Practical farming knowledge for Africa
Soil health, sampling, conservation agriculture and making every drop of water count.
A soil test tells you what the soil can supply; your yield target tells you what the crop needs. This guide shows how to turn a nutrient requirement into kilograms of fertiliser product, and how to compare prices fairly.
How much water does your crop actually use this week, and how long should the system run to replace it? This guide explains reference evapotranspiration, crop factors, system efficiency and run times with worked numbers.
A laboratory can only analyse the soil you send it. Here is how to divide your land, how many cores to take, how deep to go and how to handle the sample so the results reflect the whole field.
Minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can protect soil, save water and cut costs. Here is what each principle means on an African farm, the common stumbling blocks and a practical way to begin.