Salma Begum, wife of day laborer Atabur, is an inhabitant of Angiyadi village under Pakundia upazila in Kishoreganj.
The housewife is a struggling mother of two daughters and one son. The only earning source of the family was the manual labour of husband-wife. To provide for daily food and education of the children under the needy household life is a herculean task for the mother.
Now she is self-reliant but the solvency came through her relentless fighting with poverty for long. Producing vermicompost fertilizer helped her to get rid of poverty.
She first produced vermicompost fertilizer in a 'chari' (a big pot of soil) in 2016. Then she raised the number and now she cultivates it in around 200 'chari'. She earns around Tk 30-40 thousand each month by selling the produced fertilizer, and earthworm. She did not stop at this, but she produced the organic fertilizer, and cultivate mustard, banana, green chili, gourd and various vegetables in around two bigha of land on basis of shared cropping.
Visting Salma Begum's home, the correspondent saw almost 200 ‘chari’. She said she first collects cow dung and places it on the pots for some days. Then she adds earthworms and covers the mixture for some days. Then the component can be used as fertilizer in field.
“I received training from National Agricultural Technology Program Phase and Project on making compost from cow dung and plants and trees leaves. There I also learnt that chemical fertilizers act like poison,” said Salma Begum.
“For making vermicompost, we collect plants, tree leaves and cow dung and keep them in a big earthen hole. These items rots within 20 to 25 days. It is used as food for earthworms, and finally vermicompost is made from the earthworms’ dung. Now I can make 130 kg of fertiliser per month and help my family with the earnings,” she added.
Salma Begum said, “Half kg of earthworms can make around 15 kg of fertiliser per month. During the process the earthworms also increases. A kg of compost fertiliser currently sells for around Tk 20 and earthworms are sold for Tk 4,000.
“The demand of vermicompost is high among the local farmers as it is better than chemical fertilizers. Many people offer advance payment to get vermicompost from me but I cannot meet the demand of all,” said Salma Begum.
Sub Assistant Agricultural Officer of Pakundia upazila Hamimul Haque Sohag said, “Compost fertilizer contains good amounts of key soil nutrients like nitrogen, phosphate and potash. It facilitates the production of toxin-free vegetables and crops. We provide necessary suggestions to farmers to make vermicompost.”