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Figure
-A Permanent Farming System is adapted to ecological, social and economic conditions:
adapted to ecological conditions means: farming methods, which reduce erosion and h iron tines soils;
adapted to social conditions means: the farming methods are acceptable to the farmers and appreciated by the farmers;
adapted to economic conditions means: the farmers can afford the new farming methods and can increase their income by using the new farming methods.
-A Permanent Farming System is mechanized by the use of draft animals in order to:
reduce labour burden,
accelerate farm work,
increase the farm area, production and income of the farmers
Permanent fanning methods should improve the living conditions of farmers.
Improvement of living conditions means:
-having less and easier work,
-having more time for themselves
-having more and better food, and
-having more income for school fees, health care, etc.
5.1.1 THE ELEMENTS OF THE PERMANENT FARMING SYSTEM
The new permanent farming system has a lot of elements, which are working hand in glove to improve farming:
-Making Contour Bonds (trig ridges) along contour lines prevents erosion;
-Planting of permanent and seasonal crops reinforces the contour bonds and produces a lot of food and income;
-Small ridges prepared by oxen between the contour bonds prevent erosion and provide optimum growing conditions for seasonal crops;
-Mixed cropping and crop rotation of seasonal crops conserves the soil, protects against diseases and guarantees good yields;
-Planting of legumes improves the soil fertility for higher yields;
-Draft oxen, used for farm work reduce the labour burden and accelerate farm work;
- With the draft oxen, you can increase the size of your farm, your production and your income;
-Keeping of draft oxen in the cowshed during the night protects the oxen and allows &e production of cowdung;
-Use of cowdung and green manure reduces the expense of mineral fertilizer, improves the soil and increases the yields;
- Vegetable gardening improves the family diet and produces additional income by marketing of surplus vegetables;
-Working of one big farm with the family reduces the labour burden for the individual family members and guarantees continuation of farm activities when one family member is sick.
5.1.2 What is a Permanent Farm and why do we practise Permanent Farming?
A permanent farm is a farm, where you crop every year continuously and forever without shifting to another farm.
We practice permanent farming because:
-with the increase of population, the land becomes short and shifting to a new farm becomes difficult,
-when shifting to a new farm you have a lot of work to clear new farm land and if land is short, you have to shift to very steep hillsides, which are tedious to work and subject to erosion;
-a permanent farm is better protected against bushfires;
-a permanent farm allows continuous production, a permanent farm reduces transport or walking time to scattered traditional farms;
-after some time, you know your permanent farm very well and you know which crops to grow on which plot of your permanent farm
5.1.3 Why do we use Draft Animals?
The traditional way of farming with the hand-hoe is tedious and not very efficient. With the help of draft animals you can mechanize nearly all farm works, like clearing, plowing, harrowing, planting, ridging, weeding, moulding and transportation. With the draft animals you:
-reduce your labour burden: farm work becomes easier;
-accelerate working operations: farm work becomes faster;
-can increase the size of Your farm land: production increases;
-can produce manure and increase yields without buying expensive mineral fertilizer
-can do contract labour to help other farmers and increase your income.
5.1.4 How to Farm permanently
When the traditional farmer his fallow period or starts to crop permanently on one farm, he will soon recognize, that: the soil becomes less fertile and yields decrease.
In addition, bush fires or the farming method of bury and burn as well as the heavy rains, which carry away the soil, reduce the soil fertility.
To make a farm permanent, we therefore have to protect, conserve and improve our soil, to have a good yield every year.
The soil is a living thing like man, animal and plant. Conservation of soil means, keeping its power active to produce food. If you don't protect it against "soil diseases" or if you overwork your soil without adding soil food, it will have no Power to produce and will die". The most important enemies of the soil are fire and erosion.
5.2.1 flow to Protect the Soil against Fire:
Destruction of soil by fire can be caused by the farming method of bury and burn of organic matter or by wild bush fire.
Practise fire dressing to avoid bush fire in your farm. Bush fire can destroy your
-farm
-cowshed
-house and can be dangerous even to your own life and the life of your family.
Fig 5.1: Do not practise bury and hum
of organic matter hut bury your organic matter only
If you clear your farm at the beginning of the dry season and bury all the organic matter, bush fire cannot enter your farm because bare soil cannot burn.
Fig. 5.2: Clear your farm at the
beginning of the dry season and bury all the organic matter.
Only when you leave crop residues (maize stover,etc.) or grass on your farm, can bushfire enter and destroy your soil life.
