Value addition to recalcitrant and voluminous palm biomass residues through vermicomposting technology

Abstract

Among the low external input resources, vermicompost is one the major components of organic farming practices for sustaining soil health, fertility and crop productivity. Vermicompost production is a process that can recycle many of the agricultural refuse into wealth. Many crop residues are now a days being converted to vermicompost. Coconut and arecanut palms are two important plantation crops widely grown in southern India and other states. Put together, about 2.4 million ha is under cultivation for these two palms in India. These plantation crops have the character of generating voluminous quantities of biomass residues that are difficult to decompose naturally because of high lignin contents. Using the earthworms, Eudrilus sp., Eudrilus eugeniae and Eisenia fetida, adapted to converting the difficult-to-decompose coconut and arecanut leaves, a unique vermicomposting technology for these palm wastes have been developed at ICAR- CPCRI. As a side-product, vermiwash can also be produced from this technology which can act as liquid organicfertilizer and used in fertigation. In this review, we highlight the production process, field studies and their role in organic farming of the plantation crops.