Effect of animal manure on decreasing chemical fertilzer use in degraded farm fields in semiarid region of Central Turkey

Abstract

Intensive agriculture in dry lands when coupled with wind erosion causesdegradation of soils’ physical and chemical qualities that limits achieving desired yield. Karapınar, located in Central Anatolia (CA) of Turkey experienced severe wind erosion in 1960s which affected 145000ha arable land. The mitigation studies undertaken from 1960s to 1990s successfully suppressed wind erosion effectsinKarapınar. However, private farm soils are still threaten by wind erosion due to improper land use such as excess irrigation, over use of fertilizers, tillage and unsuitable crop pattern that all degrades soils physical and chemical qualities. The soil organic carbon is the major soil component lost due to ignorance of organic matter supply to cultivated fields inCA although it is traditionally the center of small ruminant production with its wide grazing lands. The current number of small ruminants exceeds 500.000 heads in the study area and manures generally sold to other regions of the country. The urgent necessity for providing carbon to eroded soils which have shallow A-horizons (<15cm) in the site can be met by local livestock activities.But farmers are not aware of animal manures efficiency or replacement with chemical fertilizers. Thus, an experiment was conducted at three 0.5 haplots for demonstrating the efficiency of animal manure for cereal production. The cattle manure was applied at a rate of 20 t ha-1 to two plots (Akçaşehir and Karapınar) and control (Ereğli). As all soils are deficient in Zn content, 50 kgha-1 ZnSO4.7H2O was provided to all plots. Conventional cropping was undertaken at Ereğli experimental field by application of 350kgha-1 urea, 160 kgha- 1 TSP (Triple Super Phosphate). Results revealed that manure application successfully substituted wheat’s nutrition requirement in CAalsoincreased soil organic matter even not at desired level (>3%).The outcomes of the study is shared to farmers via Karapınar Agricultural Chamber and Turkey’s largest NGO namely TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats) for capacity building.