Solar Power and Regenerative Agriculture in Burma

In the last report, Vermiculture 1, I described the advatanges of using worm castings as fertilizer and for building good soil structure. Now I will continue with more detailed information on the nitty gritty of worm farming.

Although keeping composting worms is not difficult, care should be taken to provide the worms with as close to ideal conditions as possible.Ideal conditions allow the worms to THRIVE, rather than just SURVIVE. The first condition concerns the Moisture/Aeration continuum - the worms like their bedding to be like a wrung-out sponge, but not much wetter. They also need air movement, to bring oxygen and to remove noxious gases. Getting that balance right depends on the type of container chosen, the amount of added water and the type of bedding used. The second condition concerns the Food/Bedding continuum - food can double as bedding, but worms will not be happy in a slimey, anaerobic mess. The third condition concerns temperature - between 20 to 30 degrees C is ideal. Below 20 degrees, food consumption and reproduction goes way down and above 30 degees, some worm species will expire. In addition, one must also take care of the microbes, who do the fine decomposition, both in the bin and inside the gut of the worm. Consider both the worms and microbes as "livestock" whose needs must be met.

I have been experimenting with many types of container, from 3 gallon "Cordura"-type fabric bags up to 120 gallon plywood and sheetmetal boxes. It is also possible to expand up to boxes having a volume of thousands of gallons, but these are typically made of brick and cement or welded metal. The simplest container is a hoop of metal mesh or woven bamboo, placed directly on the ground and when food is added, our native Malaysian Blue worms magically appear and stay as long as close-to-ideal conditions are maintained. Many areas of the world have native composting worms of varying species, but the most widely distributed is the Red Wiggler (Eisenia Fetida). Our Malaysian Blues (Perionyx Excavatus) have an odd and inconvenient trait, which forces them to flee the the confines of the bin in stormy weather. No-one is quite sure why, but I suspect that it is due to the variations in atmospheric pressure during thunder storms. For that reason, I now keep the Malaysian Blues outside, in woven bins as described above, from where they can come and go freely. But the African Night Crawlers (Eudrilus Eugeniae), (a much more placid worm), I keep inside.

When we have visitors to the farm, they are usually very keen to see the worm bins and they are impressed by the high quality of the fertilzer (castings). I think they are somewhat intimidated by the discipline required to look after the worms, and would prefer to buy the castings, if the price was right. So, I try to encourage the more enterprising of our students to take up worm farming as a business. In some countries, like the Philippines and Thailand, vermiculture is a well established part of small scale farming.

 I apologise that I am not able to attach any photos, as the bandwidth here is too low. However, can you get a fuller description of Vermiculture accompanied by photos, in an article I recently wrote for ECHO Asia. The link is just below. It is fundraising season again for Solar Roots, so please donate as much as you can.

Links:

• https://www.echocommunity.org/en/resources/dcc8ec46-a715-4ecc-a50b-a6d8b624b0d2