MANURE IN MALAWI (FACT SHEET) 1.

INTRODUCTION Soil fertility has declined in Malawi, and this is manifested by a pronounced fall in unfertilized maize yields and a paralleled decline in the response of crops to fertilizer. During the 1960s unfertilized local maize typically yielded 1,700/kg/ha. But now yields have fallen to a national average of less than 1000 kg/ha. The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, through Department of Land Resources Conservation, Department of Agriculture Extension Services, Department of Agriculture Research and Technical Services and in collaboration with other stakeholders, including NonGovernmental organizations is promoting low cost soil fertility enhancing technologies. These technologies are based on use of decomposed locally available vegetative materials in the fields to supplement inorganic fertilizers or on their own. These technologies include agroforestry, different types of organic manure (compost, animal, green, crop residues) and legume inter-crops that can capture Nitrogen from the atmosphere. 2. IMPORTANCE OF MANURE All materials added to the soil to supply nutrients essential to the growth of plants, with the aim of increasing crop yields, can be called fertilizers. Fertilizers, therefore, are either organic or inorganic. Crop residues, compost, biomass from nitrogen-rich trees that fix nitrogen e.g., Faigherbia albida (Msangu), Tephrosia Vogelii, and animal manure are forms of organic fertilizers and are valuable to the farmer because: they supply plant nutrients,
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 they improve the physical condition of the soil. Using organic fertilizers raises the organic matter content of the soil which in turn improves the top soil structure, thereby improving root penetration, permeability, water retention and resistance to erosion, they reduce leaching of nutrients, they improve soil microbilogical activity of the soil, and they are low cost, The process of mineralization releases nutrients in organic fertilizers relatively slowly, as a result, they have a residual effect on nutrient levels in succeeding years after application. Chemical fertilizers only contribute to raising the total amount of plant nutrients in the soil. Their continued use without maintaining organic matter content of the soil leads to a loss of topsoil fertility, structure, poor rooting conditions, less rainfall infiltration and increased erosion. Besides, they are expensive (they require foreign exchange to import). 3. DIFFERENT TYPES OF MANURE AND THEIR PREPARATION/MAKING 3.1 Green Manure: ploughing in of green crops and weeds provides the green manure to the soil. If current green crop residues are incorporated into the soil, they also form green manure. The quality of green manure is dependent on factors such as the stage at which the plant has been incorporated into the soil, soil moisture content, and the type of plant material incorporated. Farmers are discouraged from using diseased plants (especially soil borne diseases) as green manure. Of particular note now is grey leaf spot. Tobacco and cotton stems or residues must never be used as green manure.

3.2 Farm Yard Manure: this type of manure mainly comes from rubbish pits. These are the household wastes and sweepings that are thrown into a pit. With time, these decompose and form valuable source of manure, which can be used in the gardens for crop production. Sorting can be done to lower the content of useless substances, such as glass, plastics, metal splinters, stones, etc, from the manure before applying to the garden. 3.3 Animal/Khola Manure: this is animal waste, which accumulates in animal houses (kholas). The quantity may be increased by using as much bedding material (litter) as possible in animal houses (kholas). The fresh animal manure from the khola should be collected and heaped to allow fermentation to take place. Fermentation provides a more satisfactory product for land application than fresh manure. Fresh manure will have enough moisture for decomposing organisms, if dry, add adequate water. If applied fresh to the soil we, get the following disadvantages: the process of decomposition will create competition for plant food between crops and microorganisms the heat of fermentation will damage the roots of crops it is easy to introduce diseases through the rotting of the material. 3.4 Compost manure: Compost is a prepared mixture of well-decomposed organic matter, which supplies nutrients as plant food. Composting is the breakdown of organic material by large numbers of microorganisms in moist, warm, aerated environment to give humus as the end product. The total time taken from heap construction to maturity will depend on the nature of organic materials, condition of aeration and moisture

