Data from Tigray, Ethiopia show increased yields with bioslurry
compost
The
Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), Ethiopia has pioneered
the use of compost with small farmers in Ethiopia, with great success
and increased yields. (See TWN Agriculture Info: Compost Sharply Increases
Crop Yields in Tigray, Ethiopia, 30 January 2008).
Since
2009, ISD has been involved in a national programme aiming to help
Ethiopian small farming families install and manage anaerobic digester
plants, to provide them with an alternative and renewable form of
cleaner and safer energy (biogas, 60% methane) for cooking and lighting,
as well as a readily available organic fertilizer (bioslurry) to improve
crop yields.
Data
from the 2010 cropping season show that with bioslurry
compost application, the average yield of wheat grain increased by
64%, while that of barley grain increased by 72 % compared to when
no inputs were used. Furthermore, the use of bioslurry was as effective,
or slightly more so than chemical fertilizers.
With
best wishes,
Lim
Li Ching
Third
World Network
131
Jalan Macalister,
10400
Penang,
Malaysia
Email:
twnet@po.jaring.my
Websites:
www.twnside.org.sg, www.biosafety-info.net
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Biogas_Plant_or_Smallholder_Farmers_in_Ethiopia.php
ISIS
Report 07/12/11
Biogas
Plant for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia Showcased by Award-Winning
Team for Sustainable Development
Biogas
plants provide organic fertilizer and sustainable energy to increase
crop yield and supply households with clean safe energy
Sue
Edwards with Fentaw Ejigu and Hailu
Araya from Institute of Sustainable Development
Editor’s
note
Anaerobic
digestion can provide both energy and food security for small productive
farms while mitigating greenhouse emissions, as ISIS has been stressing
for many years (see [1] Sustainable
Agriculture and Off-Grid Renewable Energy, SiS 51).
It is now showcased by Institute of Sustainable Development based
in Addis Ababa, which has won the 2011 Gothenburg Award for Sustainable
Development jointly with Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the
United Nations [2]. The prize of one million Swedish Krona is shared
equally between the winners.
Ethiopia
is a mountainous country in the Horn of Africa with over 45 percent
of the land more than 1 500 metres above sea level. That is where
the majority of the population, particularly smallholder farmers,
live. They practice mixed farming, combining arable crops with livestock
Livestock
play a pivotal role in smallholder farming, providing draught power
for ploughing fields, dung for fertilizing the soil and for cooking
alongside fuel wood. Livestock also provide a cash reserve by supplying
meat and milk to the urban population. However, due to poorly managed
grazing, deforestation, and climate change, farmers are facing land
degradation from the loss of soil and nutrient depletion. To
make things worse, families live with indoor air pollution cooking
with dung and biomass on inefficient fires, and water pollution from
poor or non-existent sanitation. These factors severely undermine
the health and productive capacity of the farming households, particularly
women and children.
The
National Biogas Programme for Ethiopia (NBPE)
The
NBPE is a project developed by the Ethiopian Government and SNV (The
Netherlands Development Organization) with the support of HIVOS, a
Dutch international development funding organisation; its coordination
office is in the Ministry of Water and Energy. The project aims to
help 14 000 Ethiopian smallholder farming families install and manage
anaerobic digester plants, to provide them with an alternative, renewable,
clean, and safe energy (biogas, 60 % methane) for cooking and lighting,
as well as a readily available organic fertilizer (bioslurry) to improve
crop yields. Households are also encouraged to attach a toilet to
the biogas digester to improve sanitation.
The
NBPE is working in the four main crop growing regions of the country:
Amhara, Oromiya, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP),
and Tigray Regional States. The first biogas digester plants were
built in 2009. By the end of August 2011, 1 634 biogas digesters were
installed and working.
In
the latter part of 2009, the Institute for Sustainable Development
(ISD) based in Addis Ababa was invited to be a partner in the NBPE
with special responsibilities for the effective and efficient use
of the ‘bioslurry’ residue of biogas production. ISD has pioneered
the use of compost with smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, and understands
ecological organic agriculture well (see [2] Greening
Ethiopia for Food Security & End to Poverty,SiS 37.
Impacts
of bioslurry compost on crop yields
In
Ethiopia, the average cultivated area per household is 0.96 ha and
the average yield of cereals is below 2 000 kg/ha. Food security is
thus an over-riding concern for nearly 40 percent of smallholder farming
families. Use of chemical fertilizers is very low; consequently there
is an opportunity for good quality organic fertilizers to help farmers
increase their productivity.
ISD
has developed a method to record crop yields from farmers’ fields
(see [3] The Tigray
Project, SiS 23). When the crop is mature, the
farmer and his/her development agent harvest three one-metre squares
from a field. The crop is threshed (the process of loosening the edible
part of the grain from the chaff), the grain and straw is weighed,
and then returned to the farmer with the development agent recording
the yield data, the farmer's name, the crop and the input used. The
straw is important because this is the main source of animal feed
during the long dry season. Samples of the same crop are taken from
good, average, and poorer fields. The inputs are bioslurry compost,
no input (check) and chemical fertilizer (mostly urea) if the farmer
so chooses.
The
2010 cropping season provided the first opportunity to find out if
the use of bioslurry compost could improve crop yields in both grain
and straw.
Yield
Data from Tigray
The
NBPE pilot woredas (districts) and villages from Tigray in 2010 were
Hintalo Wejerat, villages Adi Gudum and Waza, and Ofla, villages Hashenge
and Mankere. The data were taken from fields growing either wheat
or barley, as these are the dominant crops in the villages. The climate
in Hintalo Wejerat is semi-arid and the soils are thin and stony.
