Vermiwash: A Potential Tool for Crop Production in Organic Agriculture

Abstract

In India, the first green revolution enormously enhanced crop production, but on the other hand, massive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides over a period has resulted in poor soil health, pesticide toxicity, heavy disease and pest incidences, and environmental pollution. Scientists and policy makers are consequently reevaluating agricultural systems that depended more on biological inputs than extensive utilization of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic farming can provide high-quality food without having an adverse effect on the environment or the health of the soil. Vermiwash is emerging as an important potential tool for the promotion of organic agriculture. Vermiwash is a brown coloured, odorless, liquid extract produced from vermicompost in a medium where earthworms are richly populated. It contains mucus, excretory products of worms, and various concentrations of macro, micro, and beneficial nutrients along with beneficial microorganisms, growth hormones, vitamins, enzymes, and amino acids, therefore is a good source for plant nutrition used as foliar spray in sustainable agriculture.