Microdosing Fertilizer

 

Fertilizer is a very important tool for a farmer. The ability to renourish degraded soils can save a smallholder farm from disaster. The problem is, fertilizers are expensive. Their use is extremely low in Africa because of the huge number of low-income farmers. Generally the wealthier you are, the more likely you are to use fertilizer. Of course, this leads to degraded soil that has little hope of quickly recovering.

 

In recent years, the idea of microdosing has come to the attention of subsistence farmers. Instead of the potential waste from buying too much fertilizer and applying it in excess over the farmland, farmers are encouraged to measure fertilizer out in small amounts which are catered specifically to each plant. Here the measuring method is the very low-cost bottle cap.

 

The idea behind this is to intensify farming in low-income subsistence households in a sustainable fashion, while simultaneously increasing yields and, at the end of the line, income prospects. [1].