Industrial poultry farming is a booming sector in Africa. This activity generates a significant amount of manure that could be used to improve crop yields on low-productivity soils. We wanted to characterize the variability in the chemical composition of poultry manure and its ability to release mineral nitrogen when applied to soils compared to other organic sources of nutrients such as cattle manure and human feces. We conducted a survey in 79 poultry farms to characterize their practices such as the type of poultry raised, the type of feed and the bedding litter. Poultry manure, cattle manure and human feces samples were collected and analyzed to determine their chemical composition. An incubation study was conducted with all three types of organic resources for 91 days to measure mineral nitrogen release. We found that agricultural practices explain more than 60% of the chemical composition of poultry manure. Wood chips were the most common bedding litter (77% of cases) and about 70% of farms use industrial poultry feed. Broiler manure contains more C and N than laying hens that contain more Ca. Poultry manure releases nitrogen faster than cattle manure when applied to the soil. A combination of broiler chicken manure and laying hen manure could be more beneficial to the crops.
Maintaining appropriate levels of soil infiltrability is important for avoiding undesirable levels of surface runoff and erosion and for maintaining adequate rates of soil and groundwater recharge. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effects of Faidherbia albida (apple-ring acacia) and Vitellaria paradoxa (shea butter tree) trees and additions of inorganic fertilizer, leaves and compost on soil infiltrability in two agroforestry parkland systems in the western part of Burkina Faso. Infiltrability was measured before tilling both under and outside canopies of these trees, using tension disc and double-ring infiltrometers. The results show that infiltrability was 33% higher on average under than outside canopies in both agroforestry parkland systems. The compost, leaves and inorganic fertilizer did not improve infiltrability significantly during the study period. More than 75% of the infiltrability estimates obtained using ring infiltrometers outside the canopies were lower than 40 mm/h. In contrast, less than 10% of those obtained from under canopies were lower than this. This could have highly significant effects on run-off, erosion and recharge since rain intensity measurements collected over three years at 30 min intervals showed that up to 35% of the annual precipitation fell with intensities ≥ 40 mm/h. The study demonstrates the potential of improving infiltrability and reducing surface runoff by managing trees appropriately in agroforestry systems in semi-arid tropics.
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