Factors influencing the utilization of cattle and chicken manure for soil fertility management by emergent farmers in the moist Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa

The study established the factors that influence the use of cattle and chicken manure for managing soil fertility by surveying a random sample of 224 farm households in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The majority (87%) of the respondents are farming on communal land with an average farm size of 2.9 ha. Sixty-three% of the farmers in the sample used manure to manage soil fertility in their fields. Despite the fact that chicken manure was available in large quanties in the area, 54% of manure used was from cattle while chicken manure was used by 39% of the sample. Manure was readily available to 73% of the respondent farmers and it was obtained mostly from commercial and semi-commercial livestock production units within the area. Most of the manure was applied on land planted to high value crops such as maize, potatoes and vegetables. The common method of applying manure was by a spreader. The major factors that positively influenced the farmers' decision to use manure were availability of manure, herd size, farmers' experience in farming and the availability of extension services. Both land ownership and attendance of training did not seem to affect the farmers' decision to use manure. Farm size was the factor that was found to negatively affect manure utilization. Other important considerations included labor and transport requirements for handling manure, lack of technical information on the fertilizer value and management of manure, increased growth of weeds and bad smell. Some suggestions are made on strategies that could improve the efficiency of utilization of manure for soil fertility management in this agroecosystem.