 I was digging all the land to get some earthworms for fishing, but I dug out a snake instead! Shadamia, you want to go fishing, but where on earth do you suppose you'll catch some? You don't find fishes in the canals and lowlands anymore? Alas, what an era has loomed now! We used to get paddy from our crop fields, we used to get fishes from the ponds too. Now we don't get anything. The reason we don't get fish now is the same reason for which we don't get enough crops anymore. Everyone is using chemical fertilizers and insecticides for farming and as a result the lands are losing their fertility and the water bodies are getting polluted. What's the way out then? We would all starve and die. No, you won't die. Sister would teach you about a mystical formula of how to survive. Shadamia, didn't I remind you the time and time over not to go on about some mystical formula? Listen, you should use organic fertilizers in your crop fields from now on instead of using chemical fertilizer. It would be the best if you can use vermicompost. What did you say? Vermicompost? Yes, vermicompost. The fertilizer produced using earthworms is called vermicompost. Sister, where would I get vermicompost from? You can buy it from the people who are producing this fertilizer. You can also buy vermicompost from different agriculture offices as well. Moreover, you can also learn how to make vermicompost. Sister, I have a request. Don't make any fertilizer using earthworms, please. Why, Shadamia? What's your problem if you make fertilizers using earthworms? I use earthworms as bait in my fishing hook while I fish. If you make fertilizers using earthworms, then what should I use as bait while I fish? Usage of vermicompost cuts fertilizer usage expenditures by half in comparison to the usage expenditure of chemical fertilizer. It doesn't pollute the water in the cropland or in the lowlands. And as such, help keep environmental balance. It doesn't harm fish population and what is more, vermicompost is fit to be good fish feed. It doesn't harm the fish population? Well then, I have no objection to produce vermicompost. If vermicompost is applied in crop cultivation, the quality of the soil improves and crop yield increases. Paddy production increases by 10% to 20%. Width production increases by 15% to 25%. And maize production increases by 28% to 35%. And say vegetable production increases by 20% to 35%. To cultivate vermicompost, you would require having some raw material or ingredients such as small size red earthworms whose name is Acena fatida. Materials required for compost making are cow dung, excreta of animals and birds, and waste materials that we threw out after eating. Materials required to prepare bedding are all kinds of perishable things such as twigs and tendrils, fruits and peels of vegetables, specially banana peels, different kinds of seeds, husk, bran or chaff of grains and eggshells, water hyacinth, tea leaves, waste papers, on trails, intestines of cow, goat, fish and poultry birds etc. You would need 200 earthworms to produce this fertilizer in a bowl sizing 2 hands in length and 2 hands in breadth. Apart from these, you would also need a guinea bag or a thick cloth, spade or shovel, bamboo oven basket, sieve, a pair of safety hand gloves, polythene bags etc. You have to construct a room to produce vermicompost which shall be 10 feet in length, 6 feet in breadth and 7 feet in height. The roof of the room can be made by tin, the walls of the room can be made of bamboo, oven broad mat or with other materials. The floor of the room should be cemented, the external part of the room should be surrounded by drain. Water should be there in the drain so that ants or other insects cannot enter the room. If the bed gets direct sunlight or get wet by rainwater, earthworms would die. What is more, the earthworms would also die if sand or soil mixes with the waste materials. It would be better if the room is built at a shady place or under a big tree. At the second step, a mixture of sorts has to be made at first using the compost materials and building materials. For this to do as a raw material of making compost, you have to collect 4-day old cow dung. Please remember that the fresh raw cow dung should never be put into the earthen bowl directly. You can use the poultry excreta as a substitute of cow dung if people have the advantage to get it easily at their places. The poultry excreta will have to be decomposed for 10-15 days as well, like cow dung. You will have more profit if you do this. After that, you have to collect waste materials that are easily decayed such as twigs and tendrils, fruit and vegetable peels, weed, water hyacinth, straw and dusty particles, on trails of the poultry beds, etc. You have to put them into black polythene bags closely tied upon its opening so that air could not get into the bags. They should be kept in this airtight condition for 7-8 days at least. You have to be very careful so that things like any metal substances, or lead, plastic, oil, soap, color excreta of cat or dog, insecticides, onion and garlic, fragrant spices such as cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, etc. are not mixed in these materials by mistake. At step 3, we would learn about the techniques of collecting earthworms to prepare the fertilizer or compost. You can collect earthworms directly from the agriculture offices of the government and from some of the NGO offices. As per common estimation, a kg of earthworm contains 1000 adult earthworms. Earthworms can be carried in