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Related: About this forumAfrican farmers grow trees as a natural crop fertilizer
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2012/0501/African-farmers-grow-trees-as-a-natural-crop-fertilizerA farmer inspects his crop at his farm in Senekal, in South Africa's Eastern Free State. Thousands of African farmers are planting trees among their crops to add nitrogen without the need for expensive fertilizers.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters/File
Among the most challenging long-term barriers to agricultural production and sustainability in Africa is poor and degrading soil quality.
According to Agricultural success from Africa: the case of fertilizer tree systems in southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe), a report from the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, simple Fertilizer Tree Systems (FTS) can double maize (corn) production in soil that is low in nitrogen, an essential plant nutrient.
A type of agroforestry, FTS incorporate nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs into agricultural fields, usually inter-planted with food crops. These trees take in atmospheric nitrogen and return it to the soil, where it serves as a nutrient for plants.
Soil analyses by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and others in the 1980s revealed nitrogen to be a limiting factor in many African soils. In response, on-farm studies in the 1990s showed that FTS, with the right species, could increase crop yields with or without mineral fertilizers.
FTS are much cheaper for farmers to implement than buying fertilizer and represent a more holistic approach to soil management. FTS scaling-up programs were broadly implemented about 10 years ago, and in that time the number of small farmers using these techniques has ballooned from a few hundred to more than 250,000 in Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
FTS have proven most effective for small farmers who are able to devote the necessary labor and land more easily than raise the money needed for commercial fertilizer. By relying on naturally occurring systems rather than imports, agroforestry improves food security, bolsters biodiversity, and reinforces local economies.
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African farmers grow trees as a natural crop fertilizer (Original Post)
xchrom
May 2012
OP
Here's another article from BBC news with more detail and a photo of the system in use
independentpiney
May 2012
#1
independentpiney
(1,510 posts)1. Here's another article from BBC news with more detail and a photo of the system in use
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15305271
I was surprised there wasn't a woody plant in sight in the photo with that article.
and the world agroforestry center report is here:
http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/earthscan/14735903/v9n1/s15.pdf?expires=1336305532&id=68649167&titleid=75005120&accname=Guest+User&checksum=78C0CBED00FC676F34F755AE2A50F082
I was surprised there wasn't a woody plant in sight in the photo with that article.
and the world agroforestry center report is here:
http://docserver.ingentaconnect.com/deliver/connect/earthscan/14735903/v9n1/s15.pdf?expires=1336305532&id=68649167&titleid=75005120&accname=Guest+User&checksum=78C0CBED00FC676F34F755AE2A50F082
xchrom
(108,903 posts)2. indeed that's obviously a posed picture.
if they're gonna pose it -- pose it w/ a tree.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)7. ty for the links....
I am trying to find which tree species they use.
formercia
(18,479 posts)3. Hard on Combines, though.
but a great idea.
Native peoples planted beans at the base of the cornstalks and allowed them to twine up the stalk. Pumpkins and Squash among the Corn kept the soil shaded and weeds in check.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)4. They still do.
It's a common practice where I once lived in the Guatemalan Highlands.
rurallib
(62,342 posts)5. Somehow, Monsanto will claim it was their idea first
and try to steal some bucks from them.