In-situ manuring: maintaining soil fertility In the hills of Nepal, in subsistence farming, the use of externally purchased inputs such as chemical fertilizers, is very difficult if not impossible. Cultivation of crops almost entirely depends on locally available nutrients from the recycling of organic residues. Recycling involves four major components: livestock, the forest, crop residues and farm labour, all of which are closely interrelated. In-situ manuring i.e. the manuring of fields by tethering the animals directly in the fields, is an important strategy developed by farmers. One system of in-situ manuring is to keep cattle and buffalos in the bari lands (unirrigated, unbounded terraces) just after the harvest. This is commonly done in October-November, after the harvest of finger millet and before planting winter crops like wheat or barley. The second period occurs in March-April after the wheat or barley harvest, and before maize or millet planting. Animals are moved from one peg to another every 2-3 nights so as to competely manure the field. Certain pieces of land are intensively manured by keeping animals for a longer period where land is available, for about 2-3 months after the harvest of the first crop. This is done by constructing temporary sheds (Goths) in the fallow lands and the animals are kept in these sheds for a few weeks. Such temporary sheds are moved from time to time so as to manure the complete fallow area. In such intensively manured lands finger millet and rice are tended and maize or potatoes are planted subsequently. Some farmers also keep animals under the canopy of fruit trees, in order to manure the orchard. Generally these animals are kept for a period of one to three nights on a site depending upon the number of animals, or the size or type of land. All these systems assist the farmer to feed crop residues on the spot and at the same time reduce the cost of transporting manure from the cattle shed to the fields. Farmers have reported that the urine and dung of a buffalo tethered for three days in one spot of land equals a heavy application of compost (Riley, 1991). Migratory flocks The other system of in-situ manuring uses migratory flocks of sheep and goats kept under a transhumance system. From May to October/November, these flocks graze on the high alpine pastures above 2500m, where almost no crops are grown. In winter, the flocks descend to the lower areas around 1000m altitude, feed on crop residues and wild grasses, and manure the fields. The sheep and goats are kept overnight, preferably in dry lands. The downward movement of the flocks in October/November is called Udhouli and they start to return and move upwards again in March/April which is called Ubhouli. By May/June, they have left the cropped areas and have entered the higher pastures again. The bari lands under the maize/finger millet and barley cropping pattern are manured twice a year, that is after the millet harvest in October/November (Udhouli), and after the barley harvest in March/April (Ubhouli). When the flocks are kept overnight on the land of a person who is not the livestock owner, the owner of the land has to pay the shepherd in cash or kind (usually food grain) for every night the flock stays on the land. There is a very high demand for such flocks, and in the higher altitude areas of Kaski and Lamjung Districts alone, there are about 70-80 flocks of migratory sheep and goats, with the number of animals ranging from 200-500 in each flock (Subedi, et al. 1989). Pros and cons Farmers report that sheep and goat manure has a greater immediate and lesser residual effect on crops than that of cattle and buffalo. They have also experienced that once fields have been manured by sheep and goats, they should continue to be manured by them. Farmers also believe that in-situ manuring makes the soils more fertile than using farm yard manure (FYM). To understand farmers’ experiences better, a formal field experiment in maize was carried out at Lumle Agricultural Research Centre (LARC) during the 1988 and 1989 summer seasons. The results showed that in-situ manuring by sheep was superior to cattle. In-situ manuring by sheep produced 28.7% higher maize yield over the direct application of an equivalent amount of sheep manure (Subedi and Gurung, 1991). This can be attributed to better utilisation of urine under in-situ manuring. The in-situ system is an efficient method of recycling organic residues, since crop residues and animal waste are properly utilized directly into the soils with no nutrient loss. It involves a minimum of human labour, a central issue in soil fertility management in Nepal. Limitations in the more widespread use of compost and FYM are caused by labour constraints. Neither does the system involve any external inputs. Further, as a traditional practice it does not suffer any communication barrier, as many new technologies do. The disadvantage of in-situ manuring by migratory sheep and goats is the lack of land for grazing. This lack is caused by 1) intensified cultivation, e.g. by growing winter crops (mainly wheat) in the traditional maize-millet fallow period, 2) rice-fallow systems 3) afforestation programmes. However, in-situ manuring by cattle and buffalo can be fitted in during the turn-around period of a few days between two crops. This practice is more attractive in terms of labour requirements and the urine is also completely utilized. Formal research has shown that this practice is more useful than the application of FYM. KD Subedi, Lumle Agricultural Research Centre, PO Box 1, Pokhara, Nepal References - Subedi, KD and Gurung, G. 1991. Soil fertility thrust towards sustainable agriculture: experiences of Lumle Regional Agricultural Centre (LARC). Technical Paper No. 4/91 ILEIA Newsletter Vol. 12 No. 1 p. 19 << country/story review