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?