Abstract:
Earthworms are considered as friends of farmers and natural soil engineers.
Vermicompost obtained with the help of earthworm has many benefits soil, to plants and
friendly to our environment. The aim of the present study was to assess the performance of
local earthworm species for their compositing capacity of different feedstock (wheat
straw, chickpea straw, khat waste , and mesquite) under controlled conditions at DebreZeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC) and to evaluate the effect of selected
vermicompost products on yield and yield components of tef (Eragrostis tef
(Zucc.Trotter)). Vermicomposting process was prepared using Eisenia fetida (as standard
check), Adet and Werta earthworms’ collections as local source of earthworms for
composting. The highest multiplication was observed on Adet earthworm spices fed with
mesquite. The physicochemical variables like pH, organic carbon, nitrogen, available
phosphorus were analyzed at the beginning of the experiment and at harvesting over a
period of 72 days. At harvesting day the best vermicompost found at a pH of 7.15 with
1.1% (organic carbon), 0.448% (nitrogen) and 114.072ppm (available phosphorus) were
obtained from fed on mesquite. Significant differences were observed in tef yield and other
variables of tef (variety DZ-Cr-387) due to vermicompost application. The highest plant
height (84.2cm), panicle length (39.21cm), root length (30.33), root weight (28.91g/pot),
fresh straw yield (88.233g/pot) and grain yield (2.64g/pot) were obtained from
Vermicompost of mesquite. This study suggests that the earthworms that were collected
from Adet could be used efficiently to produce good quality vermicompost from mesquite
and also promising yield was result on tef crop
