On March 29-31, 2016, biologists of the Green Cross Belarus NGO, Sergey Nekhaychik and Denis Feofanov, underwent the workshop “Earthworms and Soil Fertility" held by the “Grin-PIK” at the school n.a. Professor A.M. Igonin (Kovrov town).

For three days, the participants visited three different facilities of the company: production departments, bio-vegetariums, vermin-farms. They also learnt about the technology of worms cultivation and production of raw biohumus, prepared biohumus from a raw material, a liquid fertilizer “Gumistar”. They also got necessary information about how vermi-composting worked and how to prepare a nutritious substrate, and learnt about advantages of biohumus in comparison with other fertilizers.

During the practical training, there was an opportunity to learn the morphology of the worm type “Miner”, ways to determine the density of the population of worms in bio-rows as well as leant about humidity, acidity, temperature of the substrate and biohumus.

At the end of the workshop, Sergey Nekhaychik and Denis Feofanov hightlighted that they had got necessary information and practical experience on establishing own vermi-farms and production of biohumus which would be used during the implementation of the initiative  “Creating a Network of Innovation and Demonstration Grounds on Farming and Organic Agriculture to Promote Sustainable Land Use, Agricultural Labour among the Young, to Improve School Nutrition and to Get Income by Rural Schools” funded by the European Union and supported by the United Nations Development Programme within the framework of the project  “Supporting the Transition to a Green Economy in the Republic of Belarus”. Besides the acquired knowledge, the organization’s employees brought with them methodological literature and established useful contacts during the workshop.

This publication has been produced with the supportoftheEuropeanUnion. Responsibility for the content of the publication rests with the Green Cross Belarus NGO, and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union.