Abstract
Industrial poultry farming is a booming sector in Africa. This activity generates a significant amount of manure that could be used to improve crop yields on low-productivity soils. We wanted to characterize the variability in the chemical composition of poultry manure and its ability to release mineral nitrogen when applied to soils compared to other organic sources of nutrients such as cattle manure and human feces. We conducted a survey in 79 poultry farms to characterize their practices such as the type of poultry raised, the type of feed and the bedding litter. Poultry manure, cattle manure and human feces samples were collected and analyzed to determine their chemical composition. An incubation study was conducted with all three types of organic resources for 91 days to measure mineral nitrogen release. We found that agricultural practices explain more than 60% of the chemical composition of poultry manure. Wood chips were the most common bedding litter (77% of cases) and about 70% of farms use industrial poultry feed. Broiler manure contains more C and N than laying hens that contain more Ca. Poultry manure releases nitrogen faster than cattle manure when applied to the soil. A combination of broiler chicken manure and laying hen manure could be more beneficial to the crops.
Highlights
In addition to poor weather conditions and low fertility soils, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa suffers from low mineral fertilizer inputs (Yasuhiro et al, 2019) resulting in low yields
The use of organic resources in agriculture is relevant for the majority of soils in sub-Saharan Africa such as Ferric Acrisol, given their low aggregate stability, low organic matter content and low cation exchange capacity (Traoré et al, 2016)
Poultry manure is an important source of nutrients that can be used to improve the productivity of Ferric Acrisol
Summary
In addition to poor weather conditions and low fertility soils, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa suffers from low mineral fertilizer inputs (Yasuhiro et al, 2019) resulting in low yields. Several reasons are often cited to explain this low level of mineral fertilizer use, including low farmer income, lack of subsidies, inappropriate agricultural policies, and poor market access (Mugwe et al, 2019). In such a context of farmers’ inability to purchase mineral fertilizers, local organic resources remain the main source of nutrients for soil fertility management and agricultural production. The functioning of these soils and their ability to produce a good yield rely strongly on the quantity and quality of the organic resources applied
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