Agriculture push: Training to be held to teach new way of making vermicompost
Vermicompost will be made from poisonous parthenium plants
KOLKATA: West Bengal Comprehensive Area Development Corporation (WBCADC) is going for wide-scale agricultural activities in the state by using vermicompost produced from poisonous parthenium plants.
A three-day training programme for the farmers will be held from August 4 to 6 so that they can pass over the technique of producing vermicompost to the Self Help Groups (SHGs) involved in agricultural production undertaken by WBCADC—an autonomous organisation under state Panchayats and Rural Development (P&RD) in Bengal. Two persons from each of the districts will be joining the training programme.
Parthenium plant is considered to be one of the world's most destructive invasive plant species, threatening biodiversity, food security and human health across numerous countries.
“It is a glaring example of how hazards can be converted into assets. We have started using parthenium as vermicompost for growing vegetables at Krishi
Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Sonamukhi in Bankura since June last year and there has been excellent growth of vegetables like tomato, coloured capsicum, black gram, broccoli, coloured cauliflowers (yellow, violet), broccoli, red cabbage etc,” a senior official of WBCADC said.
State P&RD department's Pulak Roy has used this vermicompost for growing coriander leaves at his own land at Uluberia in Howrah and has witnessed excellent growth.
Before flowering, parthenium plants that are available in abundance beside railway tracks and several other condemned places are collected and the materials are chopped into 5-10 cm length and spread into 10 cm height with a radius of 1.0 m diameter.
Then other necessary components are mixed for preparing vermicompost. “Parthenium has high carbon content so it can also act as a good pesticide. It has been found that there is no need for chemical fungicide in seedbed after application of parthenium-based vermicompost,” a senior CADC official said.
The vermicompost has resulted in enhanced germination success, introduced plant-friendly physical features in the hanging seed bed, increased biomass carbon and promoted early growth as reflected in several morphological and biochemical characteristics in plants which had received parthenium vermicompost in comparison to those which had not.
Parthenium growing in agricultural areas can poison livestock which in turn can then affect human health.
Symptoms include mouth ulcers, skin lesions and even death if consumed in large enough quantities.
‘Parthenium has high carbon content so it can also act as a good pesticide. It has been found that there is no need for chemical fungicide in seedbed after application of parthenium-based vermicompost’