Vermicomposting workshop held at GNDU

Amritsar, April 3 (Punjab Post Bureau) – A one day workshop on vermicomposting was held in the Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University on the “THEME: CLEAN CITIES GREEN FARMS”. Students (67) of B.Sc. (Agriculture) from Khalsa College, Amritsar College Engineering and Technology (ACET) and faculty members participated in the workshop. About 50 Ph.D Scholars, 52 M.Sc, Students, 5 Farmers, 13 Teachers namely Dr. R.S. Kaler, Dr. Jyoti Bhagat, Ajay Pal Singh, Dr. Sonu, Dr. Gurpreet Kaur, Dr. Ritu Goswami (Batala), Dr. Jaswinder Singh Bhatia (Agriculture Officer), Entrepreneurs like Jagdish Bhardwaj (Green Organics), Gagandeep Singh Pahwa (Horticulturist) and members of NGOs Sharanjeet Mahal (Life Skills) learnt the procedure for producing vermicomposting from Cattle dung with the help of earthworms as ecological engineers without any cost.  This workshop was conceptualized and organized by Dr. Adarsh Pal Vig, Assoc. Professor, Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences, GNDU, Amritsar. Head of the Department, Dr. Satwinderjeet Kaur welcomed the participants and explain the need of such workshops. In his ppt presentation, Dr. Vig highlighted the role and importance of earthworms in vermicomposting- an eco-friendly technology. Vermicomposting is a biological and aerobic process of composting, in which certain species of earthworms like Eisenia fetida commonly known as red worms are used to convert organic solid waste into nutrient rich (NPK) organic manure. He also pointed happily that Ministry of Urban Development; Govt. of India had also started promoting use of composting from waste material through mass media campaign by super star, Mr. Amitabh Bachan.

 After lecture, videos and onsite practical demonstration was organized for the participants in the botanical garden. Training for students regarding culturing of earthworms, preparation of beds, loading of waste, harvesting and use of vermicompost manure was assisted by Dr. Jaswinder Singh, Sharanpreet Singh, Bhawna, Mr. Sartaj Ahmad Bhat and Mr. Satveer Singh, Research fellows working under the guidance of Dr. A.P. Vig. Dr. Vig is an expert in vermitechnology and has published many research papers in various national and international journals. He has also delivered numerous lectures and organized various awareness programmes on solid waste management using vermitechnology. Under his guidance, a number of vermicomposting units have been established in various institutes, colleges, schools and villages etc that has proved fruitful in providing training and research to students and researchers respectively of the state and the country. Prof. Avinash Kaur Nagpal, Dean, Life Sciences in her valedictory address highlighted the adoption of such ecotechnologies at institutional and community levels to make your surroundings clean and garbage free. Faculty members Prof. A.K. Thukral, Prof. Renu Bhardwaj, Prof. Saroj arora, Dr. Amarjeet Singh Soodan, Dr. M.S. Bhatti, Dr. Rajinder Kaur, Dr. Jatinder Kaur, Dr. Kirandeep Dhami, Mrs. Jyoti Kalyani also interacted with participants, congratulated them and distributed certificates to them. Participants appreciated the efforts of the Department and demanded to organize such environmental awakening outreach programmes in the future for the benefit of the society and students of the neighbouring schools, colleges, villages, institutes etc.