39132 Transferring an Indigenous Practice for Soil Improvement: Cattle Manure with Groundnut Shells C rop production in dry regions is able. With the onset of the rains, ma- dependent on the vagaries of the nure from the heap is spread in the monsoon. Low rainfall regions are exhibit- fields just before preparatory cultiva- ing reduced yields as well as declined soil tion. Notes productivity. Furthermore, the cost of pro- The farmers of Anantapur district duction using external inputs is constantly have been following this practice for rising making farming in most situations several decades. In sheds where bul- uneconomical. The basic challenge is to locks are housed, the material is left on make better use of available biophysical the floor for only one day as bullocks and human resources, which can be done trample more, while in the sheds hous- by minimizing the use of external inputs ing cows and buffaloes, the material is KI and by utilizing and regenerating local/ in- changed every alternate day. Shells ternal resources more effectively (Rodale, keep the floor of the shed dry leading 1995). Soil fertility never used to be a ma- to better hygienic conditions.After 1 or jor constraint due to the age-old practices 2 days, the material is removed and of recycling agricultural residues in several heaped and allowed to decompose for ways. However, in these days of inorganic 2-2.5 months. Decomposition is fertilizers and quick returns, the problem of quicker due to the presence of mois- http://www.worldbank.org/afr/ik/default.htm soil management and its related constraints ture in the form of cattle urine. The are surfacing. In this context, indigenous quantity of shell manure prepared de- practices related to soil and water conser- pends on the quantity of shell used and vation which can also be termed resource- the number of animals. conserving technologies need to be docu- Groundnut crop has a shelling per- mented in a systematic way and also to be cent of 60-70, i.e., of the total pod analyzed and introduced to potential new shelled, 60-70% is the seed and 30- areas. Preparation of valuable manure 40% is the shell, leading to generation from groundnut shells spread on the floor of large quantity of shells (around 300 of the cattle shed is one such indigenous kg per hectare per year under rain fed No. 98 practice followed by farmers of Anantapur conditions). November 2006 district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. This age-old practice is still prac- IK Notes reports periodically on ticed by the farmers of this region. The Indigenous Knowledge (IK) initiatives details of the practice are as follows. in Sub-Saharan Africa and occassionally on such initiatives outside the region. It is published by the Africa region's Results and The Practice Learning Unit as part of an evolving K partnership between the World Bank, Spreading groundnut shells under the cattle communities, NGOs, development as bedding in the cattle shed generating institutions, and multilateral Groundnut Shell Manure (GSM) is the organizations. The views expressed in World Bank practice. After the shell becomes soaked this article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the with cattle urine and mixed with dung (1-2 World Bank Group or its partners in days), it is removed and heaped. This pro- this initiative. A webpage on IK is cess continues throughout the year de- available at: pending upon the quantity of material avail- //www.worldbank.org/afr/ik 2 Farmers' Perception of the Practice Table 1. Nutrient Composition of Different Materials in use under Experimentation · Practicing this technique for the past two decades helped farmers reap a better harvest even during a drought year when the whole neighbouring area was affected by Material N% P% K% drought. Groundnutshell 1.19 0.08 0.55 · Besides meeting the nutrient requirements of the crop, Groundnutshellmanure 1.75 0.18 0.62 shell manure had beneficial effects such as improving the FYM 0.75 0.22 0.4i soil structure and water holding capacity etc. · Application of groundnut shells loosens the soil. Therefore, peg penetration becomes easier and weeding and harvest- Table 2. Nutritional Status of Different Soils Collected ing become more manageable. · Spreading of shells as bedding ensures hygienic conditions. from Anantapur Region of Andhra Pradesh, India Scientists' View and Analysis Sourceof Organic Available Available Available Pod The analysis has indicated that the groundnut shells have the Soil Carbon Nitrogen Phosphorus Potassium Yields samples (%) composition of 1.19% nitrogen, 0.08% P 0 and 0.55% K 0 (kgha.