From 250 g of worms to 4 chambers: 500 kg of compost every month and a half, Tk 12 a kg

In Sukhchhari village, Amirabad union, Lohagara, Chattogram, a woman began making vermicompost in 2017 on the advice of the union agriculture officer. The agriculture office gave her 250 g of worms. She now has five kg of worms. From the dung of two cows kept at home she produces 500 kg of compost every 1.5 months, and she now has four chambers. After using it on her own two mixed vegetable and fruit gardens she sells the surplus. Her five-member family once struggled; she now calls herself comfortable. According to the Prothom Alo report, each farmer in the village has two to five chambers and makes 80 to 500 kg every 45 days. The compost sells at Tk 12 a kg, and worms fetch Tk 1,000 to 1,500 a kg. Another farmer in the village earns Tk 40,000 a year from compost and worms. The agriculture office supplies the worms free, and chambers fit in small spaces around the home, so there is no extra cost. About 50 people, mostly women, now make it in Sukhchhari, and the village was declared a vermicompost village in 2020.