Earthworms- Friends of Farmers.

Earthworms- friends of farmers and they eat waste products and turn it into a useful product - compost. K.Devendran, a promoter of vermicompost farming for paddy, banana,vegitable gardening in FPV promoted farmers project in Trichy District as implemented by SEVAI said “ Earthworm castings (basically their excretions) are some of the best and environmentally friendly fertilizers we get. A casting consists of 30% humus the end product of compost and is considered to be five times richer than good topsoil. It is a known fact that earthworms neutralize up to 99% of germs in less than 2 hours. Another byproduct of earthworm farm is “worm tea” an odorless liquid that seeps through the material that the worms eat. These handy little helpers assist farmers to reduce household waste and converts organic waste into food for your plants. In a vermin compost farm, the earth worms won’t escape as they don’t like light, if they are escaping, their food may be too acidic, don’t feed them any tea bags, coffee grounds, citrus fruit or onions for a while. They may also try to escape if the farm is too wet or too dry. Earthworms will never overpopulate, as they self-regulate reproduction. The more food there is the more they will reproduce and visa versa. Compost is known as one of the best natural fertilizers. This nutrient-rich soil can help farmers to grow not only in abundance but much bigger and more fruitful than before. Home composting with earthworm farms will supply you with compost on a regular basis that we can spread throughout our garden. Earthworm farming has many, many benefits. From fishing bait, to fertilizer we will have a lot of products from our earthworm farms. Earthworm farms are a growing commodity in the common home. With a multitude of reasons to begin earthworm farming, more and more people are picking up and starting composting. It's cheap, it's easy, it's natural. Earthworm farming is very easy, provided that the worm farmer understands the worm requirements properly. The thumb rule of earthworm composting is to keep the medium moist and protect it from drying, water accumulation and cold temperature. As people grow more conscious of global warming and the need for earth-friendly practices, the market for earthworms has expanded tremendously. Generating profits from earthworm farm is largely dependent on selecting the right customers in the composting industries -- and promoting business to them. Selling worm products in addition to the worms and inducing people to go "green" with worms is the key to a successful earthworm farming business. Vermicomposting is an effective process of recycling farm residues like rice straw, wheat straw, sugarcane trash, groundnut husk, banana sheath, cotton stalks, turmeric leaves, coir waste, brewery sludge, vegetable wastes, tree litters and problematic weeds like parthenium, water hyacinth, ipomea, cynodon and amaranthus to enriched manure by earthworms and to increase humus content in the soil.  It helps in enhancing the productivity through sustainability in agriculture.  Earthworm can convert about 1,000 tonnes of moist organic waste into 300 tonnes of rich dry vermicompost.  This vermicompost contains 5, 7, 11, 2 and 2 times more nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium and magnesium respectively than crop waste or animal manure and is also easily available to the crops”Govin.