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Compost out-yields fertilizer in Ethiopian on-farm testing
Fencing animals, planting grasses and legumes, trapping water and avoiding input debt builds food security in even the poorest communities—all without buying fertilizer.
A massive on-farm research collaboration involving data from 974 fields growing 13 crops over seven years in Ethiopia’s Tigray province showed compost can replace chemical fertilizer—and increase yields by more than 30 percent, on average. Many of the fields were farmed by women, representing some of the poorest families in a nation regarded as one of the world’s most undeveloped.
Critical steps in a coordinated green agriculture effort included soil and water conservation steps, preventing uncontrolled free-range grazing to allow native vegetation to return, making and applying compost, stopping the purchase of fertilizer to avoid debt and planting grasses and fast-growing legumes. Farmers reported many benefits to using compost, such as better moisture retention, better crop flavor and improved pest management potential.
Traditional agricultural production is highly diverse and is the main source of food for the population of Ethiopia, which is one of eight major centers of crop diversity in the world.
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