Some Perspectives on Vermicompost Utilization in Organic Agriculture

Over the past decades, agriculture has heavily relied on industrially produced inorganic sources of nutrients to fertilize crops for attaining the higher yields required to feed the growing world population. However, there is a growing realization that this type of agriculture tends to feed the crop rather than feeding the soil, which is a precious resource that is being degraded by the current forms of crop fertilization. Organic agriculture is now gaining momentum as a sustainable form of agriculture as it replicates nature by feeding the soil to feed the plant, thus increasing the resilience of soils to degradation. This chapter presents insights into how vermicomposting technology can be critical in driving the adoption of organic agriculture, whilst highlighting some of the areas where research is required to see this being a success.