Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 95±98

Vermicomposting of crop residues and cattle dung with Eisenia

foetida
Sudha Bansal, K.K. Kapoor *
Department of Microbiology, Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar 125004, India
Received 20 October 1999; received in revised form 22 November 1999; accepted 25 November 1999

Abstract
We studied vermicomposting with Eisenia foetida of mustard residues and sugarcane trash mixed with cattle dung in a 90-day
composting experiment. Vermicomposting resulted in signi®cant reduction in C:N ratio and increase in mineral N, after 90 days of
composting, over treatments uninoculated with earthworms. Microbial activity, as measured by dehydrogenase assay, increased up
to 60 days and declined on further incubation. There was more total N in the compost prepared by earthworm inoculation.
However, the di€erences were not signi®cant. Total P, K and Cu contents did not di€er in compost prepared with earthworm
inoculation from the uninoculated treatments. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Vermicomposting; Earthworms; Crop residues; Cattle dung; Decomposition; Microbial activity; Eisenia foetida

1. Introduction be mixed with other, N-rich, organic wastes in order to

Maintenance of soil organic matter for sustained soil
productivity requires the input of organic manures, crop
residues, green manures and other organic wastes in
agriculture. Crop residues and animal excreta are the
organic wastes generated by agricultural activities.
Proper disposal of these wastes by recycling can supply
plant nutrients and improve soil physical conditions and
environmental quality (Mishra et al., 1989; Bhardwaj,
1995). Composting is one method of utilization of or-
ganic wastes to produce manure, rich in plant nutrients.
The role of earthworms in improving soil fertility is well
known. Earthworms feed on organic matter and excrete
undigested matter as worm casts. Recently, there has
been much emphasis on preparation of vermicompost
by use of earthworms. Many studies have been made on
the vermicomposting of animal excreta, sewage sludge
and agroindustrial wastes (Butt, 1993; Mitchell, 1997;
Edwards, 1998). However, there is a little information
on the use of crop residues for the production of ver-
micompost. The crop residues are poor in N and need to
*
Corresponding author. Fax: +91-1662-34952.
E-mail address: hau@hau.hry.nic.in (K.K. Kapoor).
provide nutrients and an inoculum of microorganisms
(Mpoame and Nguekam, 1994; Elvira et al., 1996). The
present study was conducted to evaluate the role of
earthworms in composting of crop residues mixed with
cattle dung. Chemical changes and microbial activity
were studied to determine the suitability of Eisenia
foetida for vermicomposting.
2. Methods
2.1. Organic wastes and earthworms
Mustard (Brassica juncea) residues consisting of ma-
ture pod walls and stems, sugarcane (Saccharum o€ci-
narum) trash, and cattle dung were procured from the
experimental farm of Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar. The crop residues were air dried before use. The
cattle dung consisted of a mixture of faeces and urine
without any bedding material. Mustard residues, sug-
arcane trash and cattle dung contained 54.9%, 53.4%
and 49.4% organic C and 0.69%, 0.48% and 0.73% total
N on dry weight basis with C:N ratios of 79.6, 111.3 and
67.7, respectively.
The culture of earthworms (Eisenia foetida) was ob-
tained from the University of Agricultural Sciences,
Bangalore, and was maintained on cattle dung.

0960-8524/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 8 5 2 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 7 3 - X
96 S. Bansal, K.K. Kapoor / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 95±98
2.2. Composting experiment
The composting mixture consisted of a mixture of
cattle dung and crop residues in a ratio of 3:7 on dry
weight basis. In one treatment cattle dung alone was
also taken for comparison. Ten kilograms of material
(dry weight) was put in cemented pits (60 ´ 60 ´ 90 cm3 ).
Moisture was maintained to about 60% of water holding
capacity. In the treatment with earthworms, 100 mature
earthworms were introduced after 15 days of decom-
position. This was done so as to avoid exposure of
worms to high temperature during the initial thermo-
philic stage of composting.
Samples were drawn at 0, 15, 30, 60 and 90 days. The
0 day refers to time of initial mixing of the wastes before
preliminary decomposition. The earthworms were re-
moved manually and vermicompost was analyzed for
organic C (Nelsen and Sommers, 1982), total N
(Bremner and Mulvaney, 1982), mineral N (Bremner,
1965) and dehydrogenase activity (Casida et al., 1964).
At 90 days total N, total P (John, 1970), total K (Elico
¯ame photometer) and Zn and Cu (Perkin Elmer,
AAnalyst 100 atomic absorption spectrophotometer)
were determined. For estimation of P, K, Zn and Cu
500 mg of dry compost was digested with 10 ml of diacid
mixture (HNO3 :HClO4 in ratio 4:1 v/v), volume of the
digest was made to 50 ml after ®ltration through
Whatman No.1 ®lter paper and analysed.
All the determinations were carried out in triplicate.
Data were analysed statistically and di€erences between
treatment means were compared at the 5% level of
signi®cance.
3. Results
Changes in C:N ratio during composting are shown
in Table 1. The C:N ratio decreased with time in all the
treatments due to decomposition. C:N ratios were lower
in all the treatments in the presence of earthworms. The
C:N ratio of the treatment with sugarcane trash was
greatest before composting and after. The di€erences in
C:N ratio of sugarcane trash treatment at 90 days
Table 1
Changes in C:N ratio during composting of organic wastes
Treatments Days
0 15
Cattle dung (CD) 71.5 56.5
CD + earthworms 69.0 58.0
CD + sugarcane trash (ST) 87.6 63.5
CD + ST + earthworms 85.0 65.2
CD + mustard residue (MR) 74.1 68.0
CD + MR + earthworms 71.2 64.7
CD (5%) 2.9 2.6
sampling in the absence as well as presence of earth-
worms were statistically non-signi®cant. However, in the
case of treatment with mustard residues or cattle dung
alone, the C:N ratio at 90 days was signi®cantly lower in
the presence of earthworms than in their absence.
The mineral N (ammoniacal plus nitrate N) of the
compost increased with time, due to mineralization of
organic nitrogenous compounds (Table 2). Mineral N
was maximum at 90 days of composting and earthworm
inoculated wastes had a slightly higher mineral N than
did the treatments without earthworms.
The dehydrogenase activity increased rapidly in the
initial stages of composting (Table 3) up to 60 days and
decreased by 90-days sampling. There was more dehy-
drogenase activity in earthworm-inoculated treatments
than in treatments without worms.
The plant nutrient contents of composts after 90 days
composting are shown in Table 4. There was more N in
worm-inoculated compost than in compost without
earthworms. However, the di€erences were not statisti-
cally signi®cant. There was no e€ect of earthworm in-
oculation on total P, K and Cu content of compost.
However, signi®cantly more Zn was present in compost
prepared from cattle dung with earthworms than in
compost without earthworms.
4. Discussion
During composting, the organic wastes are decom-
posed by microbial action. The organic C is lost as CO2
and total N increases as a result of carbon loss. The ®nal
N content of compost is dependent on the initial N
present in the waste and the extent of decomposition
(Crawford, 1983; Gaur and Singh, 1995). Micro¯ora in
the intestine of worms and gut enzymes, as well as mi-
cro¯ora present in the waste, are involved in decompo-
sition (Piearce, 1978; Whiston and Seal, 1988; Kavian
and Ghatnekar, 1991). Enhanced organic matter de-
composition in the presence of earthworms has been
reported, which results in lowering of C:N ratio (Fos-
gate and Babb, 1972; Kale et al., 1982; Edwards, 1998;
Talashilkar et al., 1999). High concentrations of nitrate
30 60 90
45.0 37.1 29.5
45.6 34.8 26.3
53.7 42.6 32.7
51.3 44.0 32.0
59.8 46.0 32.8
54.0 44.2 29.1
2.3 2.1 1.8
 S. Bansal, K.K. Kapoor / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 95±98 97

