Abstract            Volume:9  Issue-12  Year-2021         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

Rapid growth of urbanization and industrialization has led to generation of large quantities of wastes materials where majority of organic waste is dumped in landfill sites, creates the organic load on the ground water, and more emissions of landfill gases. The best possible alternative to reduce these potential pollutants is through vermicomposting because earthworms have the ability to convert organic waste into wealth (compost). This experiment was done to evaluate the effect of bedding materials for vermicompost production and performance of earthworm at Jimma, Southwestern Ethiopia. The experiment consisted of three types of bedding materials including (cattle manure, donkey manure and poultry droppings) and four incubation periods (40, 60, 80 and 90 days) arranged factorially in completely randomized block design (RCBD) with three replications. The performance was measured based on more suitable for vermicomposting including biological parameter, which measured the growth rate, compost (pH), number of worm, organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (Tot. N) and carbon to nitrogen ratio. All of the four biological parameters showed that there is a significant different observed on type of bedding materials used using ANOVA test. The LSD at (p <0.05) test demonstrated that donkey manure followed by poultry dropping is more influential in worm biomass production, growth rate, total nitrogen and organic carbon content. For pH analysis, it reveals that the optimum pH for worm growth rate is near to neutral condition. As conclusion, different types of bedding material will influence the worm growth.

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