measurement in crop yields due to compost from pig manure

[Jacky Foo]

Source: http://www.iobbnet.org/drupal/node/view/962/3170#comment-3170

measurement in crop yields due to compost from pig manure
Submitted by Jacky Foo on Wed, 02/05/2007 - 19:52.
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Dear Jackson and Henry

in your paper
>This training included how to make compost from animal dung
>and crop residues, which could then be used by farmers to
>fertilize their crops. The use of compost has indeed increased
>crop yields; maize yields in particular are now much higher.

I like to know how you got the farmers to provide information on the
improvement of crop yields (e.g. for maize) after the application of
composts.

Could you provide info on the yields before application and after
application of compost ?

What were their applications rates, the number of pigs they had and
the area of maize under cultivation.

The numbers you provide may shade light to a suggested number of pigs
for a unit area of maize crop.

-----
Jacky Foo
http://www.iobbnet.org

[jackkson ntapi]

Q1: In Heifer we train farmers on record keeping and encourage them to keep records on all their farming activities be it production (crops, vegetables, pigs and other livestock kept by the family), economic (sales and costs), animal health, visits etc. that could enable a comprehensive follow-up of progress made. This has been very important for the farmers and Heifer during project evaluation and has been a useful tool in the decision making process.

 

Q2: Yields vary from one farm to another depending on several factors ranging from farm land size, family labor available, number of mouths to feed, cost of living etc etc. In the common initiative group in Bamendjo, production level before the farmers started using manure ranged from 80kg to 6 tons. From least to maximum production, a net increase in the quantity of chemical fertilizers used was noticed. There were farmers who rely only on wood ash and green manure in nourishing the depleted soil. Increase in production yields for maize ranged from 10 to 40%.  The increase was much higher with poorest farmers who could not afford chemical fertilizers and depended mostly on wood ash and green manure.

 

Q3: Manure was applied once, just before planting. Data was collected last year when farmers had 5 pigs each of 5 to 6 months of age. The surface area under maize cultivation ranged from 500 sqaure metres to 1ha. It will be wrong to make conclusions on the number of pigs per unit area of maize crop because some farmers with large maize farms purchased additional manure while others used part of their manure to cultivate other vegetables.

 

Jacky Foo <jack...@gmail.com> wrote:

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