a wet or damp old plastic pot with lead on the top. Around 500 earthworms or half a kg of earthworm can be carried in a 1 litre pot for a limited period of time. But if it takes more than 24 hours to carry earthworms, you have to carry these earthworms in a clean bag by mixing bedding and composting materials inside. In that case, one has to have a larger pot. On step 4, you have to pour in 200 earthworms into each bowl or it can be divided by weighing 2 kg of earthworm into 8 fractions and releasing a fraction of earthworms into each 8 earthen bowls which should be 2 hands in length and 2 hands in breadth. The earthen bowls have to be kept at 25 to 30 degree centigrade temperature and 65 to 70% humidity. The bowls should be covered with a guinea bag or a thick cloth. You have to sway out the waste materials with the stick time and time again. You have to observe often as to whether the waste materials at the upper space of the bowl are drying out or not. If it is found dry, water has to be spread over it. Usually, earthworm grows into double its size in 6 months. It means, within 6 months, 2 kg of earthworm would become 4 kg. At the first cycle, production of vermicompost needs 60 to 70 days. Gradually, as both the bacteria and earthworm multiplies in number, the production volume of vermicompost increases. As a result, during the next cycle, vermicompost will be produced within 30 to 40 days. Earthworms start eating from the top level of the bed and then they go to the lower level slowly. And the earth at the upper level turns into minute particles like tea leaves. At that time, you have to understand that the fertilizer has been produced. At that stage, you have to remove the fertilizer by scratching it slowly from the bedding and keep those in one side of the bowl. The kept aside fertilizers have to be kept there for 6 to 24 hours more but have to be swayed out often. If any adult earthworm is found in the fertilizer, that has to be kept into another pot of composting materials. It has to be sieved in a 5 mm thick whole sieve after collecting the compost from the bed. If there are earthworms, the eggs or cocoon found in the sieve, the fertilizers have to be placed in the bed again. The fertilizer or the compost has to be dried well in the sun after collecting. After that, the fertilizers have to be put in an airtight 20 micron thick polythene bag which cannot be torn easily and kept in a dry place. Fertilizer containing sacks can be in 1 kg, 2 kg, 5 kg, 10 kg, 25 or 50 kg sized polybags. If preserved in this way, this fertilizer can stay well up to 1 year. After collecting the fertilizer, new waste materials should be prepared, mixed with the old froth and should have to be kept in the bowls again. Application of vermicompost in crop plants At the first stage, 7 to 10 kg of vermicompost is needed per decimal of land but the quantity of fertilizer needs may be more or less depending upon the quality of land and the types of crop zone. During the second and third stage, less fertilizer will be needed such as in a 1 decimal land, it would be enough to apply 15 kg vermicompost on the first year. But on the second year, you would require applying 7.5 kg and 3 kg 700 grams on the third year. Fertilizer should be spread throughout the land during the land preparation no matter whatever crop you are planning to cultivate. Vermicompost should be mixed properly with the soil. This fertilizer can also be used in the tub after mixing it properly with the soil. Seeds or seedlings should be sowed after 3 to 5 days of fertilizer application. And where did you get that vermicompost from? No no no, I didn't steal any, I swear! Just to say borrow a few while you were packing them I have cultured fish in this canal. My release fingerlings would grow quickly if they eat the vermicompost. You can sell the vermicompost after the nursery owners to the fish cultureists, to those people who cultivate flowers and vegetables in the cities and towns, and to the village farmers at the rate of Taka 10 per kg. You can earn a profit of Taka 21,490 after selling off the vermicompost and earthworms in 2 years after spending Taka 15,050 if you take this up as a fertilizer producing business. We would now see how this profit can be generated. Income and expenditure accounts of vermicompost production. After deducting all the expenditures I have a profit of Taka 21,490 only in 2 years. Well, did you think you'd go bull-op all the profits in one bite? No dear aunt, I think your accounts are not correct. Sorry child, I didn't get you. Well, you have constructed the room, procured the machineries and equipment and incurred the expenses related to collecting the earthworms for once only at the outset. Do you need to spend more money to construct or procure those things? Now, if you don't calculate the profit basing on only 2 years but include more and more years then your percentage of profit will certainly be raised. And, you didn't consider another thing while doing your calculation. Did you ever have calculated the benefit that you will get after applying the vermicompost on your own land? You were most certainly right child. While I used to get a profit of Taka 70,000 from the cultivation of vegetables on my own land now I get more than 100,000 Taka from the same cultivation. I get an increased profit of Taka 30,000 in a year from a vegetable cultivation after I have started using the vermicompost. Use vermicompost in your crops to get a large yield while your poverty and miseries are sure to heal. Thank you.