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An Overview Of Our Solution

One of the most important challenges to continuously maximize crop production on limited areas of agricultural land is to maintain or enhance soil fertility. Organic fertilizer application is needed to replace nutrient removed by crop from the fields in order to restore crop production potential of a soil. We use chicken manure to enrich our soils with nutrients and as it breaks down improves the structure of the soil and increase its ability to hold water and nutrients. Chicken manure over time makes soil–and plants–healthy and strong compared to chemical fertilizers that only grow plants but do nothing to sustain the soil, they do not include the decaying matter necessary to improve soil structure and don’t replace many trace elements that are gradually depleted by repeated crop plantings, resulting in long-term damage to the soil.

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Société

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Grasslands

Population impacted

20,000

Size of agricultural area

100 Ha

Production quantity

10,000kgs per month

People employed

Describe your solution

We are promoting use of chicken manure as an alternative fertilizer to chemical ones as it not only supplies many nutrients for crop production, including micronutrients, but they are also valuable sources of organic matter. Increasing soil organic matter improves soil structure or tilth, increases the water-holding capacity of coarse-textured sandy soils, improves drainage in fine-textured clay soils, provides a source of slow release nutrients, reduces wind and water erosion, and promotes growth of earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms. We are training farmers too on crop rotation as it improves the fertility of the soil, helps in saving on nitrogenous fertilizers, because leguminous plants grown during the rotation of crops can fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria and lastly it helps in weed control and pest control. This is because weeds and pests are very choosy about the host crop plant, which they attack. When the crop is changed the cycle is broken. This practice has helped our farmers improve on their yields more in kitchen gardening hence having enough vegetables to take to the markets. Farmers also feel encouraged to increase their chicken so as to increase their manure so that they can enrich their soils.

Describe your implementation

Increase number of hens per homestead as they require small space since there has been a rapid decline of average land holding per household due to high population growth. We supported the targeted households with one hen and a poultry house as they will help them improve their livelihoods at the same time help in increasing farmers chicken droppings volumes. This also acted as an incentive to rob in more farmers to take up the project. Collection and bulking of chicken droppings in a composite pit. Farmers to be supported dig a compost pit where that will act as a collection point of the droppings. Application of the chicken manure on land – farmers trained on how to apply the chicken manure on their plots for maximum productivity. Adoption of crop rotation every season – This improves the fertility of the soil, helps in saving on nitrogenous fertilizers, because leguminous plants grown during the rotation of crops can fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil with the help of nitrogen fixing bacteria and lastly it helps in weed control and pest control. Our parent project One Hen Campaign has enabled the solution enter easily in the community we work in since it’s accepted and has created tangible impact. The government has helped us in mobilization of farmers and capacity building of our field staff. Fear by some farmers that it chicken manure may fail to work we overcame it by setting up demonstration farms where we purely use chicken manure.

External connections

Government (Ministry of Agriculture):- The government has supported us in mobilization of farmers in public gatherings and capacity building of our field staff. Through the ministry of Agriculture chicken droppings are well dried crushed and fed to fish in ponds and mixed with dairy feeds too to supply calcium. Turkish Coordination and cooperation Agency (TiKA):- Supported us with 500 hens and poultry houses to be distributed to 500 households to increase their household incomes through sale of eggs and bulking of chicken manure. Equity bank of Kenya Ltd- Extended credit to us to finance expansion of our project.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

There has been increased use of chemical fertilizers that has had negative impact on the environment i.e. soil, water and air pollution. Studies have shown that chemical fertilizers bring soil salinity, heavy metal accumulation, water eutrophication and accumulation of nitrate, to consider in terms of air pollution in the air of gases containing nitrogen and sulfur, giving and can lead to problems such as the greenhouse effect. They also upset beneficial microbial ecosystems and don’t improve soil structure. Over the years the western region in Kenya crop production has reduced much attributed to excessive use of chemical fertilizers that are not informed by soil tests to know lacking nutrients.

Describe the context in which you are operating

The use of fallow land to allow restoration of soil fertility is no longer a viable option in Western Kenya, due to land scarcity caused by the declining average land holding per household occasioned by rapid population growth. The current population exerts pressure on land to meet household basic needs such as food, employment and income. There is no possibility of area expansion in Western Kenya since the forest frontiers are closed. Therefore, farmers struggle to maintain production levels by increasing cropping intensity, inter-cropping and multiple cropping which further cause soil mining. Attaining improved food security and livelihoods of farmers in Western Kenya through increased agricultural productivity will remain an illusion if soil mining and land degradation remain unchecked. There is also haphazard application of chemical fertilizers without taking into consideration the nutrients that are deficient since no lab soil testing is being undertaken.

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Reduced the use of chemical fertilizers in our locality by 20% this can be verified by statistics from the ministry of Agriculture –Kisii County. The quality of soils under chicken manure have greatly improved i.e. soil structure or tilth, water-holding capacity of coarse-textured sandy soils, improved drainage in fine-textured clay soils and promoted growth of earthworms and other beneficial soil organisms. This can be verified via soil lab test results. Reduced soil erosion and runoff- This can be demonstrated by observation.

Language(s)

Dholuo, English, Swahili

Water

Chicken manure does not leach away. Leaching is detrimental to our ground water.

Food Security/Nutrition

Enriching soils with nutrients leads to increased crop yields which ensure hunger is reduced and surplus sold to the market also vegetables are planted as source of vitamins and minerals.

Economic/Sustainable Development

Chicken manure is potentially a cheaper option than chemical alternatives. If you have compost or live in a rural area, the only cost is time. Many farmers will sell manure by the truckload or even give it away if you are willing to pick it up. In urban and suburban neighborhoods, a composting unit can be cheap, effective, and unobtrusive. For a nominal upfront investment, even apartment dwellers can have their own organic worm bin composting system to feed a balcony garden.

Climate

The combined influence of increased organic matter and reduced nutrient leaching means that elements such as nitrogen and phosphorus will end up in your plants' roots instead of the local waterways. Nutrient leaching from agriculture is a major culprit in the development of algae blooms on lakes and ponds. This process, known as eutrophication, disrupts ecosystems and renders water unfit for human use.

Sustainability

The farmers working in groups reduce costs of training and acts as a platform for joint marketing of chicken manure. This will in turn reduce the costs of operation.
Packaging the products and labeling them as 10kg 25kg and 50Kg and marketing them as packaged chicken manure in various farm stores across the region. Margins generated from selling will be used to sustain the venture.
Leveraging on existing infrastructure of our one hen campaign initiative i.e. groups, distributors etc will help in reducing costs of looking for new markets and platforms.

Return on investment

So far it has cost us $15,000 to implement our activities; the funds have been from one hen campaign project and in kind support from government and community. The venture has huge potential for profitability and scale to reach millions of people but to scale adequately by reaching more people we require more funding.

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

This solution can successfully be replicated anywhere mostly in rural areas where there are usually huge heaps of manure. It has been done before though on small scale where farmers use it in kitchen gardening. It can be used in a broader spectrum in almost all crops, most farmers have started adopting its use and with availability of funds ($30,000) we will start packaging it in 10kg, 20kg and 50kgs will go a long way in improving its accessibility to farmers. We will enhance partnership with government, rob in other partners who are into organic farming and we will require training and acquisition of pelletizing machine so that we can make chicken manure into pellets.

Overview

One Hen Limited