By preparing vermicompost, many poor women of various villages of Paba, Godagari and Tanore Upazilas of the district are earning some extra-amount of money.
Vermicompost or worm castings are an organic form of fertilizer produced from earthworms. Worm castings manure is essentially earthworm wastes. After consuming the manure and other waste- products, these worms create compost which is able to enrich the soil. Worm castings resemble ball-shaped particles that improve soil aeration and drainage, as well as increase water retention power of the soil.
Kamrun Nahar of Bijoypur village under Godagari Upazila is a successful earth-worm cultivator. Reading up to secondary level, Kamrun abandoned her studies but she is now a successful farmer.
Kamrun Nahar took a daylong training from an NGO in Rajshahi and learnt how to prepare fertiliser from earthworm culture. After completion of training, she was given a long earthen pot, some earthworms and some materials to prepare vermicompost, a chemical free-fertiliser.
Kamrun Nahar(32) rears two milching cows and owns two calves. The main raw material used for making vermicompost is cow-dung. Cow dung mixed with sand is put in a plastic bag and the open end of the bag is fastened with a rope. The bag is then kept in a shady place for 10-12 day because by this time toxic gas is disposed of in the cow dung. The cow dung is then taken out from inside the polythene bag and is mixed with slight water and kept in an earthen container. Some earthworms are added to the mixture and the earthen container is kept in a shady place.
Like Kamruzzaman at least 30 poor women of the upazilas took training to make Vermicompost and they are making an extra-income by selling the vermicompost to local farmers. They are also convincing the local farmers to make the vermicompost themselves and to avoid using harmful chemical fertilisers in their fields.
Salma(35) of village Nimtol under Godagari could not continue her studies after reading upto class VIII due to poverty. She said she maintains her family by rearing three cows and two goats.
After getting training on preparing vermicompost, she started to prepare it beside the cow-shed of the house. As an exhibition plot, she planted some vegetables on the land at the outskirts of the house. She used vermicompost to grow the vegetables. There was excellent growth of vegetables like brinjal, radish and potato. Those were excellent in taste as well. Finding her success, many other rural women and men learnt from her the process of preparing vermicompost and to use it in their fields.
Upazila Agriculture Officer of Godagari informed, the vermicompost is a non-harmful bio-fertiliser. It is easy to make by using wastes like dung, leaves and the left-out of the vegetables.
The Use of vermicompost also retains the fertility, water retention capacity and enriches the soil quality. He hoped farmers of the upazila would learn to prepare the vermicompost and to use it in their fields to save the soil-quality as well as the environment.
