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

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5.3.2. Vermicomposting of agricultural wastes Vermicomposting of crop residues and cattle shed wastes can not only produce a value-added product (vermicomposting) but at the same time acts as best culture medium for large-scale production of earthworms. The composting ability and growth performance of E. eugeniae were evaluated by using a variety of combinations of crop residues and cattle dung, under laboratory conditions. The best results in terms of nutrient enhancement in the end product were recorded in vermicomposted beds as compared to experimental composting without worms. Moreover, vermicompost showed higher amounts of total nitrogen, available phosphorous, exchangeable potassium and calcium content. The ready end product showed relatively lower C:N ratio and comparatively was a more stabilized product. A considerable amount of worm biomass and cocoons were produced in different treatments. However, quality of the feed stuff, used in this study was of a primary importance, determining the earthworm‟s growth parameter, e.g. individual biomass, cocoon numbers, growth rate. The results suggest that crop residues can be used as an efficient culture media for large-scale production of E. eugeniae for sustainable land restoration practices at low-input basis (Suthar, 2008). 5.3.3. Vermicomposts effect on plant growth It is well established that earthworms have beneficial physical, biological and chemical effects on soils and can increase plant growth and crop yields in both natural and managed ecosystems. These beneficial effects have been attributed to improvements in soil properties and structure, to greater availability of mineral nutrients to plants, and to biologically active metabolites acting as plant growth regulators. Earthworm (Eisenia foetida) compost strongly affects soil fertility by increasing availability of nutrients, improving soil structure and water holding capacity. It has been suggested that earthworms can increase the velocity of decomposition of organic residues and also produce several bioactive humic substances. These substances are endowed with hormone like activity that improves plant nutrition and growth. Humic acids (HAs) comprise one of the major fractions of humic substances. An experiment was conducted to pinpoint precisely a biological mechanism by which vermicomposts can influence plant growth positively and produce significant increases in overall plant productivity, independent of nutrient uptake. Mixing the container media with increasing concentrations of vermicompost-derived humic acids increased plant growth, and larger concentrations usually reduced growth, in a pattern similar to the plant growth responses observed after incorporation of vermicomposts into container media with all needed mineral nutrition. Plant growth was increased by treatments of the plants with 50–500 mg/kg humic acids, but decreased significantly when the concentrations of humic acids in the container medium exceeded 500–1000 mg/kg. Although some of the growth enhancement by humic acids could have been partially due to increased rates of nitrogen uptake by the plants, most of the results reported exceed those that would result from such a mechanism, very considerably. However, this does not exclude the possibility of other contributory mechanisms by 50
which humic acids could affect plant growth. There is a further alternative explanation for the hormone-like mode of action of humic acids in these experiments. In our laboratory, we have extracted plant growth regulators such as indole acetic acid, gibberellins and cytokinins from vermicomposts in aqueous solution and demonstrated that these can have significant effects on plant growth. Such substances may be relatively transient in soils. However, there seems a strong possibility that such plant growth regulators which are relatively transient may become adsorbed on to humates and act in conjunction with them to influence plant growth (Atiyeh et al., 2002). Vermicompost has been promoted as a viable alternative container media component for the horticulture industry. The addition of vermicompost in media mixes of 10% and 20% volume had positive effects on plant growth. The greatest growth enhancement was on seedlings during the plug stage of the bedding plant crop cycle. Growth increases up to 40% were observed in dry shoot tissue and leaf area of marigold, tomato and green pepper. The increased vigor exhibited was also maintained when the seedling plugs were transplanted into larger containers with standard commercial potting substrates without vermicompost. Additionally, there were benefits apparently resulting from the nutritional content of the vermicompost. All of the plugs were produced without the input of additional fertilization. The potential exists for growers to use vermicompost-amended commercial potting substrates during the plug production stage without the use of additional fertilizer (Bachman and Metzger, 2008). 