Mangalore : Retired professor of St Aloysius College and the designer of vermicompost bin, S Harish Joshy conducted a workshop and demonstration on vermicompost organized by Nirmithi Kendra at Zilla Panchayat hall on September 18.

Speaking on the occasion he said that, community based garbage management system needs to be introduced involving civic workers. The MCC must train civic workers to prepare vermicompost and assure them of giving a 50 per cent share of the compost produced.

He also urged the citizens to voluntarily take up the responsibility of composting waste in order to solve the problem faced on garbage dumping. This kind of system can be introduced in the form of micro entrepreneurship.

Speaking on the benefits he said that, composting include the benefits right from improving the soil fertility to reducing environment pollution.
Joshy said that around 70 to 80 per cent of the waste generated in the houses are organic and if a family of four produces two kilo grams of organic waste everyday then in a year 800 kgs of organic waste can be generated to produce compost.

At present as many 32 educational institutions, port and hospitals have adopted vermicompost. New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) which has implemented the process of vermicomposting, has now planned to set up a vermicompost unit which can produce 30 tonnes of compost annually.

He said that St Aloysius College holds the patent of ‘vermibin’ innovated and designed by him in such a way that it allows enough protection for worms and lets air flow which is important for composting at the cost of Rs 15,000. To start the compost, primarily the coconut husks must be placed on the base of the unit with two sections and pour water on it. Later, waste and cow dung water has to be laid on the bed in different layers and must be kept for three weeks.

After three weeks the contents have to be turned upside down and water has to be sprinkled once in three days. After another three weeks half kg Earthworms should be put to the one unit and leave for another three weeks to get the compost.

Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Tulasi Maddineni inaugurated the workshop and said that 17 solid waste management yards are in progress in different gram panchayats and ZP will set up 50 yards in the coming year.