Rainfall in the Ofla area is higher, soils are deeper, and farmers
have become used to some chemical fertilizer.
Tables
1 and 2 give the grain and straw averaged yields converted to kilograms
per hectare for wheat and barley from Adi Gudum in 2010.
Table
1 : Grain and straw yield of wheat in Adi Gudum, Hintalo Wejerat,
2010
|
Treatment
|
Farmer's
name
|
Average
grain g/plot
|
Average
straw g/plot
|
Grain
average kg/ha
|
Straw
average kg/ha
|
Grain
increase over check
|
|
Bioslurry
|
Abreha
Moges
|
318
|
451
|
2 800
|
3 961
|
164%
|
|
Berhanu
G/Selassie
|
277
|
425
|
|
Belay Mores
|
245
|
312
|
|
Check
|
Senay Teklu
|
203
|
392
|
1 711
|
3 072
|
|
|
Selemawit
G/Mariam
|
193
|
328
|
|
Embaye
Desta
|
117
|
202
|
Table
2 : Grain and straw yield of barley in Adi Gudum, Hintalo Wejerat,
2010
|
Treatment
|
Farmer's
name
|
Average
grain g/plot
|
Average
straw g/plot
|
Grain
average kg/ha
|
Straw
average kg/ha
|
Grain
increase over check
|
|
Compost
|
Gidey Tekaye
|
293
|
485
|
2 628
|
4 056
|
172%
|
|
Hindeya
Muez
|
268
|
398
|
|
Felege
Tsegaye
|
227
|
333
|
|
Check
|
Kinfe Nuriyu
|
180
|
307
|
1 528
|
2 417
|
|
|
K/Mariam
Haile
|
163
|
255
|
|
Dagnew
Melew
|
115
|
163
|
The
response to bioslurry compost application was large: the average yield
of wheat grain increased by 64 %, while that of barley grain increased
by 72 % over check. Even the farmers with poorer fields benefitted
from the use of bioslurry. For wheat, the average yield for a poor
field more than doubled from 1170 to 2450 kg/ha, while that for barley
increased from 1150 to 2270 kg/ha.
In
the village of Waza, farmers growing barley had included the use of
chemical fertilizer in their treatments. The results are presented
in Figure 1.
Figure
1 Yields of barley from bioslurry compost, chemical fertilizer
and no input (check) in Waza, Hintalo Wejerat, 2010
As
can be seen, bioslurry compost or chemical fertilizer almost doubled
the yield of grain compared to check. Furthermore, the use of bioslurry
was as effective, or slightly more so than chemical fertilizers. The
impact on straw yield was smaller, indicating that improving the supply
of nutrients to the crop resulted in a higher increase in the production
of grain.
In
Ofla, the bioslurry development agents focused on collecting crop
yield data from farmers growing wheat. In Mankere, six farmers who
had used all three treatments, compost, chemical fertilizer and check
cooperated with the development agent who took data from a total of
541 m2 plots. The average grain yields were 4 500
kg/ha from the use of bioslurry, 4 600 kg/ha from chemical fertilizer
and 3 600 kg/ha from check. In Hashengi, farmers were using an improved
wheat variety, HAR 1685. The average grain yields were 4600 kg/ha
from both the check and bioslurry, and 5300 kg/ha from the use of
chemical fertilizer.
These
data show that applying bioslurry and using chemical fertilizer both
increase yields, significantly in Hintalo Wejerat. Chemical fertilizer
only gave a higher yield where the farmers were using an improved
variety of wheat that probably responded specifically to chemical
input.
Government
Policy
In
September 2010, the government launched a five-year Growth and Transformation
Plan (GTP). Agriculture is the major source of economic growth, while
particular focus is given to empowering women and youth and ensuring
their benefits. The making and use of organic fertilizers, particularly
compost, is incorporated as part of the agricultural extension package.
The importance of compost in sequestering carbon in the soil is recognized
as one of the means to mitigate and adapt to the challenge of climate
change.
The
NBPE has the potential to contribute significantly to the target set
for the use of compost and to improve food security by 2015 in Ethiopia.
To
conclude
Biogas
plants provide an alternative form of safer, cleaner energy to homes
as well as organic compost to farms. The first data from field studies
are showing improvements in crop yields equivalent in most cases,
to chemical fertilizers.
The
authors are from Institute for Sustainable Development, PO Box 171,
code 1110, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:sustainet@yahoo.co.uk
References
1.
Ho MW. Sustainable Agriculture and off-grid renewable energy. ISIS
contribution to UNCTAD Trade and Environment Review 2011, ASSURING
FOOD SECURITY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES UNDER THE CHALLENGES OF CLIMATE
CHANGE: CONTINUING WITH BUSINESS AS USUAL APPROACHES IS NOT AN OPTION,
18 July 2011, http://www.i-sis.org.uk/SustainableAgricultureOffGridRenewableEnergy.php;
also From the Editors,Science
in Society 51, 2-4, 2011.
2.
“Award Winners of the twelfth Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development.
Kofi Annan shares the award with food supply project Tigray in Ethiopia”.
Press Release, Gothenbur 29 August 2011, http://www.isd.org.et/images/Other%20Publications/Gothenburg%20Award%20Press%20Release.pdf
3.
Edwards S. The Tigray Project. Science in Society 23, 6-7,
2004.
4.
Edwards S. Greening Ethiopia for food security & end to poverty. Science in Society 37, 42-46.
