Adoption of organic fertilizers and effects on maize production in Uganda

Abstract

The study explored the roles and contribution of organic fertilizers on maize production in Uganda. The specific objectives of the study were: to characterize the socio-economic characteristics of maize producers; assess the maize production by maize crop framers and evaluate the effect of use of organic fertilizer on maize yields by maize farmers in Uganda. The study adopted primary data that was collected by Uganda Bureau of Statistics in 2019/2020 agriculture survey. The extracted data was from 14 sub regions of Uganda. The used data is quantitative in nature which will facilitate analysis about research objectives. Descriptive analysis method was used to analyze the social-economic characteristics of household farms. Also, logitic model is used to analyze the determinants of organic fertilizer use among the maize farmers in Uganda. Besides, ordinary least square method was used to evaluate the effect of the use of organic fertilizer on the level of maize production in Uganda. The study results indicated that there is positive significant relationship between the use of organic manure and maize productivity in Uganda. This implied that when the application of organic fertilizer increased amongst the farm households, maize production drastically increased and therefore farmers should be trained on the how to use organic fertilizers and the associated impacts on its use. The study findings also indicated that males were 844 (68.6%) and female were 387 (31.4%). However, out of 844 males, only 354 used organic manure and 490 did not use organic manure. This implied that men were more than women and more than those who use organic manure and therefore women should be encouraged to join farming and also promote the use of organic fertilizers to enhance maize production in Uganda. The results also indicated that the use of organic manure is significantly associated with the education level (p=0.025), accessed extension services (p=0.018), use of improved maize seed (p=0.006), enough household labor (p=0.045), farming experience (p=0.000). This implied that education level accessed, extension services, use of improved maize seed, enough household labor, and farming experience in years influence the use of organic fertilizer in maize production in Uganda and therefore the government should provide the service as mentioned above so as to increase o maize productivity in Uganda.