Vermiculture in Egypt: - FAO - Regional Office for the Near East and

Executive Summary
Vermiculture in Egypt dates since Cleopatra. However, the Green Revolution, with its
dependence on fossil fuelled large scale machinery and operations, together with the
damming of the Nile, has in recent times all but removed the environment in which
compost worms, most commonly Eisenia Foetida, can thrive.
The total quantity of solid wastes generated in Egypt is 118.6 million tons/year in
2007/2008, including municipal solid waste (garbage) and agricultural wastes.
Household waste constitutes about 60% of the total municipal waste quantities, with
the remaining 40% being generated by commercial establishments, service
institutions, streets and gardens, hotels and other entertainment sector entities. Per
capita generation rates in Egyptian cities, villages and towns vary from lower than 0.3
kg for low socio-economic groups and rural areas, to more than 1 kg for higher living
standards in urban centers. On a nationwide average, the composition is about 50-60%
food wastes, 10-20% paper, and 1-7% each of metals, cloth, glass, and plastics, and
the remainder is basically inorganic matter and others.
Currently, solid waste quantities handled by waste management systems are estimated
at about 40,000 tons per day, with 30,000 tons per day being produced in cities, and
the rest generated from the pre-urban and rural areas. Final destinations of municipal
solid waste entail about 8% of the waste being composted, 2% recycled, 2%
landfilled, and 88% dumped in uncontrolled open dumps.
The organic wastes in cities can be as large as 10-15 thousand tons per day. After the
swine flu and the government decision to get rid of all swine used to live on the
organic wastes in the garbage collection sites near the cities, earth worms could be the
alternate biological machines that could handle the wastes with greater revenues and
cleaner production. There is a great opportunity for all municipal waste systems to
adapt the vermicompost in their operation.
Egypt produces around 25 to 30 Mt of agriculture waste annually (around 66,000 tons
per day). Some of this waste is used in the production of organic fertilizers, animal
fodder, food production, energy production, or other useful purposes. Vermiculture is
also a valuable system for converting most of the organic waste into vermicompost.
With rural awareness and training, vermicompost could be produced in all villages.
The target groups of this book are all growers, including organic agriculture growers,
as well as all organic waste producers from as small scale as households to the large
scale urban solid waste operations. The very rich and valuable organic vermicompost
produce will assist in enriching the soil, especially sandy and newly reclaimed soil,
with organic matter and fertilizers in the form of proteins, enzymes, hormones, humus
substances, vitamins, sugars, and synergistic compounds, which makes it as
productive as good soil.
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