How to fix the soil by restoring organic matter to improve crop yield, s...

Crop & Livestock Integrated Farming System - Manure as fertilizer

 

Crop-livestock integrated farming system - cocoa, coffee, palms, fruit trees…

Coffee and cocoa plantations are dominated by smallholder farmers who play an important role in national economy. These smallholder farmers are facing problems with low productivity, low quality of products, un-used waste and dependence on external inputs. So most farmers are increasingly using inorganic fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides to boost production and control diseases and pests in agroforestry. This has led to an increase in external input cost, health risks and ecosystem pollution. To address these issues, we shall be looking at a more eco-friendly way of increasing crop production and profit at low cost, zero waste and minimal health risks through crop-livestock integrated farming e.g rearing goats, pigs and poultry in cocoa, coffee, oil palms, rubber and fruit trees farms.

Crop-Livestock integrated farming system

This practice integrates crop and livestock systems. Livestock play an important role in global food production and in agricultural and rural economies in many developing regions. The crop-livestock integration system is a sustainable, effective, efficient and environmentally friendly system of crops and livestock that builds explicitly between biomass-producing and processing, waste management, water use, energy generation and soil nutrient conservation. It provide opportunities for maintaining and extending biodiversity, livelihood diversification, provision of alternative income streams and increase crop yield at low input cost which makes this farming system more viable and profitable.

An integrated farming system consists of a range of resource-saving practices that aim to achieve acceptable profits, high and sustained production levels, while minimizing the negative effects of intensive farming and preserving the environment. The crops produce abundant animal feed as folders and crop residues. The trimmed cocoa leaves/rind, fruit leaves, cassava/beans/maize leaves and crop residues are used as supplementary feed for animals to raise body weight gain. The animals graze under the trees/plants and provide manures which are used as a source of organic fertilizer for plant/trees. The animals are also sold to provide additional source of income to the farmers. This system lead to zero waste as plants waste are used to feed animals and animals waste are used to fertilize the soil. Crop-livestock integration can also reduce the cost of controlling weeds. Birds prefer grass and smaller weeds while goats and pigs prefer foraging on broader leaves.

The benefits of integrated livestock-crop systems

Integrated farming systems optimize resource utilization through beneficial synergies rather than maximization of individual elements in the system.

Agronomy – enhance the productive capacity of the land, enhance land utilization, increase soil fertility, control weed and pests

 Social - create jobs in rural areas, reduce poverty, reduce urbanization, improve livelihoods and enhance food security

Economical -   products diversification, increase crop yields, reduce input cost, reduce livestock costs, increase livestock productivity and provide multiple income streams

Health - reduce health risks from chemicals, halt malnutrition (Animal - protein, Cereals - carbohydrate, Fruits - vitamin/minerals)

Environmental – Strengthen crop resilience, enhance soil micro-organism and biological activity, improve soil structure, reduce erosion, increase soil organic matter and nutrient cycling, reduce ecosystem pollution from external inputs, result to zero-waste, reduce draught and restore ecosystems.

Animal manure as organic fertilizers

Manures are plant and animal wastes that are used as sources of plant nutrients. They release nutrients when they decompose. Manure is an important by-product of the mixed crop–livestock farming systems in Sub-Saharan Africa and a traditional source of nutrients for farm crops. It remains a low cost soil fertility investment niche which farmers should exploit. Manure is a valuable source of nutrients, organic matter and renewable energy. It contains soil nutrients and organic matter which is vital in maintaining and improving soil health and soil fertility. Hence, application of manure as a fertilizer is essential in maintaining and improving food security and livelihoods. Therefore ‘Manure is food security’. At Suzy-Farms we focus on raising goats/sheep, poultry and pigs for both meat and manure production.

Goat feces

Goat manure: Each goat can produce 0.6-2.5L of urine per day and 2.68kg of feces per day, which can be processed into organic fertilizer for the plants/trees. Each hectare can accommodate 4-10 goats to provide enough fertilizer from their feces. Goat manure contains 69.2% organic matter, 4.9% Nitrogen (N), 4.1% phosphorus (P), 1.9% Potassium (K), 1% Calcium (Ca) and 0.9% Magnesium (Mg). Goat manure has less odour than other types of manure and is much drier and easy to spread and work with. It is a good soil conditioner rich in Nitrogen. It improves soil texture which provide a good environment for roots to grow and also provide good water retention capacity. It can be collected and loosely spread on farms or composted for four months before used. Goat manure is the best animal manure for healthy soil, healthier plants and increases crop yield.

Poultry manure: The average nutrient content of poultry manure are 3.1% Nitrogen, 2.6% Phosphorus and 1.4% Potassium. It is also an important source of micronutrient such as Zinc (Zn), Cupper (Cu), Iron (Fe), and Manganese (MN). Chicken manure is rich in phosphorus and should be composted for 4-6 weeks before usage in farms to avoid leaching. About 15-30 birds will provide good manure per hectare.

Pig manure: A big boar produces about 7kg of feces and 7kg of urine per day. This contain 25% organic matter, 0.5% N and 0.4% P. Three to six pigs per hectare can provide enough fertilization without adverse effect.

Actualization at Suzy-Farms

Chickens foraging on farms

We have partition our 200ha of land into planting blocks of 6ha with roads (6m wide) around each block to ease management. Within each block we have pens for 150 chickens, 20 pigs and 50 goats. We do free-range or pasture grazing within our permaculture blocks with perennial crops like cocoa, coffee, oil palms, fruit trees and rubber. Within our vegetables and food crop blocks, the pigs and goats are confine on suspended pens to ease collection of feces and urine. These waste are composted for 4 months before usage as fertilizers on vegetable beds and crop fields. 

Advantages of organic manure

1.     It provides natural fertilizer and reduce external input cost

2.     It helps in the slow release process of the nutrients and reduces leaching

3.     It helps to reduce the alkalinity of the soil

4.     It improves soil organic matter and quality

5.     It prevents soil pollution from inorganic fertilizer

6.     It serves as a source of energy for micro-organism which are beneficial to the soil and plants

7.     It increases soil humus content which enhance the water retention capacity of the soil