Skyrocketing prices of chemical fertilisers have cast a shadow of uncertainty over crop harvests and food security in low-income countries.
In Malawi, a 50-kilogramme bag of fertiliser has more than tripled from about K30 000 to over K90 000, making it unaffordable to the majority of smallholder farmers.
The country’s fertiliser imports are prone to the effects of unstable local currency, high landing costs and disruptions in the global supply chain.
This triggers spiking food prices as agricultural production and productivity declines.
But farmers from Lwasozi Association in Mkhulu Group Action Centre, Traditional Authority Mzukuzuku Jere in Mzimba District, have taken steps to cut expenditure on chemical fertiliser.
The group, led by Nellie Kacheche, turn human and agricultural waste into organic fertiliser called bokash.
Kacheche, a lead farmer, is one of the outstanding performers under the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (Nasfam).
She was among the smallholder farmers the association trained in compost manure production at Chitedze Research Station in Lilongwe.
“The training opened my eyes to a new reality: that liquid fertiliser can be produced from human waste, specifically urine. After the training, I advised my family to always urinate in a tin placed in the pit latrine,” she explains.
The lead farmer, however, says it was not easy to convince her family to harvest urine for their barren crop fields.
But it was just a matter of time for the family accepted the new way of life.
Within days, Kacheche collected 50 litres of urine that she used to produce 50 kilogrammes of bokash fertiliser.
To test its efficacy, she applied the liquid fertiliser in her maize garden.
During a tour last month, Kacheche happily displayed the healthy maize crops from her irrigated backyard garden in Eziyazini Village.
“Don’t think that I applied chemical fertiliser. No! This is the work of bokash from urine and agricultural waste,” she bragged.
The cost of living has become unbearable for most farming households that can hardly afford imported fertiliser.
The dependence on imported fertiliser makes the country vulnerable to fluctuations and disruptions on the global market.
The situation has been worsened by disruptions and geopolitical conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war.
Due to the rising cost of inorganic fertilisers, farmers are turning to compost manure to increase crop yields from their shrinking fields degraded by poor farming methods.
Like other compost manures, bokash improves soil structure while providing essential nutrients for plants.
However, many farmers struggle to produce high-quality compost due to a lack of organic materials and inadequate knowledge of the proper mix of carbon and nitrogen-supplying raw materials.
Others shun the composting process due to the stench from the decomposing waste material.
To address these issues, Nasfam sponsored its members to undergo hands-on training on how to improve compost preparation using effective microorganisms.
Nasfam chief executive officer Betty Chinyamunyamu says the association promotes improved compost making as one of eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative to inorganic fertilisers.
She says composting is an important component of regenerative agriculture, which reduces farmers’ reliance on inorganic fertilisers.
Chinyamunyamu observes that for years, farmers have used animal waste, including urine, as nitrogen-rich fertiliser.
“This is partly due to the price of inorganics soaring beyond the reach of smallholder farmers,” she says.
Sister Phiri, who has embraced bokash in Mkhulu, says the peer training facilitated by the lead farmer has boosted her capacity to turn livestock waste and other biodegradable materials into compost manure.
She hailed the technique as more cost-effective than their conventional compost-making practices where farmers are required to add chemical fertilisers.
“So far, I have produced 16 bags of bokash. My plan is to produce over 30 bags because I want to grow maize on a larger piece of land,” she said.
The farmers hope that the home-made fertiliser will significantly cut food production costs and their dependence on chemical fertiliser while increasing their yield and restoring the degraded environment.
