BHUTAN: Tsirang’s earthworm farm


BY TASHI DEMA


Clean Fertiliser: The worms doth turn a profit
18 March: If an earthworm is the farmer’s best friend, 59-year old Dawa Sherpa has many friends on his farm.

The former gewog chimi from Patsaling, Tsirang, is a successful vegetable farmer, whose annual income ranges from Nu 60,000 to Nu 80,000. Dawa has about 5000 earthworms in his vermi-compost plant. Vermi-compost is the excreta of earthworm, which is rich in humus.

He got the idea of raising the slithering worms from a farmer’s tour to Kalimpong in May last year. Dawa Sherpa, the father of four, made a compost of kitchen waste, banana leaves and cow dung in a wooden container last October. “I went to collect earthworms from nearby marshy areas and put them here,” he said.

In the heaped compost, Dawa explains, as the earthworms go down, eating the layers, the darkish granular powder formed on the top is organic manure.

Collecting the earthworm was the most difficult, according to him, as he had to identify the worm that feeds from the top. “I’m told that there are about 300 species of earthworm and I had to identify it myself,” he said.

“This is my guru,” he said, showing a book on making vermi-compost, written in Hindi. He constructed the compost following instructions from the book.

According to Dawa, a few months after he took the initiative, the dzongkhag agriculture office supported him and gave him Nu 13,000 to buy CGI sheets and construct two cemented pits. “I can now breed about 50,000 earthworm here,” he said.

Dawa said that he developed interest in breeding earthworms because it produces organic fertilisers. His income comes from the largest vegetable-producing village in the dzongkhag, where all 46 households’ main income is from sale of vegetables.

“Using these fertilisers, all villagers can promote organic vegetables,” he said. “A lot of people are complaining of health problems because of chemical fertilisers these days, so the vegetable would be in demand in the market.”

The gewog agriculture extension officer, NB Lama, said that there is a high probability that organic fertilisers, if promoted in Bhutan, will have an edge over chemical fertilisers due to its negative effect on health. “With time, vegetable farmers would prefer to use the compost-cum-organic fertilisers that are safer and healthy.”

NB Lama said that the earthworm rearing initiative would also promote sustainable agriculture and organic farming. “All you need to do is scatter a handful of the fertiliser on top of the soil in your land,” said NB Lama. “It’s the best fertiliser.”

NB Lama explains that the compost should not be exposed to direct sunlight and heavy rain, and covered to protect the earthworms from birds. According to Dawa, it takes about three months to produce a compost fertiliser. “Earthworm population increases every 45 days,” he said, adding that his initial 500 earthworms today increased to about 5,000.

Dawa Sherpa is planning to share his idea. He wants to sell earthworms so that people can use them to produce their own vermicast or even for breeding.

He even collected the water, which trickles through the compost, in a jerry can at the base as vermiwash. “I used it as manure and see how good the vegetable is,” he said, proudly pointing to his garden filled with cabbages.

Vermin-compost fertiliser contained 19 types of minerals, including nitrogen, calcium, manganese, sulphur and iodine, which are absorbed easily and used by plants. “Earthworms eat cow-dung or farmyard manure along with other farm waste and pass it through their body and in the process convert it into vermi-compost,” say the literature on vermin-compost on the Internet.

Till today, Dawa has collected about a bucket of manure, and took it for exhibition in Gelephu trade show and for agriculture officials to see. He is hoping to earn from selling his manure, but is not sure where to sell his manure or at what price. “I hope the dzongkhag agriculture office will determine and help me.”

The dzongkhag agriculture officer, Pema Chopel, said that the dzongkhag would definitely explore market for his products.

“If not farmers, people, who grow flowers, will surely buy it,” he said.


source: Barun Roy