"I once had a dream that my earthworms died at night while I was in Surkhet and the following day. My mother called and told me that the earthworms I had kept in a pot for making vermiwash had died after escaping.”
Kamal Dev Yadav of Mahottari, Pipra Ward 4, is a 22-year-old BSc. Ag. final-year student and a young climate-smart entrepreneur. He has been operating and expanding his organic vermicomposting and vermiwash businesses for the past three years. He and his team have been producing primarily vermicompost and vermiwash. “We began our work when we were in the third semester in 2021 with our own investment. Eight students from the Bright Madhya Paschim Krishi Thatha Ban Bigyan Campus in Birendranagar, Surkhet.
We each invested Rs. 10,000. The total investment in the beginning was NRs 80,000,” he said. “We gathered materials and made a product, and the college provided us with land. We made vermicompost in the pit provided by it. We used Australian Worm (Eisenia Fetida), cow dung, rice straw, banana pseudostem and other decomposing materials except meat and citrus materials to make our product.”
Initially, we gathered raw materials. The second step was to partially decompose the vermi, and the third phase involved preparing a vermi bed. The fourth step involved keeping 1kg of earthworms in 1 square metre of bed. In the first step, we had to protect it from ants, frogs, and sunlight for two months while watering it twice a week. Then, in the sixth step, it was ready and finally, in the seventh step, harvesting, we determined whether it was ready or not from colour, texture and smell. Package and sell.
"We were the first to sell vermicompost in agrovets in Surkhet independently and completely run by youths under the age of 22," said Kamal Dev Yadav. "Our farm was 3 kilometres away from college. So we divided our responsibilities so that one person would visit once a week." Then in 2022, their initiative received the STARTUP & IDEA FEST 2022 award in Surkhet, Karnali. We were selected among the top three young entrepreneurs. This inspired us to work harder. “However, our turning point was CREASION Nepal Climate Smart Entrepreneurship, which provided us with NRs 125,000 and a mentor who guided us for six months as we expanded our entrepreneurial concept. It also assisted us with several training sessions per week over the course of six months,” said Yadav. He also added, “Finally, we registered our business with the Madhes Province Department of Cottage and Small Industries. My two other friends, Swastika Chaudhary (23) and Nisha Tiwari (22), are colleagues and classmates who co-founded this business. It took around Rs 100,00 for us to register with it. We had to go from office to office for nearly two weeks to register our business.”
"The most amusing part for us was that when we went to get our PAN number from the Inland Department of Revenue, there was no section for organic fertilizer production to be registered. As a result, it took two days for officers and later they registered our business under the Chemical, Fertilizer, and Minerals section, which does not match with the objective of our business.” Then we took land on lease for a set of production areas for vermicomposting. “We have also set up an office at my own home,” Said Kamal. “Currently, we have been selling more than 10 to 15 quintals. We could have sold more than 100 quintals, but I am busy with my studies, and my mother and brother are looking after the business.”
My mother and brothers are extremely pleased with my business and are helping me expand it more, as this is the first time anyone from our family has started a business. Once I complete my bachelor's degree, we have planned to take 10 to 15 bighas of land on lease and expand our business in mass with the help of my friend. Moreover, Kamal also shared that he would also do a master's in organic agriculture. Kamal has also started new research on how we can use leaf litters as a growing medium instead of coco peat. We do not get coco peat in Nepal. We import it from India to use as a growing medium. So it would be successful if we could use Nepali products in the mitigation of rapid wildfires.