Fig. 5.3: Any fire on your farm will
burn organic matter (grass, etc.) which is important as food for the soil.
Fire will also destroy the life in the soil such as microbes which act like a stomach and change organic matter into plant food. Fire will also destroy the structure of the soil. The soil will lose its strength and will easily be carried away by wind and water.
Apart from fire, erosion can destroy your soil. If the soil is carried away by water, we call it water erosion. If the soil is carried away by wind, we call it wind erosion.
5.2.2 How to protect the Soil against Water Erosion
Only running water can carry away soil. Running water you find on sloping land. The steeper the slope, the more power the water develops and the more soil it washes away. We have to stop the power of running water to prevent erosion.
To stop running water on a slope, we have to cultivate along contour lines and build dams or ridges along the contour lines.
A contour line is an imaginary line running across the slope, where all points on this line are on the same level of altitude. This means: If you make a dam according to this line, water will stop and will not continue in any direction but will seep into the soil.
Fig 5.4: Do not cultivate in the
direction of the slope. Water flows fast between the ridges and carries away the
soil; Fig. 5.5: Plant along contour lines when ridges are made across the slope
water cannot run and carry away the soil.
How to determine the contour line:
The contour line will follow the topography (surface) of the land. You cannot determine the contour line with your eyes. To determine the exact contour line, we use a special instrument, The Rauch Contouring Instrument:
Fig. 5.6: The Rauch Contouring
Instrument consists of a transparent plastic tube fixed to two wooden sticks
with centimetre marks ranging from 0 to 120. With this instrument, you can
determine the slope of the land and the contour line.
How to determine the slope:
You fill the transparent tube with water. Take care that no air bubbles remain in the tube. Put the sticks upright on level ground near each other and add water until the water levels reach the marks "one hundred" on the sticks.
Put the sticks 1 m apart following the direction of the slope. Read the difference of the water levels at the marks on the sticks. The resulting figure is the slope of the land.
Fig. 5.7: Example for determining the
slope %age using the Contouring Instrument.
Example:
Reading on stick 1 = 110 cm
Reading on stick 2 =
90 cm
Difference = 20 cm
Slope = 20 %
The percentage of the slope
determines the distance between the contour lines. On steep slopes, the distance
decreases. Apply the following distances between contour lines, according to the
slopes.
Below 5 % = 10 m
5 - 10 % = 8 m
10 - 15 % = 7 m
Above
15 % = 5-6 m
Prepare sufficient sticks to peg the contours on your field and
support your field extension worker, because he cannot do the work alone. Invite
your family members and other oxen farmers to finish the exercise as fast as
possible, because the extension worker has a lot of fields to contour for other
farmers.
How to establish contour bonds:
To accelerate the layout of contour lines for a field, you establish a reference contour line and measure out the other contour lines at the distances given the corresponding slopes.
But before you start to determine your reference contour line, you have to survey your field and answer the following questions:
-is the topography of the field uniform or do I have to divide the field into subplots with individual reference contour lines?
-how many reference contour lines do I need?
-where do I start my reference contour line?
You start the reference contour normally in the middle of the field or the subplot and measure the other contour lines outwards from the reference contour. If you still have a fault in your reference contour, the multiplication factor for the fault is less when you start in the middle of the field.
For the layout of the reference contour, you fill your contouring instrument as indicated above. You fix a starting point and keep one stick at the starting point. With the second stick, you shift ahead by the length of your tube. When the water level has calmed down, you read the mark on the stick at the starting point and compare it with the reading on the second stick. If the second stick shows a higher figure, you move up the slope. If the second stick shows a lower figure, you move down the slope. When the reading on the sticks correspond, the sticks are on the same level of altitude. You mark the points and take the point of the second stick as reference point to continue the exercise on the whole width of the field.
Fig. 5.8: Collect the organic matter
and put it along the contour lines. Cover the organic matter with soil.
When you have determined the reference contour line, you have to adjust the line to correct sharp bends and corners, to enable your oxen later on to follow easily the contour line during work.
For the layout of your contour line, contact your extension staff.
After the laying out of the contour lines, you have to establish big ridges along these lines to stop running water. These big ridges we call contour bonds.
For the establishment of the contour bond, you need a lot of organic matter. Therefore, don't burn the organic matter after clearing.
The establishment of a contour bond is a tedious job, but you do it only once, at the beginning of your farm establishment.
To reinforce the contour bonds and make them permanent, we have to plant permanent crops as soon as the rains start.
