It is possible to increase profitability and reduce risk if you use fertiliser to best effect on your farm. Increasingly expensive input costs are always of concern to farmers and efficient fertilisers and fertilising practices will help them to cope with this challenge. Also read: Farm management: Controlling input costs…
Plants, just like animals, need food to grow, and they obtain this food or nutrients from the soil. As a farmer, you should continuously feed the soil to keep your plants healthy, to help them to fight pests and disease and to ensure good yields. Most farmers provide their “plant food”…
The pH level of your soil influences the availability of nutrients to plants in the soil. If the pH levels move beyond the optimal range of about 6 (slightly acidic) and 7.5 (slightly alkaline), your plants will have difficulty to absorb certain nutrients and deficiencies will occur, ultimately affecting the…
Angola’s Central Agro-Food Laboratory has refused a request to do a safety analysis on samples of raw sewage taken from a Chinese-owned vegetable farm that uses human faeces as a fertiliser. The call for an examination of the sewage samples followed public outcry over the biosafety of vegetable products from…
Chemical fertilisers may be expensive, but they are needed for optimal vegetable production. A panel of experts from the South African Agricultural Research Council (ARC) has the following advice on how to build soil nutrient status with organic fertilisers. Where funds are limited, use at least 25% of the recommended…
This family’s vegetable farming enterprise in the Gamtoos Valley in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa has expanded over the past nine years from a quarter hectare to nearly 40 hectares of vegetable production. They attribute their success to their willingness to exceed their customers’ demands and expectations. As…
Adding a few extra ingredients to fertiliser is a possible solution to increasing yields for main grains like maize in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a recently published article. Most crop farmers are used to enriching soil with fertilisers containing N, P and K (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) or so-called macronutriets,…
This week crop farmer Michris Janse van Rensburg from South Africa shows African farmers how he made a plan to take the back-breaking labour out of top dressing fertiliser while getting the measurement right at the same time. Michris designed a hand-held fertiliser applicator for small-scale commercial farmers calibrated to…
The decision by the Zambian government to reduce the number of Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) beneficiaries from 1.6 million to 1 million has caused panic among farmers. Small-scale farmers are appealing to government to reconsider, saying the move will affect their livelihood. “Last year we had 16 000 beneficiaries,…
The small-scale farmer faces many challenges because he must do everything by hand. But some things are just worth doing and inoculation of soya seed is one of them. LEGUMES HELP THE FARMER Soya, a legume, is a member of the same family as the Acacias, the African botanical iconic…
Swiss chard – more commonly grown than true spinach – is easy to grow and packed with nutrients. Swiss chard looks a lot like the true spinach but has much broader leaves, thicker stems, more vitamin A, and greater yields. Vitamin A prevents night blindness, chronic fatigue, heart disease, stroke…
After much trial and error, a businessman at Hermanus, in the Western Cape of South Africa, has developed a method of producing “tea” from earthworm castings on a scale large enough to be used in agriculture. Organic fertilisers and pesticides are not all that popular with farmers because they are inclined…
Farmers - a great input cost in the production of maize is fertiliser, of course, whether you use synthetic or organic fertiliser. If you use organic fertiliser produced on you farm, it still requires a lot of effort, energy or cost. If you use fertiliser correctly, however, it will push…
There are many benefits to making compost which is essential in building soil health. Compost is a low cost input because the components like ash, fresh and dry grass, animal dung, soil and water are all on-farm. Compost contains important nutrients for plant growth, like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and…
Farmer and entrepreneur Mike Bosch from Bela-Bela in the Limpopo Province of South Africa is well known for his plans to improve the sustainability of his farm. And he is still hatching new plans. Africanfarming.com recently published an article on his newest concept to enable people to produce meat, eggs…
A new hand-held implement makes it possible for small-scale farmers to place phosphate deeper into the soil, where the root system can benefit from it. Michris Janse van Rensburg has designed and made a hand-held implement to add to a line-up of hand-held tools and implements for small-scale farmers. “I…
Two employees from the Zambian ministry of agriculture have been arrested in connection with the theft of fertiliser under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). It is the first arrest where government officials are directly linked to alleged racketeering schemes. Corruption is believed to be rife in the distribution of…
Zambia has run out of urea fertiliser, sparking concerns of a rise in the price of the commodity. “The demand for urea, which is used as a top dressing fertiliser, has grown, thereby creating a shortage,” agricultural minister Dora Siliya told parliament. Agriculture permanent secretary Julius Shawa urged private agro…
The agricultural industry provides a strong foundation for growth in rural societies and the general development of the African continent, says Terje Knutsen, executive vice president of crop nutrition at Yara International. Knutsen presided over the opening of a liquid fertiliser plant in the Western Cape, South Africa. Farmers within…
Government has released a further K200million for the 2016/2017 Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). According to finance minister Felix Mutati, this brings to K800 million the total amount released to fund this season’s FISP. “The release of the money will keep on track government’s economic diversification through agriculture development,” Mutati…
Eight people have been arrested and more than 500 bags of fertiliser seized by police in a crackdown of racketeering schemes connected to the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). The raids were done in separate locations in Muchinga and Copperbelt province. Police in Mpongwe in Copperbelt on Saturday arrested five…
Michris Janse van Rensburg has used his mechanical genius to take small-scale farming into a more productive space. Michris is a master of the hand-held implement which can do more and help the farmer ease up on his manual effort. Suddenly – so much more seems possible. Michris Janse van…
Government has confirmed officials were involved in unlawfully selling inputs and embezzling cash under the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP). In a related development the Zambian National Farmers Union (ZNFU) has threatened to ban agro dealers who were inflating prices, from participating in the FISP e-voucher system in future. “We…
Higher demand for fertilisers have pushed up prices in Zambia. A survey conducted by africanfarming.com revealed that a 50kg bag of D-Compound was sold at K290 from K270, while Urea had gone up to K270 from K235 since last week. Dina Chembea, a small scale farmer from Mumbwa, 30 kilometers…
