Vermi-Composting

Students from classes VI-VIII of St.Mary’s School Dwarka prepared manure in the school.

This was done in a group. It took approximately fifty days for the manure to be prepared. The manure was made with help of kitchen waste, dry leaves, worms, sand and peels of fruits and vegetables. There were different stages involved in process of preparing. 

Firstly the sand was poured into the pit, followed by dry leaves and worms. After the manure was packed into cloth bags made from old bed sheets and sarees.  Each recycled bag contained half a kg of manure.  Finally, the students and teachers went to market to sell manure. The students went to the nearby malls residential societies and nurseries. They advertised the product to the shopkeepers, customers and passersby. They told them about the process of manufacturing and also sold it enthusiastically. It was a great experience for the students, as well as for the teachers as it was a first for both.

 

 

How to set up Vermicompost pit

Some call it the lazy man’s compost while other see it as a practical place for  waste overflow. However, you look at it, Vermicomposting is a simple way of preparing enriched composts with the use of earthworms. It is one of the easiest methods to recycle agricultural waste and to produce qualist compost. Earthworms, popularly known as “Black Gold” consume biomass and excrete it in the digested form which is beneficial for soil.

Vermicomposting allows students to learn about the process that keep the Earth healthy and also create a resource for school or neighborhood.

Vermicomposting is done by various methods, among them; bad and pit methods are most common. Before preparing the vermicompost, we have to make sure that the vermicompost, unit is in a cool, moist and shady place. Once the pit is ready, lay a bed of paddy straw in it. Then at the height of 4 inches spread cow dung and chopped dried leafy materials in the proportion of 3:1. This is kept for partial decomposition for 15-20 days. Take care to see that the dung is not very lumpy. Once the earthworms have been place, you are ready to dump the wet waste that you segregated. Make sure that the water is sprinkled immediately after the introduction of worms. Keep adding to the garbage until the pile of garbage is at least a foot high. The vermicompost pit should be covered with old gunny bags and water is to be sprinkled on it to keep it moist. After thirty days, one will notice that the raw material is completely decomposed and appears black and granular. Your vermicompost is now ready. We can now use this vermicompost as fertilizers for plants and trees.

Vermicompost will not only make the school more clean and less polluted but children will also understand their role in maintaining a healthy environment. This process is not only economically viable but an environmentally safe nutrient supplement for organic food production. Moreover, it is an easily adoptable low cost technology which provides efficient conversion of organic wastes or crop for animals.

Thus, it is both rewarding and satisfying.

Best out of Waste

St. Mary's new adventure 'Vermenterprise' is going underway! We are all very pleased and excited to watch our new guests-the worms doing their activity of producing organic manure.
Being a green school we profess on the importance of the usage of organic materials for day to day use. This project has created much enthusiasm among all. Watching the worms do thier activity arouses a great interest.
The manure will have to be sold to the members of our community. To link this we've decided to make cloth bags to pluck the manure in. So, to carry on with our endeavor, children brought old and discarded clothes to make bags. The bags had to be made to hold 1/2 to 1Kg of manure

This project is underway. Students are cutting and serving to make bags. This is 'Best Out of Waste.'

Vermicomposting

We know that you all are wondering how our worm farm is doing.So,here is some news for you.For the past few days even our team members are wondering what these red worms might be doing in the pits since the time they were introduced to the whole new world of sumptuous food.

Our team members hope that they are carrying on their work of satisfying their hunger pangs and in the process also fulfilling our motive of composting. The vegetable scraps, dry leaves and grass has started disintegrating and the soil appears to be more brown-black in colour.

The weather conditions in Delhi is also conducive in maintaining the dampness in the pit and we are eagerly waiting for our red worms friends to accomplish their task so that we have our first harvest. Our anxiety and curiosity of unveiling the pits is making us restless but we need a little patience for the moment of truth.

Happy composting till our next post appears on your screen.

Just to say Hello!

We know that you all are wondering how our worm farm is doing.So,here is some news for you.For the past few days even our team members are wondering what these red worms might be doing in the pits since the time they were introduced to the whole new world of sumptuous food.

Our team members hope that they are carrying on their work of satisfying their hunger pangs and in the process also fulfilling our motive of composting. The vegetable scraps, dry leaves and grass has started disintegrating and the soil appears to be more brown-black in colour.

The weather conditions in Delhi is also conducive in maintaining the dampness in the pit and we are eagerly waiting for our red worms friends to accomplish their task so that we have our first harvest. Our anxiety and curiosity of unveiling the pits is making us restless but we need a little patience for the moment of truth.

Happy composting till our next post appears on your screen.

Season in Delhi,India

Delhi-Drenched in water due to heavy rainfall; Cool Breeze and Smiling faces. This is the face of Delhi in the month of August.

Our worms are enjoying this weather and the temperature is appropriate for them to breed. The compost is moist and the water can easily undergo the process of rotting to form vermicompost. Volunteers visited the vermicompost pit and analyzed the current situation. They mixed the organic matter and worms again. The level of excitement has risen after seeing the current condition of the vermicompost. An additional bag of leaf litter is ready to be added to the compost.

Teachers and student volunteers have started working on the marketing and selling strategies. Children are being made aware of the benefits of using eco-friendly manure.

The staff and volunteers are regularly monitoring the vermicompost formation and are eagerly waiting the day. When the vermicompost will be ready for sale.  

Research program

Having conducted a thorough research and choosing the business enterprise to be started, the students of all the teams involved in school enterprise prepared a business and financial plan under the guidance of the teachers. Different departments such as production department, finance department and marketing department analysed the various strategies to decide the business plan which will be practiced. The students gave the background about the school in the business plan and laid down the objective to be achieved. They also decided upon the operational plan i.e. how the product (vermicompost) will be produced, advertised and sold in the target market, what sales promotional strategies should be adopted to increase sales & how the profits will be utilised. They also analysed the sustainability of the project & how business cab be expanded to a large scale in the long run.

The financial plan was made after conducting several meetings with the managing committee. The cost structure and profit was also estimated.