Vermicompost Production using Wild Collected Different Earthworm Species from Madurai District, Tamil Nadu, India and their Qualitative and Quantitative Evaluations

Author(s): Karthigeyan M, Mani P and Alagesan P

Abstract: Earthworms are the potential sources of compost production; they are called vermicompost which are the promising sources for best agriculture practice. For best understanding the local wild earthworm species for the vermicompost production, this study was carried out. There were four different species of earthworm was collected from five different location of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu, India and they were identified as Drawida sp., Perionyx excavatus and Lampito mauritii and Drawida japonica. All of the earthworm species were individual tested for the production of vermicompost using a 14kg mixed biomass waste as the bioconversion substrate and a commercial available earthworm species of Perionyx excavatius was used for comparison. Among the wild isolated earthworm from this study, Perionyx excavatius showed the highest vermicompost production with 13 Kg and 1 Kg as unused biomass with 690g of final earthworm weight, significantly, this was higher than the commercial type earthworm, Perionyx excavatius which produced 10.3 Kg vermicompost and 3.7 Kg as unused biomass with 607g earthworm final weight. Moreover, the vermicompost produced from wild collected P. excavatius evidenced appreciable nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic carbon than the other earthworm species of both wild and commercial types. From these observations, this study suggesting the use of wild type earthworm species, Perionyx excavatius for more appreciable bioconversion of mixed waste biomass to the valuable vermicompost production.

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