You are looking at scripts about Soil health
Stop Your Land from Turning to Desert
Save and edit this resource as a Word document. Imagine a vast area of land. Now, picture nothing on it. No trees, no plants – just dust and cracked earth. How does land get to this state? When rich earth that used to produce crops loses most of its fertility and becomes barren, we call…
Live Fences Protect Crops and Plants
In Burkina Faso, a country in West Africa, deforestation and soil erosion are having a disastrous impact on the environment. Reforestation programs have been introduced to reverse the damage. But many of these programs are expensive and the newly planted trees are often destroyed in the first year by village cattle. It is estimated that…
Make Drylands Productive with Planting Pits
Even if you have dry, desert soils with a hard crust you can improve your land and grow crops again. In parts of West Africa farmers make cracked, hardpan soils productive again by planting their grain seeds in small pits. They plant sorghum and millet this way. Here’s how you can make these planting pits….
No Pit Latrine Produces Fertilizer
A new type of latrine improves health by breaking the cycle of fecal contamination and the spread of diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis, typhoid, and parasitic infections. It also provides farmers with fertilizer for their crops. The high quality organic fertilizer produced by the new latrine reduces farmers’ costs and helps to avoid the long…
Build and Maintain Contour Ridges
Some people wonder why it is necessary to use special conservation measures when they can reap crops from their fields without this extra effort. Why do these people think that all is well? They are unaware of the “silent thief” of our land – soil erosion. You can stop that silent thief in your own…
Liquid manure is good fertilizer
You can tell how much plant food a soil contains by simply looking at the colour of crops in a field. Some field crops look green while some are yellowish. Green crops show that the soil has enough plant food. A yellow crop usually indicates that the soil does not have enough plant food. Every…
Where to Find Compost Materials
Everywhere people are looking for cheap alternatives. Farmers are not left out in this search. They are looking for cheap alternatives to expensive farm inputs such as chemical fertilizers. Chemicals are not only expensive, they can also damage the soil and the environment, especially if used incorrectly. Farmyard manure is one alternative. It supplies all…
Retain Nutrients in Stored Manure
Nitrogen is an important plant food that is found in both manure and urine. But if the manure lies around in small piles on the ground in the sun, wind, and rain, much of the nitrogen in it will be washed away or lost into the air. Other plant foods will also be wasted. It’s…
Participatory Experiments with Green Manure
Have you heard…? From Guatemala The Boca Costa of Sololá, Guatemala is located at the base of the Santo Tomas volcano. The main crops in the region are coffee and bananas (800 to 1400 metres), corn, and beans. The corn growing land is sloping, and soil erosion is a major problem. Maize yields in the…
Grow Your Own Living Fence
Save and edit this resource as a Word document Living fences are rows of trees or shrubs planted together to form a barrier. They are useful for farmers who need fences to mark boundaries, separate fields, keep animals from straying, form windbreaks, or support vines. Living fences are a good choice for many reasons. They…