Authors
Sung Kyu Kim, Kevin Tiessen, Arlyne Beeche, Jeannette Mukankurunziza, Aloys Kamatari
Publication date
2013
Journal
Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Volume
37
Issue
6
Pages
631-658
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Description
Girinka—or the “one-cow per poor family” program—is currently promoted as a poverty reduction strategy in Rwanda. In this program, resource-poor farmers receive a dairy cow and develop various skills and assets to improve their livelihood. One potential benefit of the program is to improve soil fertility through the application of manure. A study was conducted in the Ngoma district of Rwanda to assess the effectiveness of manure usage and current levels of manure knowledge, attitudes, and practices among the program beneficiaries. Our results suggest that more than 90% of Girinka farmers are using manure, and farmers positively attributed increased crop yields and improved soil fertility to manure use. However, farmers were not consistently using recommended manure management practices, citing lack of manure handling and transporting tools, distance to fields, and poor construction of cow sheds as key …
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