Potential of Vermiculture Industry

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Potential of Vermiculture Industry
Manju Tadvalkar
INORA,Pune inora_at_vsnl.com www.inoraindia.com ?
020-544 4066
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Compost in Organic Farming

• Agricultural practices are shifting towards INM
  and Organic farming systems
• Both systems rely heavily on Organic Matter
  contents in soil
• Organic farming has come to stay.
• This movement is silent but very giant.

Contd
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• Organic farming movement is international and is
  being followed by Certification.
• Certification will evaluate package of practice,
  inputs and outputs
• Success of Organic farming depends on Organic
  Carbon (O.C.) levels in the soil.
• Maintaining O.C. levels in soils is challenging
  in Indian agroclimatic conditions.
• Best source of O.C. is compost especially
  vermicompost which makes the soil
  bio-chem-physically a living entity.

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Present Status

• Traditional methods- Pit Compost, Heap Compost
• Present Methods- Thermophillic Composting, Land
  fill excavations.
• End Products Compost may not be approved in new
  or upcoming practices due to their toxic residual
  factors.
• Compost available is priced at Rs.5000 to 6000/-
  per ton.
• These prices are prohibitive for the farmers and
  there is reluctance to add organic compost which
  reflects negatively on maintaining soil O.C.
  levels and thus the yields.
• Decentralised compost production is the answer
  so that burden on transportation is minimised and
  farmers are encouraged to use required quantities
  in soil.

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Why Vermicompost ?

• Best suited for decentralisation.
• Less reliance on technical man power.
• Procesess can be established in the vicinity of
  raw material or market place.
• Environment friendly (accepted under ISO 14001)

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Requirements for the process

• Land 5 to 10 Acres
• Water
• Electricity
• Raw material Agriresidues and biodegradables
• Man power.
• Process Shed
• Machinery
• Vermiculture and microbial inoculants
• Manures, dung, organic additives for nutritional
  enrichments.
• Packaging.

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Raw Material for the Industry

• Sugarcane trash.
• Sugarcane Baggase
• Banana stems/Plant remains.
• Cotton Stalks, Soybean Stalk, Unwanted Biomass
  (weeds)
• Fruit and food processing Industry refuse.
• Live stock waste like dungs manures urine
  droppings and slaughter house offals.

Other biodegradables? Yes. Only if devoid of
chemical residues.
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Constraints

• Dependence on water.
• Source of Dung necessary
• Mostly labour oriented.
• Equipments for agriwaste collections

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PROCESS
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Techno-Economics
 
 
Deficit can be overcome by converting residues
like baggase which is not taken into account
 
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Project Feasibility
Model 200 Tons per month production
Fixed Cost 2,000,000 Operative
Cost 800,000 Approximate Sale Value 3,200,000 Pay
Back Period 1 Year
Assumption Land Free of Cost, Raw material Cost
at Rs. 500/ton
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INORA Services

• Pre operative survey
• Project proposals according to scale of
  operation.
• Technical training of man power.
• Technical association for compost production and
  quality control.
• Supply of all biological inputs required for
  process initiation.