Journal of Crop and Weed 8(1): 171-172 (2012) Comparative analysis of different feeding stock for the production of vermicompost by Eisenia foetida MD.N. ALI IRDM Faculty Centre, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University R. K. Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur Kolkata-700103 Received: 25.01.2012, Revised: 13.04.2012, Accepted: 25.04.2012 Key words: Eiseniafoetida, feeding stock, qualititative improvement, vennicompost Modern agricultural practices are resulting in an increasing impact on environment, causing a serious decline in natural resources. The modern society has become increasingly dependent on the use of chemicals that are harmful to the environment and agriculture. Soil bio-resources have been recognized as the foundation for sustainable livelihood, food security and environmental safety. With the advent of chemical agriculture and entry of green evaluation to substantiate food production, use of chemical inorganic fertilizers and pesticides took over the age old practice of application of compost. Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizer badly declined soil organic carbon and soil beneficial microbes in the productive land. The input is showing an increasing trend and there is decline in the return. This is directly linked to the imbalance created in the nutrient status of the soil and the biological activity in the soil. Therefore it is inevitable that the biological methods in land reclamation provide good possibilities for upgradation of conservation of soil fertility on a sustainable basis. Among different alternatives for improving soil health and so as to plant health, vermicompost is one of the most important manure because of its microbial activity, plant growth regulating and pest repellant property. As this golden manure is very easily produced so the promotion of this activity could be done easily. In the present investigation the quality parameters of vermicompost with respect to macro and micro-nutrients content (Chaudhuri et al., 2000) and microbial population was estimated in the vermicompost produced from different feeding stock. Different feeding stocks were used to evaluate the effect of feeding material in the qualitative improvement of vermicompost. Similar works were carried out by many worker like Kale (1998) and Sharma and Madan (1983) Four feeding stocks i.e. straw (T 1 ), water hyacinth (T 2 ), hybrid napier (T 3 ) and green gram (T 4 ) of 60 kg each were taken and vennicompost was prepared following standard procedure using red worm, Eisenia foetida (Jadrijevic et al., 1991). Each treatment was experimented in earthen pots in three replications. The vennicompost sample were digested with triacid mixture and estimated by Kjeldahl Short communication Email : nasimali2007@gmail. com method for N 2 and colorimetric method for phosphate (Olsen et al. 1954). For potassium, digested sample was estimated by flame photometer method (Hald, 1946). All micro nutrients are estimated by atomic absorption. The total count of micro-organisms was done in nutrient agar media following pour plate technique (Cappuccino and Sherman, 2009). EC and OC were measured following Soil Survey Staff (2004) and Walkley and Black (1934) respectively. Different feeding stock were used for the production of vennicompost and their biochemical properties were analyzed in order to select better feeding stock which could be fruitfully utilized for the qualitative improvement of vermicompost. From table 1 it was clear that time taken for the production of compost by Eiseniafoetida was least (24 days) in case of water hyacinth and that was highest (46 days) in straw. Table 1: Time requirement for composting of different feeding stock Feeding Stock Straw Green Water Hybrid gram na2ier Time in days 46 36 24 30 Total microbial 65 108 141 48 count {cfu The variation in respect of all macro and micro elements under study were statistically significant i.e. vermicompost produced using all four feeding stock are qualitatively different (Table 2). The range of pH among different vermicompost were 6.7 to 7.8 (with over all mean 7.33±0.11) indicating neutral pH. Lower variability in EC was recorded. Overall organic carbon% was found 16.92±0.39, and lesser variation was estimated. Higher range with respect to total N 2 (%), total K 2 0 (%) and total P20s (%) indicates the higher variability in different treatment. Macro-elements content were found maximum in green gram (1.33% N2; 1.06% P 2 0 5 and 0.9% K 2 0) where as they were minimum in straw (0.33% N2; 0.16% P 2 0 5 ) except total K 2 0 (%)which was lowest in napier (0.15%). The same results were obtained by Talashilkar et al., 1999.