Organic fertiliser gains ground

Desk Report: Vermicompost fertiliser is gaining popularity among the farmers across the country as it gives a higher yield of crops than chemical fertilisers and increases the fertility of the soil, reports Daily Sun.
Many poor farmers are becoming financially self-reliant by selling vermicompost fertiliser to other farmers.
As the dependency on chemical fertiliser has increased drastically over the decades, badly affecting soil fertility, experts said the use of vermicompost helps revive the fertility and increases productivity.
Amena Khatun, a vermicompost supplier at Kusmail of Fulbaria Upazila in Mymensingh, started producing organic fertiliser a few years ago.
“It was difficult to manage our family with the little income of my husband. With the help of a non-government organisation, I started producing vermicompost at my home to generate some extra income for me and my family. We have been selling vermicompost to other farmers and in the market as well as for growing crops and vegetables on our own,” she said.
She also said over 50 farmers are now involved in organic fertiliser production in their village and most of the farmers are now using vermicompost along with chemical fertiliser.
Each of the vermicompost producers, mostly women, earns around Tk 1,500-2,000 a month from the sale of organic fertiliser after using this for their own purpose. They produce around 100kg of vermicompost a month.
Vermicompost fertiliser is produced from organic wastes and it can be produced at a very little cost.
Minara Begum, another vermicompost supplier in the same village, said she received training on vermicompost production and organic farming, which helped improve her livelihoods.
“This gave me the financial solvency to feed my family three meals a day and send my children to schools. We have five children and my husband is a day labourer. Additional income from vermicompost made us finically self-reliant,” said Minara Begum.
The Kusmail village is now known as vermicompost village though the scenario was not the same even just a few years ago. Initially, five households were introduced with vermicompost production in 2015 under a livelihood project implemented by World Vision, an international NGO. The project beneficiaries were trained on vermin compost preparation and received input support from the project. Currently, 50 households are producing vermicompost in the village.
“Dependency on chemical fertiliser is increasing gradually and vermicompost offers a solution to the overuse of chemical fertiliser that harms the soil,” said James Biswas, area programme manager of World Vision Bangladesh.
The farmers who are involved with organic fertiliser production are not professional suppliers and it is just a way of extra income for those households, he said.
Shamsul Hoque, chairman of Kusmail Union Parishad, said that demand for vermicompost is increasing in the Mymensingh region and the local representatives are helping the farmers in marketing their organic products.
Many farmers in Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Rajshahi, Cox’s Bazar and many other districts are producing vermicompost commercially.
Dr Md. Ashraful Islam, professor of the Department of Horticulture of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said ideally the soil needs to have at least five per cent organic ingredients, which has reduced to 2 per cent in Bangladesh.
Use of vermicompost adds at least 12 soil nutrient ingredients that increase the soil fertility, he said.
The agriculture expert also said the use of vermicompost along with the chemical fertiliser helps keep the balance of soil fertility and productivity.