In the winter season, our markets are crowded with different variety of winter vegetables.

Now-a-days, to meet the increasing demands in the market, there is a growing competition among the farmers and the gardeners for producing the best varieties of vegetables to catch the market to the envy of the buyers.

But we fail to see how much chemical fertilisers are added to these vegetables by our farmers which may lead to a serious health problem in our society.

One evening on my way back home from school, I met an elderly man whom, I first thought a peculiar man of strange fancies but later I came to know that he is one of the wise man of these days who valued for their personal health and hygiene.

The meeting took place near a footpath vegetable vendor in the busy Lamlong Keithel. Both of us were in a mood to buy some vegetables on that evening.

The man was always looking for tomatoes, brinjals and other items which were smaller in size and he preferred to those which got the marks of toothholes of insects and worms on it.

I have taken the man as a man whose cheeks are always burnt with imputation of parsimony, a man who was too careful to spend his money on buying things of good quality. Out of curiosity I asked the man why he had preferred to those vegetables only which had marks of insect bites.

The man read my mind quickly and with a smile said, “Brother, in these days of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, don’t look for vegetables of big size and lusty looks for it may be grown with overdose of chemical fertilizers compounded with insecticides and pesticides spraying over it so that the vegetables grow to the full bloom, envy to the eye of the buyers.

These small varieties with mark of holes in it indicates that it is grown in natural soil and insects can feed on it. We can use it after cutting the holes out with least fear of consumption of chemical toxic elements.”

The man was right. At these days of uncertainty of how much dose of toxic materials deposited in our body by our daily food consumption, it is preferred to look for such type of vegetables as the man did.

Though there are some wild imaginations in the man’s assumption, I think he is right in his observation about the harmful effect of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides in our bodies.

Widespread use of chemical fertilisers has benefited the agriculture sector in producing more yields. Synthetic chemicals like insecticides, fungicides and other of such kinds protect plants from many diseases.

These fertilizers and insecticides have been developed in the laboratories exclusively for the purpose of agriculture and have been recommended for used in agriculture on the basis of extensive experiment.

The experts are of the opinion that the indiscriminate use of these chemical fertilizers insecticides has led to problems of health hazards to human beings and other problems such as toxic residue in food materials, development of resistance even to insecticides in target species.

Once there chemicals are introduced into the system and entered into our food cycle, they may remain there for a very long duration or even for ever.

One of the terrible side of the story is the method of rearing and catching fishes in the ponds, lakes and rivers.

Chemical fertilizer Urea is widely used by the fish farmers to get the fish grows fast to make the profit in the shortest possible time. This fertilizer is diluted in the pond with other items of the fish.

At the times of catching fishes from big lakes and rivers poisonous substance are used which really has got serious impact on the health of the consumers.

Hence, it has become necessary to look for an alternative so that the food products are increased to meet the demand of the increasing population on one side and on the other side which has no side effect to our health. Here comes the necessity for the adoption of vermiculture and vermicompositing biotechnology, one of the most effective ways of garbage disposal.

It is commonly known as three ‘R’s. First, Reduce the materials that flows into and of one’s home. Second, Reuse what you can and third, Recycle what one can. The key to it lies in using vermiculture biotechnology.

The process is very simple. It can be taken up by household in a small area. For this needs a pit of size (1.5 X 1.5 X 2) cu ft at the minimum. A discarded container, made of wood or galvanised sheet or a plastic tub can be used as a pit.

This method has been implementing successfully by a young energetic State Bank of India employee of our locality. He is L. Maipak of Pourabi village. He used a cemented brick wall pit of 6 ft. length 3 ft. breadth and 3 ft. depth. The pit is divided into two halves for alternate arrangement of the worms.

First he began with a small quantity, a handful of worms. The worms (earthworms) were supplied by Agricultural Development Organisation, Canchipur way back in 2003.

He filled the pit with kitchen waste materials and left to its own for a week with periodical slight watering above the waste materials, the excrement of the earthworms is collected and used as fertilizers. While the earthworms are shifted to the other half of the pit.

L. Maipak further shared his knowledge about the usefulness of the vermicomposits. He puts the various uses in this way.

Vermicomposite:

1. Provides essential plant nutrients,
2. Reduce soil compaction
3. Improves soil structure,
4. Maintains pH of the soil,
5. Is 100% non toxic.