BUJUMBURA March 2nd (ABP) – Researchers from different universities and research institutions in Burundi coordinated by the University of Ngozi, in partnership with the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), have designed and implemented a vermicomposting project consisting of to a kind of compost produced using the activity of composting earthworms, we learned on Friday February 23 during an open day organized in Bujumbura under the theme: “Vermicomposting for ecological, productive and sustainable “.
According to Dr Eric Gilbert Kazitsa, researcher and coordinator of activities in that project, the majority of cultivable soils in Burundi are acidic and poor in nutrients, which considerably limits national agricultural production.
Vermicomposting technology can help meet those challenges, he said, stressing that that technology is feasible at different scales and that it is also poorly developed in Burundi, hence the need for the project.
The objectives of the project are, among others, to identify and multiply species of earthworms from Burundi biologically compatible with vermicomposting, to identify materials allowing large-scale production of good quality vermicompost in Burundi with those worms. of land, to produce vermicompost with those materials and show the agronomic effects, as well as to show the potential advantages of the latter.
Dr Kazitsa further indicated that the investigations carried out revealed the various potentially vermicompostable materials produced in Burundi, including waste from urban markets, rumenal contents from urban slaughterhouses, waste from sugar cane, palm oil and bananas, as well as cow and pig manure. He also pointed out that invasive plants such as Tithonia diversifolia, Eicchornia crassipes and Lantana Camara will be used in that project, due to the environmental risks they pose.
That expert indicated that the development of vermicomposting in Burundi presents advantages, not only agricultural, but also technical, economic and financial, environmental and socio-cultural through entrepreneurship, job creation and education.
On the agricultural level, Dr Kazitsa demonstrated that when vermicompost is used properly, we can harvest two seasons without adding it, emphasizing that with vermicompost, the Burundian cultivable soil will be enriched in mineral salts and will also be very productive.
Note that that technique, successfully tested at ENS and the University of Ngozi, was offered to agricultural production companies such as SOSUMO and OHP. Raising public awareness on the production and use of vermicompost is also planned for soon, it was indicated.