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DA promotes composting as alternative livelihood

PRODUCING organic fertilizer with the help of earthworms can be an alternative livelihood for farmers in Cebu.

The Institutional Development Services (IDS) of the Department of Agriculture said producing organic fertilizer through vermicom-posting does not need a big capital so it is within the reach of farmers.

“Vermicomposting is an alternative to commercial fertilizer, especially now that prices of commercial fertilizers are going up,” said Chris Mangadlo, regional coordinator of farmers associations of the IDS. He noted that the price of commercial fertilizers is about P1,800 per sack.

Aside from finding a market for organic fertilizer, farmers can also use what they produce for their own farm plots.

Vermicomposting is the process of producing organic fertilizer (vermicom-post) from biodegradable materials with the help of earthworms. While biodegradable materials decompose naturally with the help of microorganisms, earthworms speed up the process.

Among the compost-feeding earthworms that can be used, Mangadlo said, the African night crawler is the most suitable for farm production. “These earthworms digest organic matter in their alimentary tract and they produce sanitized, deodorized, and ‘texturized’ humus (castings),” he added.

Mangadlo said the earthworms cost P500 per kilo.

He said the use of compost-feeding earthworms gives additional nutrients to the compost. The vermi-compost or organic fertilizer has 75 percent carbon and 25 percent nitrogen.

“Organic fertilizers, such as vermicompost, have additional micronutrients for the soil while inorganic fertilizers don’t,” he added.

“We put the poor farmers on top of our priority. We want to help them and we found vermicomposting as one of the livelihood activities that we can share with them,” said Teodomiro Luzano, chief of IDS.

The IDS has been conducting trainings on vermi-composting in different areas in Cebu Province.

“Vermicomposting is a good source of income with a small capital,” Mangadlo said. He said that one only needs to invest in hollow blocks or other indigenous materials to build a fence around the compost. Biodegradable materials can come from kitchen wastes and garden rubbish.

Mangadlo said that since the earthworms reproduce, farmers can also sell the creatures to those who are interested in vermicomposting.

“In two months, you will have about three bags of vermicompost which can be sold for P300 per bag and six kilos of earthworms that you can sell for P500 per kilo,” he said. “The return of investment in vermicomposting is really fast.”

Written By Katlene O. Cacho

Source: Sun Star