Dairy-Banana Integration and Organic Fertilizer Use in Uganda

An intensive dairy and crop farming system found in the East African highlands provides manure and urine, taken from stalls of improved dairy cattle, for crops such as banana. By using panel data of 894 rural households in 2003 and 2005 in Uganda, we find that the number of improved cattle per ha increases the organic fertilizer application on banana plots by 218 kilograms per ha. We also find that banana farmers applied more organic fertilizer on less fertile soils. Regarding banana yield, we find that one ton of the organic fertilizer per ha increases the banana yield by 10 percent, and a one percentage point increase in the soil organic matter (SOM) increases the banana yield by 7 percent. Because the organic fertilizer application improves the SOM in the long-run, it has a long-term impact on the banana yield. The intensive dairy and banana cropping system is an appropriate farming system in Uganda where soil degradation is severe and mineral fertilizer is expensive.