential way. ✓ To facilitate the entrepreneurs who do organic manure business and to provide them a holistic view of business. ✓ To reduce the manpower in the farms. ✓ To retain the moisture and microbial inoculums. ✓ To reduce pollution and provide a valuable substitute for chemical fertilizers in the soil. 2. Review of Literature The success of sustainable agriculture is very much dependent upon the availability of cheap and good quality organic manure. Among the source of available organic manures vermicompost is a potential source due to the presence of readily available plant nutrients, growth enhancing substances and number of beneficial microorganisms. Microorganisms and earthworms are important biological organisms helping nature to maintain nutrients flow and their role in restoration of contaminated soil is not fully known. Vermicomposting and its use offers several potential benefits including improved manure handling, enhanced soil tilts and fertility, and reduced environmental risk. The farmers have realized the importance of vermicomposting and particularly its eco friendly nature and in making sustained availability of nutrients to soil due to vermicompost application. Vermicomposting is the process of production of organic manure by the decomposition of organic wastes facilitated through earthworms interacting with microorganisms. Since earthworms are saprophagous, detritivorous, geophagous and microbivorous, they consume a wide variety of biodegradable and convert them into good organic manure. Wide range of agricultural residues, such as straw, husk, leaves, stalks, weeds etc can be converted into vermicompost. Other potential feedstock for vermicompost production are livestock wastes, poultry litter, dairy wastes, food processing wastes, organic fraction of MSW, bagasse, digestate from biogas plants etc. Almost all types of biologically degradable and decomposable organic wastes are used in vermiculture and vermicomposting. Commonly used composting materials are, animal dung like cattle dung, sheep dung, horse dung, agricultural wastes like stem, leaves, husk of grains, peels, vegetable waste, orchid leaf litters, processed food wastes, sugarcane trash and baggase, forestry wastes like wood savings peels, saw dust and pulp leaf litters waste paper and cotton cloth, city refuge or garbage kitchen wastes, biogas slurry and industrial wastes. Earthworms consume organic wastes and reduce the volume by 40–60 percent. Each earthworm weighs about 0.5 to 0.6 gram, eats waste equivalent to its body weight and produces cast equivalent to about 50 percent of the waste it consumes in a day. The moisture content of castings ranges between 32 and 66 percent and the pH is around 7. The level of nutrients in compost depends upon the source of the raw material and the species of earthworm. Eudrilus eugeniae, has been effectively utilized for vermicomposting of organic waste materials like cassava peel (Mba, 1983), poultry manure, press mud (Ramalingam, 1997) leaf litters (Daneil and Karmegam, 1999) tea leaves waste, vegetable waste and fruit waste (Jayashree et al., 2008). Worm casts have been shown to exhibit more enzymatic and microbial activities and NPK enrichment (Parthasarathi and Ranganathan, 1998) and also demonstrated an increase in cellulolytic, hemicellulolytic, amylolytic and nitrifying bacteria in worm casts compared to the surrounding soil. The worm castings contain higher percentage of both macro and micronutrients than the garden compost. Apart from other nutrients, a fine worm cast is rich in NPK which are in readily available form and are released within a month of application. Vermicompost enhances plant growth, suppresses disease in plants, increases porosity and microbial activity in soil, and improves water retention and aeration. Vermicompost also benefits the environment by reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and decreasing the amount of waste going to landfills. Vermicompost is essentially a colloid and can hold water up to 9 times its own weight. This can be a great deal of help when the climate has been dry for a long time.The evaporation of water is slow because the water is held up at an organic grade, and therefore, it can be sufficiently utilized by the plants. The above mentioned review give the clear area to be studied and focus the need of the hour. 3. Materials and methods 3.1.Vermicomposting - Selection of suitable species Selection of suitable species for composting and other possible commercial utilization, viz., Eudrilus eugeniae. Systematic position of Eudrilus eugeniae: Kingberg Phylum: Annelida Subphylum: Clitellata Class: Oligochaeta Order: Haplotaxida Family: Eudrilidae Genus: Eudrilus Species: eugenia 3.2 Distribution of Eudrilidae The distribution of the Eudrilidae is restricted to the Ethiopian region. Eudrilus eugeniae, a widely distributed peregrine species, was once recorded from India near Pune, in the Western Ghats. Originally distributed in equatorial West Africa, presently found distributed in most parts of the world having got introduced for various usages in vermitechnology. It is common in parts of America and Europe and is popularly known as ‘Night Crawler’. In India, common in many vermiculture establishments, particularly in Southern India is recommended species for vermiculture. Since 1930s, species is reportedly distributed in Trivancore, Pune and North Konkan. 3.3 Earthworm culture and Vermicomposting E.eugeniae were procured from the Sree Sai Agro product, Coimbatore, brought to the Herbal garden and mass cultured in a culture tank containing urine free cow dung. Cow dung was collected from nearby cattle shed, sun dried and maintained. Worms were acclimatized in cow dung. (i) Collection of organic wastes The waste materials used for composting were cow dung (CD) and leaf litters. The fallen leaves were collected from the college campus and stored in a preparatory tank. All the waste material was mixed with cow dung slurry, kept for15 days for pre decomposition in large tanks. Appropriate moisture level was maintained. (ii) Vermibed preparation The pre-decomposed waste materials from the preparation tank were taken for the vermibed preparation. The vermibeds were prepared with cow dung and pre-decomposed. Water was sprinkled over the vermibeds to hold the moisture content of 60 % to 70 % and kept for 24 h. Ten kg of healthy, matured E.eugeniae of 10 to 12 cm length and 0.4 to 0.8 g weight were introduced into the tank. Appropriate controls were maintained. The tanks were covered with perforated sacks for ventilation and for the prevention of predators. The experimental set up was as follows: Substrates Sample (S1) - Cow Dung + leaf litters (S2) - Cow Dung + leaf litters + E.eugeniae The experiments were carried out at ambient room temperature (28 ± 2° C). The moisture level was maintained throughout the study at 60 % to 70 %. The experimental set up was kept undisturbed for 90 days. The mixture was turned periodically without disturbing the worms, so that the temperature was maintained, and to have uniform maturation of the compost. Observations were made. The experiment was terminated at the end of 90th day. Physico- chemical parameters of vermicompost were analysed on initial and final day. (iii) Particle size, smell and color The pore size, texture, smell and color of the mature compost made by different treatments was observed. (iv) Determination of Moisture percentage of compost The china dish was weight with 10g of compost sample. The china dish was placed in an oven at 120° C for minimum 4 hours. The china dish was taken out after 4 hours of heating and cooled in desiccators. The sample was weight again after heating. Moisture content was calculated by dividing the reduction in weight by initial weight. (iv) Determination of pH The compost solution was made by adding distilled water in 1:10 and for dissolving the maximum salts, it was placed for 2 hours. The pH meter electrode was dip in the compost solution. Reading was noted on pH meter when it was stabilized.