Rural Entrepreneurship through Vermicomposting – Case Studies

Solid waste management continue to be a major challenge and permanent problem of urban as well as semi-urban areas of the country. A number of initiatives have been taken by several public and private sector organizations to overcome this serious problem. One such initiative taken at the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (DSVV), Haridwar has successfully turned the bio-degradable part of the solid waste into a thriving and profitable enterprise. DSVV has transferred this technology to a number of entrepreneurs through their on-going capacity development programmes for rural development and organic farming. The paper describes how DSVV continue to manage its solid waste of over 5 MT generated daily in the Campus as well as that of Shantikunj by converting it into valuable vermicompost and handmade paper, after segregation, and thus helping DSVV as well as Shantikunj to become completely organic in managing their total area of over 200 acres lush green campus. The paper also describes how rural entrepreneurship training on vermicomposting at DSVV has helped three entrepreneurs, besides many, to develop large commercial vermicompost units with attractive returns. The paper also highlight potential of vermicomposting in solid waste management, employment generation and organic farming with least damage to environment.