of the heap. However, this may normally take 3 months. Farmers are exposed to four methods of preparing compost manure; pit, stack, changu and chimato compost methods. The process of piling the materials in the four methods is basically the same. The only difference lies in that the pit has materials piled in a dug pit, the stack material is packed in a wooden framework, the changu one assumes a comical shape and chimato is plastered with mad. The period to maturity also differs because of the way they are made. Compost site selection: The site should be convenient for the collection of materials or water. The site should be near to the garden if possible. It is ideal if the site is under shelter. Avoid the direction of prevailing wind, try to use existing windbreaks. Site away from the dwelling house, especially the kitchen. 3.4.1 Materials: domestic wastes which include vegetable peelings, unwanted leaves, fruit skins, tea leaves, sweepings, ash from wood fires; wastes from the garden, such as remains of vegetable crops, dead flowers, stems, stalks, prunnings, garden weeds, fallen leaves; crop wastes like maize straw, chick peas, pigeon pea, bean, soya bean, groundnut and livestock wastes, like dung, urine and droppings from all types of animals. Poultry provide an excellent composting material. Some items should not be put in compost heaps. These include broken pottery, glasses, metals, plastics, rubbers, nylon and other man made fibres or indeed anything that is resistant to decomposition. Making Compost Manure
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3.4.2

 There are four methods of making compost manure. These are stack, pit, changu and chimato. 3.4.2.1 The Stack Method Construct a wooden frame -work measuring 1.5 m long x 1.5 m wide x 1.5 m deep. Throw in the organic material up to about 60 cm high Use chicken manure or other organic sources of nitrogen e.g. fertile soil to sprinkle on the 60 cm layer Cover the heap with about 8 cm of soil Repeat the process until the heap is 1.5 m high Apply water at regular intervals (twice a week) to keep the materials moist Turn the material after two months. The manure will be ready after three months 3.4.2.2 The Pit Method

Alternative to constructing an above ground box (stack) or enclosure a pit may be used. It is recommended that this should not be done during the rainy season to avoid excessive water entering and accumulating into the pit, resulting in anaerobic fermentation. The pit should be approximately 1.5 m long x 0.9 m wide x 0.6 m deep. This will hold approximately one cubic metre of composting material. The same procedure used in arranging materials in the stack should be followed. The manure will be ready after 3 months. 3.4.2.3 The Changu Method

This method, the compost heap assumes a conical shape and the organic materials decompose relatively fast, hence the name Changu. It is a method that was brought to Malawi by the Chinese. Measure 1.5 2 m diameter circle on a cleared place Heap 30 cm thick layer of high organic materials, e.g., grasses in the circle. This should be followed by 3 5 cm thick layer of high nitrogen organic materials e.g. chicken litter Water adequately until it just oozes out when materials are squeezed between two fingers Repeat the process with the diameter of each subsequent layers reducing until the heap is 1.5 m high and conical in shape Turn the heap after 3 4 days and thereafter, every 4 5 days. After 2 days the heap will have heated up and formed three distinctive layers: the outer A-layer, the middle B- layer and the inner Clayer. In turning the heap remove the outer Alayer from the heap, separate the middle B- layer from the inner C layer and place the C- layer between the A and B layers when rebuilding the heap. The manure will be ready in 30-40 days. 3.4.2.4 The Chimato Method

This is an improvement over the Chinese conical (Changu) method modified at Nankhonde Village in Chiwamba, Lilongwe. The compost heap is plastered on the outside with mud and requires no turning and in most cases no additional water. As such labour and water requirements are reduced. Apart from introducing air vents at the bottom and the middle, and plastering, the process of piling compost materials is similar to the changu method.

NOTE: Manure can be made throughout the year. 4.0 APPLICATION OF COMPOST As A guide, 1 m3 of composting material weighs approximately 500 kg. Upon maturity, the weight falls to about 250 kg, while the volume falls to about 1/3 of 1m3 (33m). With this guide, it is possible to estimate the amount of compost a farmer will produce if we know the volume of the heap, which has been made. Application rate of compost manure varies with the type of soil. Light soils such as sand, will require large quantities compared with heavy soils such as clays. It will also vary with the type of crop and application method. Application of 2 2kg/m (20 tons/ha) is considered to supply nutrients for better crop response. In sandy soils it goes up to 6kg/m2(60 tons/ha). The blanket recommendation is 2 handfuls of compost or any manure per planting station for mainly maize and other cereal crops. This takes into consideration bulkiness and scarcity of manure. If 2 handfuls weigh 250g and we have 36,000 plants per ha then amount applied is 6 tons/ha which is low but better than none. 5.0 TARGETS AND ACHIEVEMENTS FOR 2001/2002 For the current 2001/2002-agriculture season, the nation targeted applying different types of organic manure to 111,116 hectares, and by the end of January 2002, about 122,000 hectares of land were already applied with manure. This involved 395,000 farmers. Specifically, for compost, a total of 471,898 heaps/pits were targeted and 351, 950 have been made by 222,000 farmers. 7