Vegetable Crop Cultivation using Vermicompost in Comparison to Chemical Fertilizers: A Review

The purpose of this paper is to review published literature which provides information to support the cultivation of vegetable crops using vermicompost in comparison to chemical fertilizers. With the systematic method, “Google Scholar,” a web search engine which provides an easy way to search for published articles, journals or books was used to research works of literature on “Vegetable crops cultivation using vermicompost in comparison to chemical fertilizers.” Then a subjective approach was used to select the themes that were discussed by reading through the abstracts and findings from the related works of literature. The subtopics discussed were: vermicompost, components of vermicompost, impacts of vermicompost, chemical fertilizers, components of chemical fertilizers, impacts of chemical fertilizers along with the use of vermicompost and chemical fertilizers on crops. The published papers established that vermicompost is an excellent organic medium which can be used to cultivate vegetable crops in comparison to chemical fertilizers because growing crops with vermicompost improves plant health with a positive influence on the yield and growth parameters of many plants, it has a high nutrient content, has pesticidal properties and slowly releases nutrients as compared to the chemical fertilizers which is depleted faster due to its release of nutrients too quickly. Chemical fertilizers on the other hand are useful in crop cultivation as it provides what is needed quickly but it has several negative impacts on plants, the soil and its surroundings.