Manure Management Practices and Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications on Manure Quality as a Fertilizer

Manure has been used as a fertilizer since ancient times and if well-managed it can be an asset, promoting sustainable agriculture, and increasing crop production, particularly for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, most farmers in SSA do not apply recommended manure management practices, such as roofing animal housing, having a water-proof floor or covering manure during storage, causing large nutrient losses during manure storage, increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and reducing the quality of the manure as a fertilizer. This paper compares manure management practices in representative SSA countries, and summarizes government policies and socio-cultural practices that influence the adoption of good (recommended) manure management practices. Three steps were applied in this analysis: (i) review of manure management practices from various literature sources, (ii) interviews on manure management practices and policies with key stakeholders from 13 SSA countries, and (iii) surveys of manure management practices on small, medium, and large scale farms in Ethiopia and Malawi. The review confirms the potential of manure to improve crop yields and promote sustainable agriculture in SSA. Unfortunately, most SSA countries (a) do not explicitly mention manure management in their policies (b) have different ministries that share responsibilities on manure management, often leading to incoherent policies and abnegation of these responsibilities (c) take limited action to promote good practices or enforce legislation on manure management. Also, the field survey indicated that farmers lack knowledge on manure management. However, farmers are able to access agricultural extension services from both government and non-government agencies, although these extension services rarely included information on improved manure management practices. Extension services that encourage exchange and interaction between farmers were most successful in increasing adoption of good manure management practices, and are recommended. In addition, efforts to improve manure management in SSA should strengthen the enforcement of existing policies and provide an enabling environment for adoption of good manure management practices

Constraints limiting the improvement of manure management as climate smart technology for smallholder dairy farmers

The global quest for a sustainable bio-economy has brought to the fore importance of engaging agricultural systems in the production and in practice change. There have been issues limiting farmers from improving the practice of manure management as smart climate technology. The objective of this paper was to highlight the constraints, type, and valuation of manure types and information sources that smallholder dairy farmers find it useful to change practices regarding manure management. In this present study, 336 smallholder dairy farmers were surveyed on various constraints the farmers faced and, on the type, and value of different manure types and information on manure management received by the farmers. The study used descriptive statistics for the variables and compared them using frequency tables. The key findings from this study would support information to stakeholders in inducing climate-smart manure management practices as a climate adaptation practice. The study highlights the type of information systems that determine areas for further investigation as drivers of practice change for smallholder dairy farmers. The paper focuses on these constraints and synthesizes them into factors that determine practice change on manure management by smallholder dairy farmers in order to improve manure management

A cluster analysis of variables essential for climate change adaptation of smallholder dairy farmers of Nandi Country, Kenya

Smallholder dairy farmers occupy high potential areas of Kenya and are a source of manure, crops and milk. There is need to use other means of characterising smallholder dairy farmers as they mostly practice mixed farming. The objective of this paper is to use cluster analysis method to characterize the smallholder dairy farmers with added farmer and activity data variables. Clusters of 336 farmers in this study were derived using 28 key variables. This paper demonstrates how to conduct farmer assessments for climate change adaptation activities, climate smart technologies implementation using knowledge of key farmer variables and their distribution in the smallholder dairy farmers of Nandi County, Kenya. This paper demonstrates the importance of integrating agricultural information for smallholder dairy farmers to machine models to characterize the groups and observe the natural groupings. This allows for policy managers to know the key characteristics and how to use them in policy implementation especially in designing climate change adaptation programs factoring education and training of farmers as demonstrated in this paper that they are practicing many activities on their farms

Effect of Soil Mixtures on Early Growth Performance of Grevillea robusta and Cupressus lusitanica Seedlings in the Highlands of Kenya

Seedling production nurseries have been receiving much attention because of increasing demand for seedlings. In sub-Saharan Africa studies have showed over 50% of smallholder seedlings planted were sourced in tree nurseries. This has caused a rise in need to improve quality of seedlings especially focused on production level. The focus on most studies on early growth performance of selected key species important either for commercial plantation or agroforestry has been varied on length of the study periods and measurement parameters, with the focus never being to compare the farmer practices with the industry. This study main objective is to determine the effect of growing media on early growth performance of Grevillea robusta and Cupressus lusitanica seedlings in the highlands of Kenya. These species from literature have shown abundance in terms of demand and availability in smallholder tree nurseries and received complaints on varied performance. The parameters under observation were height, branch numbers, leaf numbers and survival of the seedlings of these species over a six-month period. There were 13 treatments which included various soil mixtures as follows: Agricultural soil (A), Forest soil (FS), Farmyard Manure (FYM), and Sand (S) and their combinations. The study employed a Completely Randomized Design with total of 390 seedlings per species. The performance showed that the soil mixture with the combined mean cumulative highest survival was FS 78±3.2% and combined mean lowest cumulative survival was A+S+FYM (37±4.2%). Cupressus lusitanica performed better in survival (70±1.2%), height (171±8.1mm), branch numbers (25±1.1), and leaf numbers (119±12.1), when compared to Grevillea robusta survival (38±1.6%), height (57±4.0mm), branch numbers (2±0.2), and leaf numbers (13±1.1%) in the nursery. Different soil mixtures had performed differently for each of the parameters in the study with key observation was FS+FYM+S was the best performing for C. lusitanica height, branching, leaf numbers and survival. The study also observed FS was best performing for the survival of G. robusta in the nursery. This study demonstrates that seedlings in the nursery for these two species require different soil mixtures to ensure survival and high growth performance