Steem-agro contest: "My soil Enhancement methods"

With my little knowledge of basic farming and growing in the village where there is vast land for crop cultivation, I used to see people trying to improve the soil quality in different ways.

As a mushroom farmer, I enhance my sawdust before bagging the substrate. I added agricultural lime. That's because I want the line to enhance the sawdust for productivity of the mushrooms I want to cultivate. The same way I add lime to prepare my saw dust for growing mushrooms, people also add manure and other chemicals to the farm in order to enhance productivity of the soil for planting crops.

^{Designed with Canva}

Meanwhile, I salute the originator of this hallowed community. It feels good to be here to make my first post.

Soil enhancement is adding some "ingredients" so to say, to the soil to improve the quality of that soil, in order to improve or enhance the quality of growth and good yield of crops planted on such soil. Soil enhancement means:

Adding material (including fertilizers, organic materials, sand, or lime) to a soil in order to improve its fertility, long‐term chemical or physical status, or stability. Also known as soil amendment or soil improvement.

Source

^{picture of me adding lime preparing to grow mushrooms}

Yes, I have practised soil enhancement. For example, my grandfather would always instruct us to sweep goat dung and spread it on the farm after harvest. Whenever we cook with firewood and sweep the ashes, he will also tell us to pour it on the farm close to the house. And not just that, all the waste from cooking, leaves stuck, yam and cassava peals and other edibles are usually thrown on the farm. All this was done before clearing the farm and planting.

Curious me, I asked grandpa one day, why must we always pour all these on the farm? He said, "so that it will add value to the soil, especially as we keep planting on the farm almost every year." He said it is manure we are adding so that when we plant, our crops will yield. I nodded ok.

Still with the experience from my grandparents' garden in those days, what was always planted was vegetables. The manure that is usually added to the soil helps in making the leaves of the vegetables grow fresh and greenish. The soil enhancement activity could make the soil productive for months and sometimes up to a year, depending on how much you cultivate the soil.

Just as mentioned above, the following were used to improve soil quality by my grandfather, the same I used in the little garden of my former resident.

^{Typical manure in my grandparents farm}

• Ashes from burning wood

• Animal dung

• Leaves stuck (greenish leaves)

• Yam, plantain and cassava peals

Still about my grandparents' farming techniques, I've always seen them cutting cassava or big cocoyam/plantain leaves and placing them on the soil. This practice is often done, especially in the dry season when there's no rain.

Soil enhancement is one method that helps farmers improve the quality of the soil, especially for those ones the that's planted every year without spacing.

I invite
@realitytrend
@tripple-e
@joan-na