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    Farm­ers use ant­hills to fer­til­ize soils


    anthillFarm­ers in the Yala area of Siaya county are using ant­hills to fer­til­ize their soils in the sandy soils at a time when the price of chem­ical fer­til­izers has gone bey­ond their reach. In a dis­cov­ery that the farm­ers chanced by sheer luck and which has be­come the sub­ject of re­search by sci­ent­ists, ant­hills have be­come a boom among farm­ers to an ex­tent that new busi­ness ven­tures selling the ant­hills have cropped up.

    When the farm­ers mix the ant­hill soil into their top soil dur­ing land pre­par­a­tion, it acts just like the fer­til­izer im­prov­ing the soil tex­ture and clay con­tent. A kilo of the ant­hill soil goes for Sh200 and farm­ers with half an acre use on av­er­age 10 kilos to mix with the top soil.

    “The ant­hill has been our sav­ing grace in the wake of es­cal­at­ing chem­ical fer­til­izer prices. We don’t know what we would have done es­pe­cially be­cause our soils re­quire a boost and the fer­til­izer prices have gone sky high. From the mar­kets and shops you can tell how im­port­ant the ant­hill soil has be­come to farm­ers,” said Ger­ald Mun­aku one of the pi­on­eer farm­ers of the ant­hill soil use in the Yala.

    Jam­ila Wamae an­other farmer using the ant­hill hails it for its abil­ity to provide ex­cel­lent or­ganic ma­nure, es­pe­cially for poor soils that do not hold water. “They help re­tain soil mois­ture and tex­ture and they as­sist the soil hold each other to­gether en­sur­ing crops are not eas­ily swept by floods or strong winds,” she said.

    Mur­imi Mwikali a re­searcher work­ing with the farm­ers in un­der­stand­ing how ant­hill soil works in farms agrees that there are huge be­ne­fits on farm­lands. He says ant­hills are im­port­ant for clay con­tent im­prove­ment and soil tex­ture so that the ni­tro­gen and other plant nu­tri­ents and micro nu­tri­ents that are im­port­ant to the growth of the plant re­main avail­able in the soil,” said Mur­imi.

    He however cau­tions farm­ers to have the ant­hill soils tested be­fore ap­ply­ing for pur­poses of en­sur­ing a good bal­ance of nu­tri­ents in the farm. “Ants pick dif­fer­ent forms of soil. It is im­port­ant to note that some of the soils are al­kaline and could be dan­ger­ous for the crops,” Mur­imi added.

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