The contour bond protects your soil against erosion and contributes to your farm income.
Fig. 5.9: Apart from permanent crops
which guarantee a long-term income, you can plant seasonal crops like: beans,
soya beans, ground nuts, corn, bitter leaves, pepper, okra, etc. for fast
income.
Fig 5.10: Planting root and tuber
crops on contour bonds is only reasonable on flat slopes.
After harvest of root and tuber crops, you have to refill and reestablish your contour bonds.
Fig. 5.11: Plant permanent crops on
the contour bonds to reinforce them.
NO ! Don't plant root and tuber crops on
the contour bond; when you have a steep slope
YES ! Plant permanent crops to
reinforce the contour bond
How to control erosion between the contour
bonds:
During heavy rains, erosion can occur between the contour bonds and
destroy your young plants when planted on the flat.
To prevent erosion between the contour bonds, we plant on ridges prepared along the contour bonds. Planting on ridges has several other advantages in addition:
-The plants have a better seed bed,
air and water are stored better in ridges;
your plants germinate better;
the roots of the young plants can develop better.
-Ridges can easily be filled with a lot of manure for higher yields.
-Weeding is easier on ridges, especially when you use the ridger.
-The soil on ridges dries off faster and prevents especially fungal diseases from spreading.
-Harvest of root and tuber crops is easier.
Fig. 5.12: Small ridges prepared by
oxen along the contour bonds prevent erosion between the contour bonds and
provide optimum growing conditions for seasonal crops.
Fig. 5.13: The field ridges between
the contour bonds are established with the help of the oxen and the ridger.
Other methods to prevent water erosion:
Apart from the
establishment of contour bonds and planting on ridges, there are additional
methods to prevent erosion.
Erosion can be reduced by covering the soil.
You will hardly find erosion on soil completely covered by plants like on good pastures or in forest areas.
Fig. 5.14: Covering the soil with
plants or mulch reduces erosion. The rain drops cannot fall directly onto the
soil. They fall onto the leaves, ten they run gently down to the earth and have
no power to carry away the soil.
On our farms, we cover the soil with farm crops. To achieve a good, permanent soil cover during the rainy season, we practise mixed cropping and double cropping.
Mixed cropping means: We combine different plants in one field to get a higher plant density that covers the soil better.
Fig. 5.15: A mixed crop of maize and
beans on one ridge.
Fig. 5.16: Double Cropping means:
Planting a second crop immediately after the harvest of the first season crop.
Mulch is another method to cover the soil and protect it against erosion.
Fig. 5.17: Living mulch like
Crotalaria or Desmodium can be used on the farm.
Maize on the ridge and a cover crop (e.g. Crotalaria) in the furrow.
Figure
Surface mulch like crushed grass and plant residues should be used on smaller herds like gardens. It involves a lot of work and time.
5.2.3 How To Protect your Soil against Wind Erosion
Wind can attack the soil only when:
-the wind is powerful;
-the soil is bare, and
-the soil structure is damaged.
To break the power of the wind, you have to establish wind breaks.
A well established contour bond with permanent crops can reduce the power of the wind. In addition, you can establish wind breaks at the comers of your farms with trees and hedges to break the wind. Trees and hedges can also serve as a living fence for your farms, to protect them against destruction by cattle.
Fig. 5.18: Wind cannot attack the
soil easily, when the soil is covered by plants, which break the power of the
wind and strengthen the soil structure with their roots. A good plant canopy,
covering the soil, reduces wind erosion.
Practise mixed cropping with a high plant population and double cropping to have a good soil protection.
A soil with a poor structure is easily attacked by wind erosion. Therefore you have to protect and improve your soil structure:
-avoid bush fire;
-cover the soil with plants or mulch to protect it against sun,
-add cowdung, plant residues (corn stalks, etc.) and green manure to the soil; and reduce soil preparation (reridging instead of plowing and harrowing).
To allow permanent fanning activities on a farm with good yields, you have to improve the soil. The use of manure, organic farming, mixed cropping, crop rotation and use of mineral fertilizer wilt help you to improve your soil for steady and high yields.
For a draft animal farmer, dung is the most important manure. It is free of charge because it is produced by his draft animals. When applied sufficiently on the farm, dung will improve the soil and increase the yields of the crops. The crops will produce more food for man and animals.
Fig. 5.19: Manure and compost help to
return organic matter to the fields.
