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CrowdScience: Could earthworms help transform the future of farming?

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10/07/2020 GMT

Could earthworms help transform the future of farming?

BBC World Service - CrowdScience, Could earthworms help transform the future of farming?

As they work the soil worms can hugely increase its fertility but there’s a downside.

As they work the soil worms can hugely increase its fertility but as we discover there’s a downside as these little critters can have also increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Worms are not the cutest of creatures. They’re slimy, often associated with death and tend to bring on feelings of disgust in many of us. But listener Dinesh thinks they’re underrated and wants to know whether earthworms could be the key to our planet’s future agricultural success? He’s an organic farmer in India’s Tamil Nadu province who grows these annelids to add to the soil, and he wants Crowdscience to find out exactly what they’re doing. 

Anand Jagatia dons his gardening gloves and digs the dirt on these remarkable creatures, discovering how they can help improve soil quality, prevent fields from becoming waterlogged, and improve microbial numbers, all of which has the potential to increase crop yield.

But he also investigates the so-called ‘earthworm dilemma’ and the idea that in some parts of the world, boreal forest worms are releasing carbon back into the atmosphere, which could have dangerous consequences for climate change.

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