The term vermicompost is used for humus-like substances obtained as a result of the process of composting organic waste using earthworms. Vermicompost can be produced by feeding various animal (cattle, sheep, horses, rabbits, etc.) droppings, forest products waste, kitchen waste, pruning and harvesting waste from lawn-fruit-vegetable gardens, paper waste and many other organic wastes to earthworms. The organic wastes are digested by a large number of microorganisms in the digestive system of the worms and transformed into vermicompost, which is odorless and rich in organic matter. The aim is to process these waste materials as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Our country is rich in these organic wastes. By utilizing these wastes as vermicompost, the dependence on chemical fertilizers in agricultural production will be reduced and great economic and environmental benefits will be achieved.
In the face of the gradual decrease in the organic matter in our agricultural soils (decreasing below 1%), soil improvement issues are becoming more important. For this purpose, the use of vermicompost fertilizer, which contains about 40% total organic matter, is of great importance in preventing the decreasing productivity of soils and entrusting them to future generations. Unfortunately, "farm fertilizers", which are very abundant in our country among the wastes, cannot be used as compost due to many faulty practices, and when used in this way, they bring many environmental problems. As a result of various laboratory and field-greenhouse trials, by converting these fertilizers into the second product vermicompost produced by feeding these fertilizers to earthworms; the properties that create environmental problems in this fertilizer disappear and it is accepted as an important agricultural input for soils by turning into organic fertilizer. The fact that vermicompost obtained by feeding various wastes to earthworms (Eisenia foetida etc.) is a good organic fertilizer for agricultural soils is also important in terms of economic aspects.
Vermicompost is a valuable organic fertilizer that does not pose any health risk due to hygienic production techniques and some characteristics of earthworms, does not contain heavy metals and harmful microorganisms, increases the production potential of soils and has an average N, P, K content of 1.5-2%, 2.5-4.1% and 1.4-9.2% respectively.