Combining Farmyard Manure with Chemical Fertilizer Is the Scientific Way to Fertilize

    Although the three autumns have passed, the fertilizer trade war still rages. As the saying goes, “A crop is a flower, and it all depends on fertilizer to keep it going,” and the debate among farmers over whether farmyard manure or chemical fertilizer should rule the roost continues.

Chemical fertilizer trade war spreads across town and countryside

In Youjia Village, Qingcheng Town, Gaoqing County, Shandong Province, 55-year-old farmer Chen Jia'an has 8 mu of wheat planted at home, and he bought about one ton of chemical fertilizer worth 2,000 yuan. “On average, one bag of diammonium and one bag of urea per mu. We only trust these two kinds of fertilizer and apply nothing else.” This year, Old Chen's wheat and corn had a bumper harvest, and he credited the chemical fertilizer. “If no fertilizer is applied to the crop field, at most 250 kilograms (per mu). With enough chemical fertilizer, there is no problem exceeding 1,000 per mu.” His fertilizer approach is to apply enough base fertilizer in autumn, then the following spring, apply fertilizer twice more along with irrigation. When sowing corn in summer, apply fertilizer once with sowing, and then apply fertilizer once or twice more when it rains or when irrigating. Having farmed for decades, Old Chen has always fertilized this way. In past years when life was tight, he would go without food or drink to stock up enough chemical fertilizer before the farming season. Now he no longer stocks fertilizer; he only needs one phone call, and the agricultural supply store will deliver the fertilizer. “Farmers do not stock fertilizer, so merchants run more errands. Now when customers want fertilizer, we have to deliver it to their homes or haul it to the fields, and sometimes we are also responsible for spreading the fertilizer.” The speaker is Zhang Jianjun. Now Zhang Jianjun also no longer stores fertilizer the way he used to; he has changed from storing fertilizer in the past to transferring fertilizer now——the manufacturer delivers the fertilizer according to his requirements, and he then distributes it onward.

Through surveys of agricultural supply merchants and growers, the author found that although no one doubts the effectiveness of farmyard manure, very few people apply it, and chemical fertilizer is still the “leading player” in agricultural production.

Can farmyard manure go from stinking to “fragrant”?

Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers such as urea and diammonium are usually called chemical fertilizers. “Before land was allocated to households (30 years ago), there was no chemical fertilizer on the market, and farming relied on farmyard manure. 250 kilograms per mu was considered high yield.” Chen Jia'an said that now the high-yield effect of chemical fertilizer is obvious, and no one is willing to apply farmyard manure anymore. Even older Chen Jia'an is like this, and younger farmers pay even less attention to farmyard manure.

Li Hongwu is the head of the Jinrao Grain Cooperative in Changjia Town and a well-known large grain grower in Gaoqing. He has a different fertilizer approach from Chen Jia'an. In terms of chemical fertilizer application, his dosage is comparable to Chen's, but the difference is that he also applies one to two cubic meters of manure per mu. “We do not have manure ourselves, so we have to buy it from the cattle-raising community. Buying it ourselves is 30~40 yuan per cubic meter, and having it delivered is 85 yuan per cubic meter.” Li Hongwu said that delivering manure is dirty and tiring work: digging and loading manure takes effort, and the worst part is enduring the stench. Using manure and chemical fertilizer together has given him bumper harvests year after year. This year his family's corn averaged 600 kilograms per unit of yield, about 50 kilograms higher than ordinary farmers.

For grape grower Si Zhiru, chemical fertilizer is something to avoid entirely. “Grapes are very sensitive to chemical fertilizer. Grapes grown with chemical fertilizer generally taste sour, while grapes grown with well-fermented manure taste sweet.” Si Zhiru named the grapes she grows “Super Sweet No. 1,” and the market price is as high as 25 yuan per kilogram.

When analyzing the reasons why farmyard manure is currently “not favored,” Du Zuozhong, deputy director of the Gaoqing County Agriculture Bureau, said that many farmers no longer treat land as their only source of livelihood, and it does not matter much how much income the land brings, because going out to work once can make up for the loss from a poor crop. “In the past, every household raised livestock as draft power and could accumulate manure. Now mechanization has come in, cattle, horses and donkeys have been laid off, and farmers have no manure to accumulate anymore, so they no longer apply farmyard manure and instead apply only chemical fertilizer.” Du Zuozhong said that in the past farmyard manure cost very little, but now it must be purchased, and the price is about the same as chemical fertilizer.

⟦NL> Building soil fertility requires combining manure and chemical fertilizer

High crop yields cannot do without chemical fertilizer, but soil compaction, nutrient imbalance and declining soil fertility caused by long-term single application of chemical fertilizer are facts known to all. All parties have given their own answers on how to build soil fertility.

Du Zuozhong compared chemical fertilizer and manure to Chinese medicine and Western medicine among pharmaceuticals. “Chemical fertilizer is characterized by quick but short-lasting fertilizer effect, while manure is characterized by slow but long-lasting fertilizer effect. Combining ‘manure’ and ‘chemical’ is the way to fertilize.”

Land should be managed intensively and on a large scale. “Now most young people go out to work, and their attention to land is generally not high. The middle-aged and elderly people left behind to farm also do not value the application of farmyard manure because it is not easy to apply and not easy to buy.” Li Hongwu suggested that the pace of land transfer should be faster, so that land can be concentrated as soon as possible in the hands of large grain growers and professional farmers; only when land is concentrated in their hands will it be better maintained. “Farming is about ‘nourishing the land,’ and one must not seek quick success and instant benefits by simply taking from it. Only when the land is well nourished does it have strength, and for nourishing the land, farmyard manure is still effective.”

There are particular requirements for applying manure. The view of Li Jingyuan, director of the Soil and Fertilizer Station of the Gaoqing Agriculture Bureau, is that newly dug manure cannot be immediately applied to the field. “Fresh manure contains large amounts of pathogens and pests. Applying it to the field will harm the crop and cause the crop to ‘burn seedlings.’” Li Jingyuan said that the best method is to compost manure. In view of the reality that the county has many livestock communities, they built fertility communities in each town to guide the masses in composting manure, and the manure is applied to the field after it is thoroughly decomposed.

Returning straw to the field is a good measure for building soil fertility. Li Hongwu said that the current use of large corn combine harvesters has made straw return to the field truly possible. “Its advantage is that it can chop the straw. The chopped straw is easy to rot. After rotting, the straw mixes into the soil, improves soil aeration, makes the soil loose, and also enhances soil fertility.” But Li Hongwu also admitted that straw return is best done every other year. “Returning straw to the field year after year creates soil moisture conditions, and poor soil moisture will affect crop yield.”