Sankrail in West Bengal saw an exciting development. Many farmers who received support from ACF to manufacture Vermicompost have discontinued it. However, one farmer, Hanif Sheikh, continued his efforts and today has become a vermicompost entrepreneur. He sells around 12 tons of Vermicompost after holding back 2 tons for his consumption. He started with two composting pits provided by ACF in 2008 and has since added another four. Two of the remaining four pits came to him under a subsidy scheme from the Agriculture Department, and the remaining two were from his investments. He uses the stalks of water Hyacinth, available in plenty in the area. He also uses cow dung from his cows and buys them whenever he falls short. He also gets the stalks of the banana post-harvests. He uses labor to cut the Water hyacinth and the banana stalks into small pieces, and after they decompose, he converts them to Vermicompost using his tanks with the worms. He sells the Vermicompost to traders at Rs 22 per kg and consumers who reach out to his house at Rs 20 per kg.
Almost on similar lines is
the story of Sushil Chand Saini from Kurdi Village in Haridwar district. Sushil
has some 20 beds of vermicompost, which he manufactures for his own and
extended families' consumption. He had also sold some 20 Quintals of
Vermicompost this year at Rs 10 per kg. He uses the vermicompost only in his
Sugarcane plant and has seen it to have given excellent results. Sushil Chand has
realized the benefit and seeing him; many other farmers have produced
vermicompost on their farms.
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