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Vermicompost and Soil Health

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Soil Health

Part of the book series: Soil Biology ((SOILBIOL,volume 59))

Abstract

The greatest challenge in the coming years is to fulfill the demand for safe food, healthy soil, and a pollution-free environment for the growing populations of the world. Indiscriminate use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides in conventional crop production is considered to be one of the prime factors for deterioration in crop productivity, degradation of soil health, and serious threats to the environment and human health that largely affect the sustainability of the agricultural production system. With increasing awareness of the ill effects of conventional farming/chemical faming, recent years have seen renewed interest in the sustainability of our food production system by revitalizing and restoring soil fertility and reviving microbial activity to make the soil lively and healthy. Consequently, awareness has been generated on recycling of available organic residues for the production of quality organic manures. Vermicompost is a nutrient-rich, microbiologically active organic amendment that is obtained in the form of castings by earthworms of ingested biomass after undergoing physical, chemical, and microbial transformation. Several research findings have established the beneficial effect of vermicompost on soil health through improvement in the physical, chemical, and biological properties and subsequently better crop growth and yield. Microbial enrichment of vermicompost by addition of biofertilizers and bioinoculants further enhances the microbial population of the soil, nutrient mineralization uptake, and availability of nutrients. Vermicomposting is gradually emerging as a potential technology for recycling available organic wastes as a source of quality organic manures, and vermicompost is rising as a promising organic fertilizer for maintaining good soil health and crop growth as well as reducing dependence on nonrenewable resources. The present work highlights the beneficial role of vermicompost and the preparation and utilization of vermicompost with special emphasis on how vermicompost can address the emerging soil health problems for sustainability in soil health and the ecosystem.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vegetable and Spice Crops, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya (UBKV), Pundibari, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, India

    Ranjit Chatterjee & Ankita Debnath

  2. Department of Vegetable Science, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India

    Subhalaxmi Mishra

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  1. Ranjit Chatterjee
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  2. Ankita Debnath
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Swami Shraddhanand College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Bhoopander Giri

  2. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Ajit Varma

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Chatterjee, R., Debnath, A., Mishra, S. (2020). Vermicompost and Soil Health. In: Giri, B., Varma, A. (eds) Soil Health. Soil Biology, vol 59. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44364-1_4

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