5.3.1 How to Produce Cowdung
To produce cowdung, it is necessary to keep the animals in a
cowshed during the night to collect faeces and urine. Dung from animals which
roam around is lost to your farm
The quantity of your cowdung depends mainly
on:
-he size of your cattle
-the feeding of your cattle
-the amount of litter in your cowshed
A larger animal produces more dung than a smaller one. A well-fed animal produces more dung than a poorly fed one.
Allow enough grazing time during the day and add 10 kg of fresh grass every day, when you put your oxen into the cowshed.
Fig. 5.20: The litter you put into
the cowshed gets mixed with the dung, rots and produces manure. In addition, it
collects the urine.
Fig. 5.21: Dry litter must be added
every day
Fig. 5.22: Litter provides dry
bedding for your animals and increases the amount of manure you produce.
Cowdung will save you a lot of money. You don't need to buy fertilizer. In addition, it will improve your yields.
A pair of oxen can produce about 4 tons of rotten manure per year when
-kept in the cowshed during the night
-well fed
-enough litter is applied
This corresponds to about 8-10 cart loads per year.
Fig. 5.23: When the manure is well
rotted, it can be transported to the field.
Before the cowdung can be brought to the farm, it must be rotten. A reasonable oxen farmer has two rooms for his oxen. He will keep his oxen in one room until the manure heap is large enough. He will then change the oxen to the second room, while the cowdung in the first room is left to rot.
5.3.2 How to produce Compost
All organic waste materials (kitchen waste, weeds, grass, crop residues, etc.) can be used for compost. Compost can be used as organic fertilizer on the farm and especially in the garden.
Choose a cool place for the establishment of your compost heap. Peg a square with 4 poles at a distance of 2-3 metres.
Throw all available organic waste materials on the ground within the four poles. When the layer of organic matter is about one handspan high you spread a thin layer of humus soil or manure. You continue to put organic matter (1 handspan) and manure (thin layer) until your compost heap is about 1 metre high.
Fig. 5.24: Keep your compost moist
throughout. Adding well rotten compost to manure and organic wastes speeds up
the rotting process.
Compost must be moist. In the dry season, you have to water your compost and protect it against the sun. Cover your compost heap with leaves or grass and leave it for some time to rot before applying to the field.
For complete rotting, you have to turn your compost after some time (4-6 weeks after complete establishment). Mix the organic matter and put the outer layers inside and the inner layers of the compost outside. Especially when you use your compost for gardening, it needs complete rotting
5.3.3 How to produce Green Manure
As a draft animal farmer, you crop a large farm. You may not always have enough dung or compost to improve all plots of your farm. To keep all plots fertile, you need green manure in addition.
Green manure is manure from special manure plants or crop residues.
Many Green Manure Plants do not produce direct food, but they improve the soil. Plants that are cropped after applying green manure produce a lot of food.
Some popular green manure plants are the following ones:
- Tephrosia
- Sesbania
- Crotalaria
- Leucaena
- Pidgeon Pea
In addition, green manure plants have many other advantages:
Fig. 5.25: Green manure plants have
many benefits..
Green manure plants are planted:
-in mixture with food crops;
-on contour bonds, and .
-as a sole crop on fallow areas.
If you mix green manure crops with food crops, you produce food and manure at the same time. You may not have the same yield as with sole cropping of food crops in the first year, but in the following years, you will harvest more on the green manure field, because you conserve and improve your soil by this method.
Fig. 5.26: A mixed crop of maize and
sesbania
The planting of green manure crops on the contour bonds has the following advantages: you reinforce and enrich your contour bonds through the root system of the green manure crop (tephrosia, sesbania, etc.) the green manure plant can be left for seed production after the seed harvest, the green manure plant can be pruned and used as manure for the field between the contour bonds.
Fig. 5.27: Fresh branches and leaves
of the green manure crop can be cut and spread as mulch m the field.
If you have a very poor soil, you may have to fallow your farm Under natural fallow, it will take long time until the soil becomes fertile again
Fig. 5.28: Under a planted fallow
with Green Manure Plants, the soil becomes fertile again within 1 or 2 years.
Green Manure Plants can give 20-80 tons of fresh organic matter per hectare per year. This will save you a lot of fertilizer.
5.3.4 How to bury Organic Matter
To avoid loss and improve the decomposition of organic matter from plant drop, we have to mix it with the soil. The oxen farmer uses the cart, the roller cutter and the ridger for this exercise.
With the cart, he transports the manure to the farm.
