Nidhi Rai, Priyanka Ashiya, Devendra Singh Rathore
Today fertilizer has become essential to modern agriculture to feed the growing population. Chemical fertilizers are used extensively in modern agriculture, in order to improve crop yield. Urea is the most popular and widely used dry N fertilizer. The objective of the present study is to characterize the effect of fertilizers on the earthworm. The effects of soil fertilization with inorganic and organic fertilizers on earthworm rearing (populations, biomass, number of cocoons, juveniles etc.) were studied under different doses of the fertilizers for 60 days. When compared, marked changes were observed in the activity of Eisenia foetida in both type of fertilizers introduced. The present work indicates towards the deleterious effect of inorganic fertilizers on the survival of earthworm community in soil.