} (kgha) (kghal) (kghal) 2 5 2 (kg ha k) l with carbon of 34%. The C N ratio of this material is about 28. Cattle urine contains about 1.00% Nitrogen traces of P 0 2 5 Untreated 18.5 120 400 and 1.0% of K 0 and approximately 2400-2500 litres of urine 180 (Groundnut 0.30 2 are produced per year per animal (Yawalker et. al., 1996). If shellsnot applied) this urine were not conserved, nitrogen in the urine, which is mainly in the form of urea, would be quickly lost as ammonia. This loss can be reduced to a great extent by conserving the Soilapplication urine using groundnut shells. If the whole quantity of urine is ofgroundnut 25 140 450 conserved through this method, about 20 kg nitrogen and 20 0.35 190 shellmanurefor kg K 0 can be saved per year per animal. In addition to this, oneyear 2 each animal produces 5-7 tomes of dung containing 0.2- 0.35% N, 0.1-0.15% P 0 and 0.2-0.3% K 0 nutrients. 2 5 2 Therefore, the farmers through this indigenous practice can Soilapplication effectively utilize the renewable resources of dung and urine ofgroundnut 0.4 230 27 156 600 shellmanurefor along with the large quantities of crop residues (groundnut 4years shell). Combining the nitrogen rich groundnut shell (1.19%)with another rich source of nitrogen, i.e., cattle urine (0.83), fol- lowed by FYM (0.52%) led to nitrogen (1.75%) and potas- sium (0.62%) rich groundnut shell manure. Not much im- Introduction of the ITK Practice to New Areas provement was observed with regard to phosphorus (Table 1). Through the conservation of urine in this manner, the loss In view of the above advantages in terms of use of residues, of soluble mineral elements is prevented, bacterial decompo- the reduced use of inorganic (external inputs) and improved sition of raw organic matter is encouraged, plant nutrients use of renewable resources like cattle urine, reduced use of are made soluble and nitrogen losses are minimized. water in preparing the manure, improved physical and Soils from the practicing farmers' fields when analyzed chemical conditions of the soil, which will improve the yields (Anantapur region) showed improvement in the available ni- of crops especially under drought conditions, an attempt was trogen by 50 kg ha -1when applied continuously for four made to introduce this practice to Anantapur district, which years, increasing the pod yields by 200 kg ha-l. Not much displays similarities in agro-climatic conditions, soils, crop- significant improvement was observed with one year of ap- ping system and the socio-economic conditions of the farm- plication of shell manure either in the yields or in the available ers. nitrogen (Table 2). 3 The Process of Introduction The groundnut crop during the post monsoon season, when grown under irrigation, yielded 20-25% more yield A preliminary survey was conducted to select villages based than the Farmers' Practice. The application of groundnut on the prevailing crops and cropping systems, and the prac- shell as such did not have any significant effect during the tices related to management of soil through organics. The monsoon season, while its effect improved during the post majority of small (50%) and marginal farmers (25%) culti- monsoon season due to the availability of water. vate mostly sorghum, castor, groundnut, and maize during the The retention capacity of soil moisture content (%) when monsoon season and groundnut again in the post monsoon monitored at the time of a critical stage i. e., peg ( the stalk season with minimum irrigation. The farmers know the im- of the pistil of the :flower) penetration stage, the retention portance of organic manures and are applying half to one capacity was more in the GSM applied fields compared to tonne of farmyard manure per acre whenever, it is available. the farmers' practice. The increased moisture retention Besides this, they are applying complex fertilizers like 14-35- was observed to be in the range of 0.9%-5.1%. Increased 14 or 17-17-17 N, P O and K O respectively and gypsum pod number per plant, maximum filled pods per plant and 2 5 2 @ 500 kg per hectare at the time of flowering. Sheep pen- better 100 seed weight of crop grown in GSM applied field ning once a year, an age-old practice, is in vogue in these vil- had resulted in higher yields. lages. After the survey, a Gram Sabha (Village Assembly) with the villagers was conducted to extract any information related to the earlier mentioned indigenous practice. This Perceptions of farmers in the region of introduction was followed by an interaction with 45 farmers who re- vealed that crop residues, for instance, groundnut shell, are The farmers were very enthusiastic about the advantages of thrown