With the roller cutter, he can clear plant residues.
With the ridger, he buries the organic matter into the soil.
Fig. 5.29: How to bury organic matter
in a ridged field.
The buried organic matter gives humus to the soil. We call this organic farming. It improves your soil and the following crop will produce a lot of food.
5.3.5 Mixed Cropping
To conserve and improve our soil, we have to practice mixed cropping. Mixed cropping is the planting of two or more crops on the same field at the same time.
To keep the soil in balance, we combine (mix) crops which make the soil poor, with crops which improve the soil.
Crops which make the soil poor are:
- maize
- rice
- wheat
- yam
- cassava
- cocoyam
- potatoes
Crops which improve the soil are legumes like:
- ground nuts
- beans
- soya beans
- peas
- green manure plants
Fig. 5.30: A crop of maize mixed with
beans:
Apart from soil conservation, mixed cropping has a lot of other advantages: a mixture of crops with different root systems will use the different layers of the soil better, that means: they use the available water and nutrients better.
- mixed crops with different preferences for nutrients, use the different minerals available in the soil better.
- mixed cropping results in a higher plant population per unit area and increases yields.
- the higher plant density in mixed cropping reduces soil erosion and suppresses weed growth.
- mixed cropping reduces the risk of pests and diseases infestation.
- mixed cropping diversifies the food supply. You have different quality food for your family diet.
- mixed cropping reduces the risk of complete crop failure. If one crop fails, the other crops can still produce enough food for the farmer family.
5.3.6 Crop Rotation
If the same crop is grown in the same field every cropping cycle:
-the soil becomes poor;
-pest and disease infestation increases;
-the harvest gets smaller.
If the crops change on the same field every cropping cycle:
-the soil does not become poor;
-pests and diseases do not increase easily; .
-the harvest can stay good.
To change crops on the same field every cropping cycle is called crop rotation. The advantages of crop rotation are similar to mixed cropping: Crop rotation:
-conserves the soil fertility: Crops which make the soil poor are followed by crops which enrich and improve the soil; e.g. Maize followed by beans.
-controls pests and diseases; Pests and diseases developing on one crop cannot affect a crop of another family; e.g. Cocoyam followed by Cassava.
-improves the use of different layers of the soil; Crops with a shallow root system are followed by crops with a deep root system; e.g. Beans followed by Cassava.
-improves the use of different minerals available in the soil; e.g. Cereals need more nitrogen while tuber crops need more potassium.
To get all possible advantages, combine mixed cropping with crop rotation. Recommended crop rotations with mixed crops for different areas of altitude are indicated on the following pages.
[TREATMENTS - CROP ROTATION ON MEDIUM ALTITUDE (lower than 1500m)
INDIVIDUAL PLANTING ARRANGEMENTS
Treatment 1 or Plot 1
(between first and second contour bond)
Maize and Green Manure:
Fig. 5.31: Maize and Green Manure on
alternate ridges.
Distance between ridges: 80 cm.
Distance between maize plants on the ridge: 25 cm.
Fig. 5.32: Maize on ridges, green
manure in the furrow.
Distance between ridges: 80 cm.
Distance between maize plants on the ridges: 30 cm.
Green Manure Crops can be Tephrosia, Sesbania, Crotalaria solely or as a mixture.
Treatment 2 or Plot 2 (between second and third contour
bond)
Maize and Beans and Cocoyam:
Fig. 5.33: Maize and Cocoyam/Beans
are planted on alternative ridges.]
Distance between the ridges: 80 cm.
Distance between maize
plants on the ridges: 25 cm.
Distance between the cocoyam: 60 cm.
Beans
interplanted between cocoyam: 10-15 cm distance
NOTE: - Split maize ridges after harvest and add soil to Cocoyam
edge.
Treatment 3 or Plot 3 (between third and fourth contour bond)
Fig. 5.34: Maize and Food Legume are
planted on alternate ridges.
First Season
Maize and Food Legume: (Beans, Soyabeans, Groundnut)
Distance
between the ridges: 80 cm.
Distance between the maize plants on the ridges:
25 cm.
Distance between the food legumes: 10-15 cm. (see Chapter 6.4.)
Second Season:
Food Legume and maize on 80 cm. ridges or
Food Legumes on 50
cm. ridges or
Food Legumes and potatoes on 80 cm. ridges or
Potatoes or
Sweet potatoes only or
Green Manure.
Fig. 5.35: Legumes and maize mixed -
Food legumes and potatoes mixed.
