16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008
Archived at http://orgprints.org/12310
Population Density and Distance to Market Does not Influence
the Farmers’ Use of Organic Manure
Olawale Olayide1, Arega Alene2, Anthony Ikpi1, Generose Nziguheba3
Key words: Organic manure, socio-economic-ecological-modeling, integrated soil
fertility management, Savannas, Nigeria.
Abstract
This study developed and employed a socio-economic-ecological-modeling (SEEM)
framework in its analyses. The SEEM is made up of four resource use domains of
high/low population density and high/low access to market and two agro-ecologies in
the savanna of Nigeria. Data used comprises a sample of 320 farm households in
northern Nigeria. The pattern of organic manure use varied slightly and insignificantly
across agro-ecological and resource use domains. The major finding of the study is
that the resource use domains made use of same amount of organic manure. The
level of organic manure use is, however, below the recommended levels for the
cereal-based production systems in the study area. Policy that encourages the
intensity of manure use and crop-livestock integration is recommended to support
integrated soil fertility management practices in the study area.
Introduction
Population pressure increases, shortened fallow cycles, cropping intensification,
inaccessibility and low output pries and concerns about agricultural sustainability and
self-sufficiency have combined to contribute to increased demand for integrated soil
fertility management of the agricultural resource base. Following this situation, organic
manure in the form of animal manure becomes one of the principal sources of
nutrients for soil fertility maintenance and crop production. Also, there is need to
investigate the present level of use of organic manure in order to knowledge gap by
agro-ecologies using the methodologies of resource use domains which are
importance drivers of agricultural intensification and commercialization (Manyong et al.
2003). Hence, this study assessed the socioeconomic and ecological interactions in
organic manure use in northern Nigeria.
1
Corresponding author: E-mail: waleolayide@yahoo.com. Department of Agricultural
Economics, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
1
As above, e-mail: a.ikpi@comcast.net
2
IITA-Malawi, e-mail: a.alene@cgiar.org
3
IITA-Ibadan, e-mail: g.nziguheba@cgiar.org
16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008
Archived at http://orgprints.org/12310
Materials and methods
This study was conducted in the savannas of northern Nigeria - the northern Guinea
savanna (NGS) and the Sudan savanna (SS) agro-ecological zones (AEZ)
represented by the Kaduna and Kano States as benchmark areas, respectively
(Manyong et al., 2003). The length of growing period (LGP) was adopted in stratifying
sample by global agro-ecological zoning (FAO/IIASA, 2000). The LGP is 150-180
days for the NGS and 90-150 days for the SS. Kaduna State lies between latitudes 9 0
04/ to 11050/ N and longitude 6009/ to 10041/ E. Kano State lies between latitudes
10033/ to 12037/ N and longitude 7034/ to 9025/ E. The NGS and the SS were chosen
because these two zones support the highest concentration and density of livestock in
Nigeria (Thornton et al., 2002; Manyong et al., 2003).
Four socio-economic resource use domains of the clusters of similar resource and
farming conditions, resulting from a combination of high and low population density
areas and high and low market access areas were generated through a geo-spatial
mapping estimated using the Arcview© software - a GIS software. In deriving the
population factors, a rural population density of less than 100 people per square
kilometer was estimated and identified as low population density (LP) while a
population density of 100–500 people per square kilometer was estimated and
identified as high population density (HP). Anything otherwise was defined as an
urban population. Also a proximity of 20 km radius to a town or city was defined as
high market access (HM); anything otherwise was defined as low market access (LM).
These domains reflect differences in opportunities and correspond to agricultural
intensification, which is in turn strongly influenced by population density and access to
markets (Devendra and Pezo, 2002). A total of 20 farm households were randomly
selected from the pool of villages generated by the GIS by using the random number
table that resulted to 320 farm households from 16 in the study area. The coordinates
of the geo-referenced 16 villages were verified using a hand-held Magellan© 330 geopositioning system (GPS) instrument during the ground verification/truthing exercise.
Data analysis involved the use of descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results and Discussion
The use of manure is a well established practice in the agricultural system in the study
area. Ninety percent of the farmers used manure, though at low intensity of use. The
mean manure use in the study area is 1850 kg ha-1. This represents 382 percent
increase over the 485 kg ha-1 reported by Manyong et al. (2003). The results thus
show higher level of intensification in organic fertilizer use in the study area. Also,
there was higher level of organic fertilizer use (or intensification) of 1870 ± 1170 kg ha1
in the SS compared to the of 1830 ± 1570 kg ha-1 in the NGS. However, the
averages are still insufficient to meet the animal manure of 3–5 tons ha-1 required to
maintain cereal grain yields in the region (Bationo and Mokwunye, 1991, Chianu and
Tsujii, 2004). Analysis of means difference show that there was no significant
difference in use of manure in the two agroecological zones, and by
socioeconomic/resource use domains. It should be emphasized; therefore, that
increased use of organic fertilizer is required to meet the challenges of increasing
human population, low agricultural productivity, high land use intensity and expansion
of agriculture to marginal lands.
16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008
Archived at http://orgprints.org/12310
NGS
Manure applied (kg/ha)
2500
SS
2000
1500
1000
500
0
LPLM
LPHM
HPLM
HPHM
Socio-economic domains
Figure 1: Manure use by socio-economic domains
Conclusions
The extent of manure use varied widely across socio-economic resource use
domains. The low population density and low market access (LPLM) socio-economic
domains had higher intensification (2100 kg ha-1) in manure used in the SS compared
to the 1803 kg ha-1 of the NGS (Figure 1). Given the socio - economic domains of low
population, the difference observed in the intensification levels (reduction) of manure
use per hectare (1685 kg ha-1), when we moved to the LPHM in the SS, could be
explained for the difference in the access to the market. While there are differences in
the manure used per hectare across the socio-economic domains, the low market
access areas intensified more in manure use as hypothesized, than the high market
access area, perhaps because of the greater grassland and availability of fodder for
animal to generate manure as well as high livestock density in the area.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and
Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC), Belgium, for funding this
project.
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16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 16-20, 2008
Archived at http://orgprints.org/12310
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