Agriculture Sector:Educating farmers to use green manure

Planting and ploughing green manure on poor soil of dry region can enhance the soil quality to increase crop production. As Magway region is one of the drought  which has sandy soil low in nutrients for planting crops, planting green manure in the region can fix the quality of the soil for crop nutrition.

Thida Win, Assistant Director, Department of Agriculture, Magway said " As green manure is rich in biomass, using green manure compost as fertilizer can develop the soil structure and increase soil nutrient levels. Ploughing green manure is low-cost, simple and easy and eco-friendly and it also helps reduce the utilization of chemical fertilizer."

Absorbing nitrogen from the air and filling into the soil, green manure can accelerate the crop production. The best way of using green manure compost is to plough the green manure within 45 days after planting. After 10 days of ploughing, the crops can be planted.

Myo Htay, Thapyaysan Village, Magway said " The rate of the crop production between the plantations which use green manure compost and the plantations which don’t use it, is different. 1 acre of sesame which are planted using green manure compost can produce 10 to 12 baskets and 1 acre of sesame which don’t use it can only produce 6 to 8 baskets. Green manure compost are easy to use and only cost half of the cost of using cattle fertilizers."

There are over 280,000 acres of plantations in Magway Region and sesame and pulses are the main crops of the region.