It’s high time to understand the importance of organic farming to beat all the future hazardous, land degradation and mostly to save humans and Mother Nature from massive destruction.
It is quite notable that while India has a rich history in organic farming, but still it falls into the trap of different chemical fertilizers with the manipulation of double yield. The Green Revolution which is the entry gate for the entire chemical product started in our country in 1966-67 to increase higher productivity in agriculture, which has resulted in today's soil health, its quality, and even human health.
Excessive use of chemicals has led to the deterioration in food quality, poisoning of food items and especially destroying our whole eco-system.
We have listed out the reasons why you should choose organic farming rather than rely on chemical farming.
What is Vermicompost or Vermiwash?
Vermicomposting is the usage of earthworms to convert vegetable waste to a 100 percent natural plant fertilizer. Vermicompost is a liquid organic fertilizer similar to the color of honey, which is produced by earthworms during earthworm compost production or even separately.
Earthworms eat their food by making a tunnel in the soil. These tunnels contain micro-organisms. The water passing through this tunnel brings down nutrients from it in soluble form and plants absorb it easily. It contains many nutrients, hormones such as cytokinin, oxytocin, vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, useful microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes (nitrogen fixes and phosphates soluble), etc. All the nutrients in it are present in a soluble form which is easily available to the plants.
Benefits of Vermicompost
It’s All Organic
You don’t need to worry at all, because it’s all organic which has no harm to human health. There are no harmful chemicals and it does not need to be mixed with anything.
It has More Nutrition than Chemical
It’s people's wrong notion that chemical fertilizer led to higher production while organic farming has shown great results. As per reports, the most significant benefit is that the nutrients in earthworm compost are very easily absorbed by the roots of plants. Unlike chemical fertilizers, vermicompost is not easily flushed from the soil because of the worm mucus that it contains. Plants have longer to obtain the nutrients and get the maximum benefit.
It Leads to Healthier Plants
It reduces the need for pesticides in your plant. As the compost works on the plants and they become healthier, the need for pesticides is reduced. The reduction in pesticides helps the area to recover faster and can start an improvement cycle that will run on.
This compares with the typical cycle when chemical fertilizers are used. The chemical fertilizers might increase plant yields, but they do nothing for plant health. Continued use of chemical fertilizers inevitably leads to a breakdown in the soil. Ammonia and salts build up which attacks the plants making them less able to withstand disease.
It Gives Good Growth to Plant
The natural support for the plants is not available with chemical fertilizers. Among the hormones that earthworm compost contains are hormones that help plants to grow. Germination of seeds is encouraged, the growth of the plant is stronger and the crop yield improved. The distribution of the compost through the soil also helps to encourage healthy root growth.
It Comes with the Capacity of Water Retention
Reports say that Vermicompost is a colloid and holds up to nine times its own weight in water. The water is held at an organic level so it tends to evaporate slowly while still being available to the plants.
It Slowly Releases Nutrition
Unlike chemical fertilizers that bombard plants with huge amounts of nutrients that are going to drain by and eventually be washed out of the soil by the rain, it slowly provides nutrition to the plants. The chemicals can get into the aquifers and contaminate your drinking water.
This can be avoided by using compost which is lower in nutrient content but which does not get washed out of the soil. The nutrients are held in place and released slowly so that the plants receive what they need over a prolonged period.
Quite Affordable
Farmer’s don’t need to go for buying those high prices fertilizers and rather they can make it at home.
It’s all about Micro-organisms
As per reports, when the compost is passing through the body of the worms, it is enriched with bacteria and microbes. These help plants to become more disease resistant and also repel some plant pests. The presence of increased microbial activity can make the area much more attractive to birds which also helps to remove plant pests.
