Vermiculture / vermicomposting

Entrepreneur

About Me

My name is Stephen from Nairobi county.I come from a family of a single mother with 2 elder sisters and 2 smaller brothers.I am an accountant by training and profession with over 6 years experience.I am also a keen entrepreneur and budding farmer where I seek to utilize my extensive experiences to good use in a business start up that I believe has a lot of growth potential in Kenya and beyond.I plan to explore vermiculture & vermi-composting i.e large scale commercial earthworm rearing

My Business

My business is easy to start,not capital or labour intensive but has great growth potential .Vermiculture / vermi-composting i.e earthworm rearing for feeds or compost to be used in farming.With the recent upsurge in poultry and fish farming,together with high costs of poultry feed & fertilizer prices in Kenya,alternatives are welcome .I believe large scale earthworm rearing has great potential to solve the above shortcomings and become a major income earner.The initial capital required for this business goes into buying bins and construction of a composter and the necessary set ups.The major advantage is that the worms feed from kitchen food scraps e.g vegetables,fruits,egg shells etc. which are readily and locally available and do not cost anything.A worm is a hermaphrodite i.e bisexual both male & female and produces about 2 egg capsules a month which in turn produce anywhere between 2-20 young worms from each capsule.The young ones are ready to reproduce again in 4 months.100 worms can give you up to 10,000 worms in 6 months in addition to the compost for sale which is harvested after every 3-4 months..This is about 10 Kgs working small scale and with very conservative figures assuming you sell a kg at U$ 10.I only require U$ 200 to begin the project.I currently have a 3 month contract with Viva Afya Ltd as an accountant where I earn a salary of about U$ 285 gross.I plan to pay back U$ 20 monthly,for 10 months from my salary.Thank you.

Loan Proposal

The initial capital required for this business i.e small scale (about U$200) goes into buying bins and construction of a composter (vermi bed or earthworm bed) and the necessary set ups i.e. tools like gardening gloves.strainer/sifter,spading fork,shovel,black plastic garbage bags and plastic sacks.The major advantage is that the worms feed from kitchen food scraps e.g vegetables,fruits,egg shells etc. which are readily and locally available and do not cost anything.Vermicast or worm manure is the end-product of the organic matter breakdown by some species of earthworm.
- Earthworms are hermaphrodite, meaning they have both the male and female sex organs.
- When sexually mature, worms breed every week and can produce 1-3 young worms.
In harvesting, separate the “vermi” from the vermicompost either manually (handpicking) or using a strainer/sifter.
-Vermicompost is harvested when most of the materials have been consumed by the worms. This takes about 30-45 days depending on environmental and culture conditions.
- 1 vermi bed = 12 harvests in a year.
- African Night Crawlers is sold at an average of U$ 10Per Kg.The compost has a sale value at prevailing market prices.
- Harvesting is done after 30 days.
- 150 kilos of biodegradable wastes + 2 kilos of worms = 90 kilos of compost
- 2 kg. of vermi per bed would yield 4 kg. of additional vermi in 4 weeks.

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