Treatment 4 or Plot 4 (between fourth and fifth contour bond)
Fig. 5.36: Potatoes are cropped
solely on ridges or on alternate ridges with food legumes.
First Season:
Food legumes (Beans, Soyabeans, Groundouts).
Food legumes are
cropped solely on ridges.
Distance between the ridges: 50-60 cm.
Distance
between the plants on the ridges: 10-15 cm.
Or Potatoes (high altitude areas):
Distance between the
ridges: 80 cm.
Distance between the plants on the ridges: 30-40 cm.
Fig. 5.37: Cereals are planted flat.
The planting method is drilling.
Second Season:
Cereals: (Upland Rice, Wheat)
The distance
between the rows: 20-40 cm, depending on the weeding implement used.
The
recommended seed rate for cereals is about 100 kg/ha.
Tubers:
Plant Sweet Potatoes after harvest of first season
crop. Re-ridge and plant 3040 cm long cuttings.
Planting distance between ridges: 70-80 cm. Planting distance between the plants on the ridges: 50-60 cm.
Food Legumes:
Planting distances: see first season.
Green Manure:
Broadcast available legume seed, preferably
Crotalaria after harvest of first season crops.
NOTE: Select your season crop according to the climate of your area and characteristics of the crop.
5.3.7 Mineral Fertilizer
The use of dune, compost and green manure crops help to maintain and improve the soil fertility, but every year a part of the crops is either consumed by the farmer's family or sold.
The nutrients of these crops are lost to the soil. They have to be replaced. We can give back these nutrients (plant food) to the soil m the form of mineral fertilizers.
Mineral fertilizers are artificial fertilizers, which can add nutrients to the soil and increase the yield of crops.
There are three main plant nutrients which are necessary for
plant growth: nitrogen (symbol N) phosphorous (symbol P) potassium (symbol
K)
Each of these nutrients has special effects on the plant.
Nitrogen (N): makes the plant grow quickly. gives the plant a nice green color . makes the plant grow strong,
Fig. 5.38: When Nitrogen is lacking,
plants are generally weak and pale.
The main Nitrogen Fertilizers are:
- Sulphate
- Nitrates
- Urea
Not only these mineral fertilizers add Nitrogen to the soil, but also the Leguminous Plants.
(Beans, Soyabeans, Groundnuts, Cowpeas, Mucuna).
Phosphrus(P):
Fig. 5.39: Phosphorous makes the
stem and the roots strong. Phosphorous helps the plant to form flowers and
fruits.
The main Phosphorous Fertilizers are
-Natural Phosphates
-Super Phosphates.
Potassium(K):
Fig. 5.40: Potassium helps plants to
build up reserves and to resist drought and diseases.
The main Potassium Fertilizers are:
-Natural Potassium
-Potassium chloride
-Potassium sulphate
Common commercial fertilizers
1. N P K 20/10/10
The figures indicate the percentage of the different nutrients in one bag.
|
e.g. |
1 bag 20/10/10 with 50 kg. contains: |
|
|
20% Nitrogen = 10 kg. |
|
|
10% Phosphorous = 5 kg. |
|
|
10% Potassium = 5 kg. |
2. N P K 10/30/10
3. Ammonium-Sulphate
This fertilizer contains about 21%
Nitrogen. It is not recommended, because it will make the soil acid. Acid soil
is not good for plant growth.
4. Urea
This fertilizer contains about 46% Nitrogen. It is
good for top dressing to support heavy plant growth.
How to apply fertilizer
The fertilizer has to be applied at the correct time and the correct place.
Fig. 5.41: We give fertilizer as a
basic application before or at planting time. Spread your fertilizer before
ridging or reridging. When you mould up your edges, fertilizer is mixed with the
soil.
Fertilizers for basic application are NPK 20/10/10 and NPK 10/30/10.
After plant establishment (3-5th week after germination) we support the plant development with a top dressing. The top dressing can be combined with weeding to save a working operation. Applv the fertilizer in the furrow. When earthing up the ridges or reridging, the fertitizer will be mixed with the soil and moved near the plant roots.
Fig. 5.42: Top dressing, application
of fertilizer into the furrows
Fig. 5.43: After applying the
fertilizer in the furrow the fertilizer is mixed with the soil and moved nearer
to the plants with the ridger-plow
Fertilizers for top dressing are Urea and 20/10/10.
For the
recommended rates of fertilizer, see Chapter VI for the specific
crops.
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