Keep your garden fertile and productive

As our population grows bigger there is increased pressure on land to produce crops. The more people there are on a piece of land the bigger the demand for food and the need for money. When continuous tillage of land takes place in a given area the soil breaks and becomes prone to soil erosion. 

This is made worse if no organic matter is added to the soil by way of burying weeds or crop residues in the soil. Due to continuous tillage and planting of the same type of crops such as maize one rainy season after another the soil nutrients get depleted resulting in low crop yields.

Farmers working on small plots of land should regularly seek guidance from their area agricultural services extension officers about the steps to take to keep their soil fertile and productive. 

Too much tillage makes it easy for the loose top soil to be driven away by running water and wind. Small scale farmers should keep some livestock besides growing crops. Small animals like goats, rabbits, and sheep are ideal for smallholder farmers because they are easier to feed than large animals like cattle which require big amounts of fodder grass. 

Livestock droppings and rotting crop residues regularly buried in the soil improves soil fertility and increases crop production. Fodder grass and shrubs may be planted along galleys and garden boundaries.

Some people plant cover crops to protect the soil from soil erosion and moisture loss. Farmers who have a small grazing area should take care not to overgraze. Too many animals grazing in a small area may render the land bare and prone to soil erosion. 

Mindless usage of agrichemicals can kill off useful insects and other living organisms such as pollinators and earthworms. 

Living organisms are responsible for transporting soil nutrients to the root areas of the crops and for aeration of the soil. Some people pollute the soil by dumping plastic bottles and synthetic material which eventually get buried in the soil. Plastic objects reportedly take perhaps a thousand years to turn into soil and they are useless for agricultural soil formation.

Bad harvesting practices that take away a lot of organic matter from the homestead contribute to soil depletion. 

For example, when bananas are harvested and transported to towns, they go with banana peelings which is organic matter.      

Michael Ssali is a veteran journalist, 
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