Table 2
Changes in mineral N (mg kgÿ1 ) during composting of organic wastes
Treatments Days
0 15 30 60 90
Cattle dung (CD) 91 104 148 176 182
CD + earthworms 99 110 158 186 191
CD + sugarcane trash (ST) 75 103 127 166 172
CD + ST + earthworms 78 102 136 172 183
CD + mustard residue (MR) 82 102 125 164 174
CD + MR + earthworms 89 102 129 173 179

CD (5%) 9 14 16 9 8

Table 3
Dehydrogenase activity (lg TPF gÿ1 hÿ1 ) during composting of organic wastes
Treatments Days
0 15 30 60 90
Cattle dung (CD) 701 1143 1283 1547 450
CD + earthworms 705 1182 1431 1865 461
CD + sugarcane trash (ST) 433 602 844 1059 987
CD + ST + earthworms 415 618 936 1172 1018
CD + mustard residue (MR) 360 592 841 947 844
CD + MR + earthworms 382 620 955 1019 937

CD (5%) 35 46 73 81 40

Table 4
Nutrient content of compost after 90 days of composting of organic wastes
Treatments Total N (%) Total P (%) Total K (%) Total Cu (mg kgÿ1 ) Total Zn (mg kgÿ1 )
Cattle dung (CD) 1.28 0.71 1.23 31 266
CD + earthworms 1.35 0.70 1.28 30 290
CD + sugarcane trash (ST) 1.08 0.54 1.23 30 183
CD + ST + earthworms 1.15 0.50 1.30 40 219
CD + mustard residue (MR) 1.08 0.56 1.75 20 254
CD + MR + earthworms 1.21 0.54 1.72 25 263
CD (5%) 0.18 0.05 0.24 5 35

have been reported in earthworm casts (Syers et al.,
1979).
The increase in dehydrogenase activity at the 15-day
sampling indicated increased microbial activity. The
dehydrogenase activity is dependent on the substrate
availability (Moore and Russel, 1972), so the lower ac-
tivity at 90-day sampling was probably due to exhaus-
tion of easily metabolizable components of the wastes.
The nutrient contents of vermicomposts di€er greatly
depending on the raw material. There are contradictory
reports regarding plant nutrient content of vermicom-
post compared to composts prepared without earth-
worms because of the limited systematic studies in this
direction. Some workers have reported higher content of
N, P, K and micronutrients in vermicompost (Jambhe-
kar, 1992; Delgado et al., 1995). On the other hand the
nutrient contents of the vermicompost and ordinary
compost have been found to be similar (Shinde et al.,
1992; Talashilkar et al., 1999). In the present study the
decomposition as depicted by C:N ratio was greater in
the presence of earthworms, but it was not re¯ected in
signi®cant increases in nutrient content of the vermi-
compost. This could have been due to the fact that a
part of the N, P, K and micronutrients was being as-
similated by the earthworms which were removed from
the compost before analysis.
5. Conclusions
The information presented in this paper indicates that
crop residues such as mustard residues and sugarcane
trash can be converted into vermicompost when mixed
with cattle dung. The decomposition, as indicated by
decrease in C:N ratio, was enhanced in the presence of
earthworms. However, plant nutrient content of vermi-
compost was not signi®cantly higher than that of com-
post prepared without worms.
98 S. Bansal, K.K. Kapoor / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 95±98
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