Natural fertilisation of soils with animal or plant waste is widely practised, but different techniques can be used, for example to treat the fertiliser used or to save human labour.
Natural soil fertilisation in Bougarila (Mali)
Report by Gaussou
They make the cows stop in the field so that when they defecate on the spot, it will serve as natural fertiliser. And when there is enough waste in one area, they move the cows to another area so that they can fertilise that area too. So it’s periodic amounts of paddocks for the cows to fertilise the land.
Making traditional fertilizer in the village of Monzona:
The ground is dug up to two (2) or three (3) metres behind the compound. It is filled with dry sticks of millet, maize, dry grass and dried tree leaves and closed with banco. We water it and pour water in it for fifteen (15) days until it becomes muddy. We put more bancos on them. All the women of the concession, after sweeping, put this waste under the hole and close it with more banco. They all decompose and become chemical.
You can see that it is well filled. You can have more than 2 tons of fertilizer in this hole. During the winter, more precisely in May, we transport it to put it in our fields.
