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Earthworm Technology—A Promising Tool for Second Green Revolution

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Advances in Waste Management

Abstract

The Green Revolution in India made the country self-sufficient in food grain production. However, indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides during last five decades has made the soil unproductive and caused environmental pollution too. Environmentalists are now planning for a second Green Revolution, where reduced use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, by recovery of soil health to increase in food grain production through organic farming along with conservation of biodiversity, is in the focus. Present paper deals with adoption of earthworm technology which could be the best choice for second Green Revolution. Earthworm technology is of two types: in-soil and ex-soil. In-soil technology involves mass culture of suitable geophagous and phytogeophagous earthworm species and their direct inoculation in soil with proper organic input. Ex-soil technology, popularly known as vermicomposting, allows quick transformation of organic wastes into plant-nutrient-rich compost through activities of phytophagous earthworm species.

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Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges Prof. Durgadas Ghosh, T.U, Dr. Baburam Swami, M.B.B.C for the improvement of language and Mr. Ashish Choudhury, T.U for plagiarism check.

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Correspondence to Priyasankar Chaudhuri .

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Chaudhuri, P. (2019). Earthworm Technology—A Promising Tool for Second Green Revolution. In: Kalamdhad, A., Singh, J., Dhamodharan, K. (eds) Advances in Waste Management . Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0215-2_1

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