Wriggling it out: Vermi, Vermicomposting, and Vermicasts

Fun fact: the food that gets to people plates – fruits, vegetable, chicken, meat comes all comes from the work of one little hero, an earthworm.

Life involves a series of patterns, cycles and chains. When it comes to food, a tiny, little helper called the ‘earthworm’ lies in the bottom of that pattern, cycle or chain of life. The earthworm is responsible in producing the healthy and delicious meal on each person’s dinner table.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle

Vermicomposting is the process of making organic fertilizer used in crop production to boost growth and yielding ability of crops with earthworms as the primary agent. The word ‘Vermis’ comes the Latin root word ‘worm’, resembling the spaghetti-like pasta or ‘little worms’. In lay man’s term, the product of vermicomposting is called the ‘vermicast’ or much simply understood as the earthworm’s poop. The vermicast is then used as the fertilizer for the soil, where the crops are planted and produced.

Dr. Dennis Apuan PhD, faculty of the College of Agriculture of Xavier University (XU) and the author of the study on the Development of Vermicomposting Protocol I, views vermicomposting as a type of practice on sustainable agriculture that could last and benefit future generations. This type of practice improves soil quality by making compact soil become soft and pliable and therefore, ideal for gardening and farming. This can also increase the population of microorganisms leading to a better quality, fertility and productivity of the soil.

Vermicomposting may be foreign to many people’s ears, but it has been around in the Philippines for quite some time. Adopted by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) during the 1970’s, the practice of vermicomposting has rapidly spread across the country after research results shown that plants respond efficiently to the application of the vermicasts. It was also around the early 2000s when Cagayan de Oro has started practicing vermicomposting in Manresa.

Keep feet on the ground

Just two years ago, the Philippine Senate passed Republic Act No. 10068 or the Organic Agriculture Act 2010, an act providing for the development and promotion of organic agriculture in the Philippines and for other purposes. It is declared that the policy of the State is to promote, propagate, develop further and implement the practice of organic agriculture in the Philippines that will cumulatively condition and enrich the fertility of the soil, increase farm productivity, reduce pollution and destruction of the environment, prevent the depletion of natural resources, further protect the health of farmers, consumers, and the general public, and save on imported farm inputs. As a response, most of the Filipino farmers are venturing to vermicomposting.

Also, as part of the response to RA 10068, activities from the Agricultural Science Department of the College of Agriculture in Xavier University concentrated and specialized in vermicomposting, after receiving the Center of Development (COD) status two years ago. The university has put up different vermicomposting units: the Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan), Sustainable Sanitation (SuSan) and the vermicomposting facility located near XU Museum.

The EcoSan is a project headed by Dr. Ichion, under the College of Medicine, where vermicomposting is used to recycle human waste. SuSan is connected with Ecoville’s vermicomposting facility; the vermicomposting facility near the XU Museum is a product of XU’s President, Fr. Roberto Yap, SJ during his first 100 days in the office.

Cast your casts

Mary Ann Merculio, faculty of the Crop Science Department of XU, conducted a study on the ‘Baseline Postharvest Quality Evaluation of Xavier University and Commercially Produced Vermicasts’. It evaluates the commercially produced vermicasts, tackles with the increasing number of vermigrowers and the safe handling and quality of the vermicasts. It is also for XU to give the vermin industry the monitoring cast quality and the formulation of local standards to help producers achieve a uniform and quality end product.

In her study, Merculio evaluated the vermicasts produced by commercial vermigrowers from Balingasag, Lunocan (Manolo Fortich), Damilag (Manolo Fortich), Alae (Manolo Fortich), Canitoan, CDO, Lumbia, CDO and those under XU. The study was patterned under Australian Standard (AS) 4445. The vermicasts were compared in terms of physico-chemical attributes like loss of weight on ignition (LOI), moisture content (MC), foreign matter (FM), bulk density (BD), C:N ratio, pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and % total of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.

The vermicasts were also tested if harmful pathogens were present. The study used Tecra Sticks, a fast kit, to detect possible pathogens like Salmonella and E. Coli. These types of pathogens are dangerous to one’s health if the vermicast is used as fertilizers for crops. “We are dealing with food and contamination in the field; [it] can also lead to food contamination, so ang challenge is when we use organic inputs, dapat ang mga inputs safe especially when we do composting. Ang substrate anang composting is manure and ang manure kay naay mga microorganisms pero mawala na siya if properly composted ang imong manure.” Merculio said.

It was discovered that Salmonella is negative to all vermin facilities. However, for the E. Coli testing, Canitoan was the only facility that came out with negative E. Coli.

Comparing with the standards of AS 4445, results of Merculio’s study show that the vermicasts with the highest quality comes from Manresa, Lunocan, Damilag and Canitoan with 56%. XU followed with 50%, Lumbia and Balingasag with 42%. Ecoville and Alae ranked last in quality with 33%.

“Ang implication ani niya katong pinaka dagko ang commercially produced na cast, we need to do something to improve the quality. The college has to do something to improve the quality of the cast labi na sa commercial growers.” Merculio added.

Worms with benefits

Vermicomposting plays a great role in sustainable agriculture. With the proper methods and practices of the process, producing vermicasts, may it be commercially or independently, paves a way to a greener environment.

“By practicing this vermicomposting, we can assure that environment is protected in a sense that having lots of organic matter in the soil can minimize erosion. It’s also a way putting organic fertilizer like vermicast and vermicompost – can minimize erosion, so therefore, this can also help and conserve. And if we can conserve soil, agriculture can continue on and on, it’s productivity can be maintained through generations so, therefore it can contribute greatly to the whole concept of sustainable agriculture,” Dr. Apuan said.

Aside from conserving the soil, evaluating vermicasts can lead to a safe food production. The quality of the organic inputs will greatly affect crops growing into healthy and delicious food that will end up on that dinner table.