in the manure pits near the cattle sheds. The farmers utilizing crop residues for recycling. In place of water for are aware of the loss of cattle urine which is a renewable composting, which is a great constraint in the dry lands, resource. cattle urine for quicker decomposition is being used as a re- A focus group meeting was conducted with 20 farmers, on newable energy source. Also, a dry environment would be the basis of the crops they grew and irrigation facilities avail- provided for cattle besides acting as an absorbing material able. This was followed by an interactive capacity building and facilitate cleaning of the floor. meeting to educate 15 farmers selected to conduct the dem- onstration trials about the preparation of groundnut shell ma- nure. In the participatory mode, the procurement of ground- Conclusion nut shell was carried out by the 15 farmers to make them Through this method of bedding the cattle shed with agricul- understand the price/value of groundnut shell. The farmers tural residues, an effort was made to recycle at least a part were guided in the preparation of groundnut shell manure of the dry matter harvested from the field. Since the farmer (GSM). They were allowed to use their wisdom in preparing can carry out this practice routinely, he/she never feels an the GSM. Surprisingly, one farmer from the Mahabubnagar additional burden. Further, the farmers realize the impor- district of Andhra Pradesh, India, came up with the idea of tance of organic manures to the soil. putting the soaked layer one over the other in the cattle shed Indigenous Knowledge, while it springs from local re- whose floor is of soil. The reason he gave was that the layer sources, local people and is used for solving local problems, existing below will not get dried and will not lose the element can with refinement and adaptation, become global knowl- of nitrogen. This experience showed that the farmers could edge. The farmers readily accept simple techniques display- still improve the practice locally. ing sound logic, when it fits into their routine, and if they are To demonstrate the value of GSM application, simple cost effective. This indigenous practice of cattle shed bed- experiments were conducted on groundnut crops in 15 ding with groundnut shells becomes global knowledge when farmers' fields by applying GSM, compost, groundnut shell locally available residues are involved. The principle in this in comparison with the farmers' practice, regenerative documented practice can be adopted by not only the ground- treatment of only organics and recommended dose of nut-growing regions, but also by the areas where other crops fertilizers. After 2 years of experimentation, it was ob- grow i.e., any crop residues which is not useful as cattle feed served that during the monsoon season, with the application can be tried for bedding the cattle for recycling depending of GSM, groundnut crop yielded 10-15% higher yield than upon the quantity of material available. It is also cost-effec- the Farmers' Practice, but equivalent to compost applied tive in rural locations where the alternative use of groundnut fields. However, the application of groundnut shell and shells is not significant. regenerative treatments to the fields yielded similar results and more or less equivalent to Farmers' Practice. 4 References: Rajasekaran, B. and D.M.Warren. 1990. The role of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in drought Relief activi- ties. Report: Drought Disaster Workshop, United States Agency for International Development, USAID, Washing- ton, D.C. May 1990. Rajasekaran, B., D.M. Warren and S.C. Babu, 1991. Indigenous Natural Resource Management systems for sustainable agricultural development- a global perspective. Journal of International Development 3(4): 387402. Rodale, R.: 1995, Your farm is worth more than ever; put your farm's internal resources to work. New Farm: magazine, Regenerative Agricul- ture. May/June, pp. 6-8. Warren, D.M. 1991. Using indigenous knowledge in agricultural development. World Bank Discussion paper No. 127. Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. Yawalkar, K.S., J.P.Agarwal., and Bokde, 5.:1996, Manures and Fertilisers,Agri-horticultural publishing house, Nagpur, pp. 29-82. This article was contributed by Drs. V.Maruthi, Senior Scientist of Agronomy, and K. Srinivas, Senior Scientist of Soil Science, as a part of their research and experimentation in the farmers` fields with regard to the Indigenous Knowledge under the aegis of Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Santhoshnagar, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India.