Vermiculture means: cultivation of worms. It is possible because of the special characteristic of the worms. Worms contain both testes and ovaries as sex organs. Which means that worms are both male and female. So that every worm can exchange sperms by overlapping the other worm and then lay eggs. This way their population rate increases automatically. Once they come out of an egg, it takes approximately a year to form a full size worm. Their population rate depends on many factors, such as the available quantity of food, moisture in the soil, PH of soil, salts available in the soil, the capacity of reproducing and dispersing of the worms and temperature of the soil etc.

Vermiculture can be done either on small scale i.e. for home garden or large scale like farms. Water moves through the moist skin of worms to their blood capillaries while breathing through the skin. In case worm gets exposed to bright sunlight for longer time the skin becomes dry and the worm starts suffocating.

Cultivation of earthworms for vermicompost is also possible. For that you need to purchase very small quantity of worms like 40-50 numbers of worms. To increase their population you need to mix cow dung with proportion 1:1 with other farm waste like leaves, grass etc. Keep that mixture in shed and pour some water on it to increase moisture level of the mixture. Then put your 40-50 eartworms in this mixture. You will get about 250-300 times more earthworms within a month or two. These earthworms can be used for preparation of vermicompost.