KH. NERMESHORI DEVI S. KHANDELWAL AND P. KUMAR SINGH
Abstract
Under the natural conditions of Manipur, four species of Earthworms are generally cultured, namely Eudrilus eugeniae, Eisenia foetida, Perionyx excanatus and Pheretima elongata. They exhibit marked differences in their multiplication rate, nutrient content and yield amount during a controlled study of 65 days. Of the four, P. excanatus exhibits the highest multiplication rate of 4.52%, highest compost yield of 420 kgs. While the nutrient content shows a slight variation with E. eugeniae showing highest phosphate content of 2.2 % and P. excanatus displaying highest contents of nitrogen (3%) and potassium (1.5 °/0). The findings show the highest beneficial suitability of the species P. excanatus under the Manipur conditions. Large scale and sustainable culture of this species will bring poorer economy of the state to further developments. This paper provides a detailed account of the observation and analysis performed.