Survey of potential of manure for meeting crop nutrient needs with integrated nutrient management in Madhya Pradesh, India

• Indian Institute of Soil Science, India
• Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Australia

Concerns for organic farming and increased use of organic manures are being raised in the India. Despite low fertility status of soils in Madhya Pradesh, less than 50% of dung produced is used as farmyard manure (FYM), i.e. for growing food crops. It is necessary to assess the potential of FYM and hence increasing its use to meet crop nutrient needs. This requires consideration of factors affecting competing uses of FYM, now and into the future, as well as consideration of alternative nutrient sources.
Following discussions in India and Australia it was decided to initiate a small project in which the soil fertility and manure management practices and attitudes of typical farming villages in Madhya Pradesh were thoroughly surveyed through physical sampling and interview. A parallel effort would be conducted in and around the feedlots of the Darling Downs in Queensland.

The specific objective would be to learn of the constraints - real, perceived, biophysical and economic - to the better use of manure as a source of nutrients for cropping. Such information would underpin future research on manure utilisation as a fertiliser substitute. The focus would be on winter and summer cropping on vertisols, the predominant cropping system and soil type at each location.
The overall aim of the project was to optimise the use of cattle manure for profitable and sustainable farming while minimising environmental pollution.

The survey assessed district-level nutrient balances and trends for farmyard manure (FYM) use for the dominant cropping systems in Madhya Pradesh using district-level secondary data (a desk-top study). In two key districts the researchers focused on the trends in alternative uses for cattle dung, including FYM, and used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to reveal other factors (including socio-economic considerations and crop responses to FYM) likely to affect their use.
In Australia the researchers surveyed the current status of manures from feedlots and intensive animal industries on the Darling Downs in Queensland and used quantitative and qualitative methodologies to reveal factors likely to affect their use.

The researchers found that both the Indian and the Australian FYM users believed that FYM was good for increasing yield, and most felt that it increased water-holding capacity of soil. However, the knowledge about the plant nutrient value of FYM among the users was very low. Consequently, Indian farmers under-fertilized, whereas the Australian farmers over-fertilized their crops, so that both missed the realisation of optimum gross margins. Moreover, the Australian farmers also faced the potential pollution of dams and waterways.
Researchers found that in the Indian conditions FYM was composted with crop residue and household waste, and hence was low in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but high in carbon/nitrogen ratio. By contrast in Australia FYM was high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (especially phosphorus) and low in carbon/nitrogen ratio.
There was an urgent need to understand the nutrient-release characteristics of different FYMs and their effects beyond the first year of application. FYM use in an integrated nutrient management (INM) system needed to be better understood so as to evaluate the manure management practices, application rates, types of complementary fertilizer and costs of various nutrient inputs in relation to the cropping systems. Such information needed developing for use in a participatory approach involving farmers and lot-feeders, directed especially towards those identified as the most effective users of FYM and new technology.
The project created awareness of FYM use among landholders both in India and Australia. In both countries, landholders on Vertisol soils would prefer to use FYM to increase productivity and attain economic and environmental sustainability in an INM system.