SUCCESS STORY on VERMICOMPOST

            Shri.DA Tambe is a progressive farmer of village Dadh Bk. He faced continuous problem of soil alkalinity in which he could grew sugarcane, wheat and Lucerne. Later on the advice made by the KVK scientist he opted for starting a vermicompost unit as one of the beneficiary of the KVK under the BIO-VILLAGE project funded by the DBT New Delhi. Under the total guidance of the KVK Scientist the Vermicompost unit was started last year. He successfully ran the unit and harvested 60 quintals of vermicompost. His housewife is now handling all the Vermicompost unit work and which is also being used as useful organic fertilizer on their field for different crops like sugarcane, chilli lucerne and bottle gourd.

            As the Dadh village comes under the alkali belt area therefore he has limitations in crop selection. Previously he tried the bottle guard cultivation on chemical fertilizers but he faced the problem of slow growth, deformation of fruits, nutrients deficiency symptoms and poor low yield which was economically not profitable.

            This year he had sufficient quantity of Vermicompost and with the technical intervention of KVK Scientist to use Vermicompost in crop production, he planned to cultivate the bottle guard totally on Vermicompost. He selected the variety NAVODAY planted at a distance 8 x 2.5 ft. Application of 0.5 Kg Vermicompost per plant at planting was done. He noted some important observations like 80-85 per cent germination, healthy growth and good crop stand. After one month he again applied 1 Kg of Vermicompost to each plant and 1 Kg at flowering stage. He totally avoided the Chemical fertilizers application in the soil However to supply nutrients at critical growth stages only foliar feeding of soluble spray grades like 18:18:18 +3Mg+T.E. at growth stage, 5:40:28+2Mg+T.E at flowering stage and fruit setting and 7:7:42 +9S+T.E. at fruit development stage was followed.

            The result obtained with the farmer was observed to be very encouraging. He noted the healthy plant growth, good flowering and fruit setting. The fruits produced were of uniform size and there was considerable reduction in fruit deformation and the fruits were found to be of attractive color that paid higher market rates.

He bagged the Best award for his bottle guard as a organic vegetables in the VEGETABLE EXHIBITION AMD MAHOTSAV organized by KVK during 18-19 March 2002 at KVK campus.

He harvested a total quantity of 200 q fruits in 0.20 ha plot and received the gross income Rs.20, 000/- with a minimal expense of Rs.5500/- yielding a net return to him of Rs. 14,500/-. Now he has gained confidence in further utilizing the Vermicompost to other crops and has planned to reduce the chemical fertilizers about 50% with the Vermicompost in sugarcane and in other crops to even 100% slowly.

This successes story   has helped in increasing the adoption of Vermicompost technology among the farming community. Now he is now working as a master trainer of the vermicompost technology.