Dual grinding and mixing machine for vermicompost and worm biomass production

Abstract

Agricultural wastes come from different farming and planting activities that can be used as main material for organic fertilizers and compost. To improve the quality of the compost, it is better to include earthworms in the mixture to become vermicompost. Vermicompost is made up of enriched fertilizer with the production of earthworm known as worm biomass. The preparation of the vermicompost consists of grinding the waste in tiny bits and mixing manually which consumes a lot time and effort. This study focuses on the design of a dual grinding mixing machine intended for vermicompost and worm biomass production. The earthworm used in this study is African Night Crawler species. There are 13 testing vermicompost beds used for the experiment. The machine reduced the preparation time to one-third compared to manual operation. There is increase in the production of vermicompost by 87.5 kg and worm biomass by 3.5 kg, respectively, in monthly basis.