Sustainable Agriculture Extension Manual

Shifting kraals to improve soil fertility

Kraal shifting involves keeping livestock in a crop field during the fallow season, and moving the livestock enclosure from time to time to spread manure around the field. This improves the fertility, structure and water-retention ability of the soil in the field.

In much of eastern and southern Africa, cattle graze freely on the range during the day, and are herded into enclosures called kraals or bomas at night. Manure builds up in the kraal. Some farmers carry the manure out of the kraal to spread it on the field. An alternative, described below, is to build the kraal in a crop field during the fallow (dry) season, and then to shift the kraal periodically around the field. This ensures that the crop field is fertilized and the manure is spread evenly around the field. Shifting the kraal regularly also avoids compacting the soil in one place, and keeps the animals clean.

Location

This technology is useful in areas with low soil fertility and on sandy soils with limited ability to retain water. The same principle can be used with other animals (such as chickens) as well as with cattle.

Advantages

• A shifting kraal improves the soil fertility and organic matter content
• It applies manure to the place where the farmer wants it.
• It improves the water-retention ability of sandy soils.
• It improves the soil structure, binds the soil, and helps control erosion.
• It increases crop yields.
• It saves labour by avoiding the need to collect, move and spread manure from a permanent kraal.

Disadvantages

• Labour is needed to move the kraal.
• Weeds may spread through seeds in the manure.

• The change in location may stress lactating cows and reduce their milk yield.
• The cattle may compact the soil in the kraal. For this reason, move the kraal frequently (it should be moved more often in the rainy season than in the dry season).

Requirements

Poles and thorn bushes or barbed wire for fencing.

Procedure

1. During the dry season, build a kraal in a field used for crops in the wet season. The kraal should be large enough to hold your cattle at night.

2. On average every 2 weeks, move the kraal to a different place in the field. You can save labour by keeping one fence in the same place, and moving the other three.

3. When it is time to plough, incorporate the manure into the soil.

4. In the rainy season move the kraal elsewhere, and plant the field with crops.

5. Bring the kraal back into the same crop field after 2-3 years.

Do's Herd the cattle into the kraal at night.

Don'ts Don't keep the kraal too long in the same place, as the soil may become compacted.

John Kooma Mutema's kraal, Kalomo, Zambia John Kooma Mutema farms maize and keeps cattle on a very sandy soil in southern Zambia. For the last 10 years, he has shifted his kraal systematically throughout a 1-ha field. He keeps his 100 cattle in the kraal at night, allowing them to graze freely during the day. During the rainy season, he plants maize in the field. One year he harvested 1350 kg/ha from this field; other farmers' fields without such manure yielded only 720 kg/ha. His yields have been so good that he has had food left over for his neighbours, who have suffered from the prolonged drought affecting the area.

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