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Overcoming Soil Infertility
Louise Labuschagne, (Real IPM Kenya Ltd)
Good Soil FertilityExport Horticulture - GAP
• Produce compost and returnorganic matter to soil• Rotate crops to maintain soil fertility• Invest in drip irrigation• Test soils for pH and NPK• Qualified to manage fertiliser programmes
• Employs 3.5 million directly + 4.5 million indirectly• Earns 73.7 billion Ksh in foreign exchange / 2008• 60% of exports grown by SSF
What’s the real problem?
Natural tendency to phosphate deficiency
Naturally acidic soils
Managed by export farmersNot managed by SSF (if not involved in export sector)
Real IPM – SSF Programme
DFID – funded programme Gro Plus
Call Centre database of 50,000 SSF Western Kenya
Gro Plus seed treatments - > yield by 10 - 20%
Costs 130/- of Gro Plus per 2 kg of seedMaize planted at 20 kg of seed / ha or 4 kg/acre
Real IPM – SSF Programme
SIDA – funded programme Organic Matter mapping
Soil sampling in Western, Central and Coast
Farmer Practice (crops, soil fertility management)
Report due in two months
Real IPM – SSF Programme
KENFAP – funded programme bio-slurry from biogas units
Replicated trials - cabbages
Recording yields – application rates
Report due in three months
Soil Fertility Problem
Impoverished small scale farmers (not in export)tend to be:
• risk averse• purchase insufficient inputs to ensure yields• don’t analyse soil• conservative land use strategies (maize and cows)• less aware of the importance of pH• reliant on agrovets for advice
Poverty Cycle
impoverished farmers = impoverished soils
Long term solution
No ‘quick fix’
Good Agricultural Practice – rotation, recycling organic matter
Competent advisors (pH & fertiliser programmes)
Competent advisors (crop protection programmes)
Solution
Competent Training of Trainers
Mitigation
Real IPM (Kenya) Ltd
FACTS (UK diploma for Fertiliser Advisors)
BASIS (UK diploma for Crop Protection Advisors)
Bio-fertilisers
Phosphate starter seed treatment (Gro Plus)
www.realipm.com
Crop-specific IPM courses for Self-Help Groups
Training of Trainers
Also available:
Bio-fertilisers
Registered in South Africa as bio-fertilisers
Use on any crop – seed treatment, spray and drench
Trichoderma asperellum & Bacillus subtilis
Solubilize phosphate from soil
Promote root growth
Bio-fertilisers
Seed treatment for beans
Symbiotic relationship with bean roots
Rhizobium
Fixes nitrogen in air – makes it available to plant
Must incorporate crop residues for soil fertility
Mitigation
Real Impact NGO
Demonstration and Training
Pile composting
Agro-Nutrition
Planting programmes + nutritionally balanced menus
www.realimpact.or.ke
Vermi-fertiliser production (liquid and solid)
Crop Rotation
DFID, USAID, Leonard Cheshire Homes funded programmes
Contact us
Collaborative development programmes?
Capacity Building?