Benefits of Chicken Manure as Organic Fertilizer

Benefits of chicken manure as organic fertilizer is clearly proven in the present world. Once chicken manure was waste but now it is a valuable wealth. It improves soil health. Soil is one of the most valuable assets in the world. Because we get foods, timber, flower and other more things by the help of the soil. The plant is the main source of those items. On the other hand, plant born and lives mainly on the soil. If soil is fertile then the plant can give more yield. So we have to keep and improve soil health.

Plant nutrition is an essential factor for crop production. The Plant uptake nutrients from the soil and gives yield for us. But only chemical fertilizer can’t meet up the full demand of nutrients of the plant, organic fertilizer also required for growth and development. In that point of view, chicken manure can be a good source of organic fertilizer in the world.

Chicken manure is a good quality organic fertilizer. It is prepared from chicken litter and waste foods of the chicken farm. Using this chicken manure as organic fertilizer will increase the amount of organic matter in the soil and also increase the fertility of the soil. Chicken Manure is an excellent quality organic fertilizer. Applying chicken manure to the soil removes the acidity of the soil, so there is no need to apply lime on acid soils. So, the crop can uptake nutrients from the soil due to the removal of acidity.

There are huge numbers of chicken farms in the world. These farms have about 24 billion chickens. So, a large amount of chicken manure is available from these farms every day. The below table is shown the number of chickens in some major countries in 2018 –

Source: FAO, January 2020

Organic matter is the life of the soil. In order to keep the soil fertile and productive, the soil must have an adequate amount of organic matter. An ideal agricultural land requires 3-5% organic matter but many soils in the world have less than 3% organic matter. Organic matter not only provides nutrients for the crop but also retains nutrients in the soil for a long time. Soil microbiological activity is entirely dependent on organic matter. In addition, organic matter increases the water-holding capacity of the soil and helps in aeration. In general, good yields cannot be expected by simply applying chemical fertilizers to the soil without organic matter.

Chicken manure is a good source of plant nutrients. Applying chicken manure adds a lot of plant nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, zinc and copper to the soil. Studies have shown that if chicken manure is applied in a land per year as 1-1.5 tons/hectare or 4-6 kg/decimal, there is 20-25 kg/ hectare Urea fertilizer can be reduced and no need to apply additional TSP fertilizer in that land. It also adds a remarkable amount of potassium, sulfur, zinc and copper to that land.

Soil acidity occurs for various reasons such as long-term use of only chemical fertilizers, increasing the intensity of cultivation, planting of high yielding and hybrid varieties, excessive rainfall, soil texture, organic matter decomposition, and some other natural causes. We can compare Soil acidity with human acidity. If acidity occurs in a human body then he/she lost interest to take foods, on the other hand, the plant also can’t uptake nutrients from the soil due to soil acidity. As a result, we do not found the desired yield from the acidic soils after the use of a good amount of chemical fertilizers. People are treated with antacids to cure acidity, lime is also required to remove the acidity of the soil. Chicken manure contains a lot of calcium or lime, so the application of this organic fertilizer removes the acidity of the soil. No additional lime application is required after use it.

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) showed in their recent study that chicken manure has a lot of benefits than the other organic materials. They found that about 12% yields have increased, soil condition improved and less pest-disease infestation due to the use of chicken manure.

Iowa State University researchers have done a long term (20 years) study on the application of chicken manure in crop production. They found the benefits of chicken manure as organic fertilizer on soil health and farm profits compared to other commercial fertilizers.

Soil Resources Development Institute (which is one of the major soil-plant analytical laboratories in Bangladesh) has done a chemical analysis of chicken manure, cow dung, compost manure and vermicompost and found the following result –

From the above table, it is easy to understand that chicken manure contains a higher amount of plant nutrients than the other organic manure.

There is a well-established belief in many people that chicken manure means high levels of heavy metals or contaminants. As a result, many people do not show their interest to use this fertilizer for fear of soil pollution. However, some studies found that most chicken manure contains less than the maximum level of heavy metal or contaminants allowed by many countries. Not only that, but chicken manure also contains more plant nutrients than the other organic manure.

Chicken manure can be applied in land/soil preparation before seed sowing or seedling transplanting. It also can be applied directly onto the soil of the plant root zone as like as other fertilizer.

So, the benefits of chicken manure as organic fertilizer is clearly mentioned in the above discussion. It is proven that chicken manure is one of the good organic fertilizer that improves soil health, provides nutrients to the plant and helps to produce a better yield.