5.4. Potentiality of vermicompost as a source of fertilizer in Egypt Considering urban wastes as mentioned in the previous chapter for the year 2005 ranged from 15 to 16 million tons, compostable matter in the wastes as 50-60% and average collection efficiency as 70%. Egypt has an estimated potential of producing from urban wastes about 1.99 million tons of compost each year containing about 21,000 ton N, 5,000 ton P, and 10,640 ton K (Table 5.2). Inappropriate solid waste management and production of poor quality of composts are main constraint in exploiting such large amount plant nutrients for increasing crop productivity. On the other hand, agricultural wastes in Egypt could produce almost four times compost material compared to urban wastes, assuming that 100% of it is organic material and all of it is accessible to the grower. There are other advantages of this waste, which are the availability of space and directly linked to the farm. This minimizes the need of collection and transportation. The amounts of N, P and K that could be produced from agricultural wastes are almost four folds of that of the urban wastes. From both sources, the total composted material is almost 10 million tons, containing about 10 thousand tons of nitrogen, 20 thousand tons of phosphorus, and 41 thousand tons of potassium. Nitrogen fertilizer obtained from organic wastes could save up to 5.9% of that consumed in 2008; while more than 10% of phosphorus fertilizers consumed in 2008 could be saved. 51
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Vermiculture in Egypt: Current Deve
Page 3 and 4:
The designations employed and the p
Page 5 and 6:
4.3. Overview of organic waste reco
Page 7 and 8:
List of tables Table 1.1 Major fami
Page 9: SF6 Sulphur hexafluoride SWM Solid
Page 12 and 13: Executive Summary Vermiculture in E
Page 14 and 15: For three millennia (3,000 years),
Page 16 and 17: 1.3. Types of earthworms Earthworm
Page 18 and 19: enclosure could not be ascribed wit
Page 20 and 21: 2. Trial of vermiculture and vermic
Page 22 and 23: Table 2.2. Advantages and disadvant
Page 24 and 25: 2.1.3. Moisture The bedding used mu
Page 26 and 27: The growth of E. fetida in organic
Page 28 and 29: 18 Photo 2.3. Commercial vermicompo
Page 30 and 31: 2.3. The trial experience in Egypt
Page 32 and 33: 2.3.4. Moisture Photo 2.9. The loca
Page 34 and 35: - Placing narrow strips of 1-2 day
Page 36 and 37: 3. Use of compost worms globally in
Page 38 and 39: vermicastings produced per crop is
Page 40 and 41: users in Dharwad) and $3.2 per ton
Page 42 and 43: 3.4. Vermicompost „teas‟ in Ohi
Page 44 and 45: 4. Current on-farm and urban organi
Page 46 and 47: The clearly evident symptoms of the
Page 48 and 49: whole; in many cities the municipal
Page 50 and 51: 4.3. Overview of organic waste reco
Page 52 and 53: Table 4.4. Egypt‟s Integrated Sol
Page 54 and 55: Table 4.6. Solid waste amount produ
Page 56 and 57: which needs to find other alternati
Page 58 and 59: The latest fertilizers consumption
Page 62 and 63: Table 5.3. Potential nutrients that
Page 64 and 65: demand in the world. Thus earthworm
Page 66 and 67: earthworms, delivering a protein pu
Page 68 and 69: the cost of fish-keeping, but also
Page 70 and 71: aquaculture started to exert some s
Page 72 and 73: 7. Current on-farm and urban organi
Page 74 and 75: 7.2 Total emissions from waste sect
Page 76 and 77: Greenhouse gases Source & Sink Cate
Page 78 and 79: CH4 ; Figure 7.1. Egypt‟s greenho
Page 80 and 81: properties of the treated sludge, t
Page 82 and 83: The United Nations Framework Conven
Page 84 and 85: 2. Abatement of nitrous oxide from
Page 86 and 87: 9. Analysis of the Egyptian context
Page 88 and 89: Table 9.1. Summary of identified mi
Page 90 and 91: References Aldadi, H.; A.R. Parvare
Page 92 and 93: Ghafoor, A.; M. Hassan and Z.H. Alv
Page 94 and 95: Sunitha, ND; R. S. Giraddi,; K. A.
Page 96 and 97: How long will the material ingested
Page 98 and 99: earthworm test species. This specie
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