Are burning crop residues and grass good for soil health and fertility?
Crop residues are the remains that are left over after the plant or crop has been put to use – for household food, for fodder, for sale, etc. In western Kenya, farmers usually spread these residues along their farm boundaries. Some residues may be used for making composted manure or laid on the floor of a cattle shed to mix with dung to produce manure fertilizer for crops. In western Kenya, farmers have long known that burning crop residues is a bad habit. However, bean crop residues are often burned. The ash is often cooked with vegetables such as cowpeas to make them softer for eating. Farmers normally burn these bean residues in their homes. Apart from beans, only a few farmers burn crop residues, except when there are so many residues that they may take a long time to decompose. The practice of burning crop residues has its positive effects. What we must note is that its positive effects are very short-term, as the script will show. In this script, a smallholder farmer and an agric
