| dc.description.abstract |
Malawi has recently embarked on a campaign to promote use of compost manure and other organic matter technologies to improve the soil fertility status and raise crop yields on resource poor farmers' fields. Farmers are making compost manure using various sources of plant materials but the quality of the compost manure was not assessed, although beneficial effects of applying manure are well known. Therefore the quality of compost manure made across the country with their effect on maize yield was assessed. The analytical results showed that N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Zn and Cu ranged 0.21 to 2.2%, 0.05 to 0.73%, 0.12 to 2.62%, 0.19 to 10.1%, 0.15 to 2.43%, 37 to 208 mg kg-1 and 12 to 87 mg kg-1 respectively. The application of 5000 kg ha-1 the compost manure would supply N, P and K ranging from 10 to 74, 5 to 10 and 17 to 37 kg ha-1 across the country respectively. To balance the N to attain the recommended rate, application in the range of 82 to 18 kg ha-1 need to be applied. However, compost manure supplied adequate amount of K for maize production. In addition the compost manure supplied S, Ca, Mg, Zn and Cu in the range 4 - 13, 50 - 90, 29 - 75, 0.4 - 0.6 and 0.2 - 0.6 kg ha-1 respectively. Increased use of compost manure as part of the integrated soil fertility management in Malawi would reverse soil fertility decline and land degradation and improve food security. |
en_US |