Incentives of Local Farmers toward Organic Fertilizer Application in Nan Province of Thailand

Abstract

In recent year, many of agricultural and environmental problems occur due to high amounts of agricultural chemical or pesticide applied. The most important step for reducing soil degradation or water pollution is to mitigate nutrient losses from agriculture fields where used to work as non-point sources. For decreasing the amounts of agricultural chemicals, organic fertilizer has been proposed as it may contribute to reduce the expense of agricultural chemicals and to be safe for human health and natural environment. However, it is important to make farmers understand the background of the application of organic fertilizers, such as its benefit or technology, through the demonstration or the training. The studies were conducted to evaluate granular compost application comparing with chemical fertilizer or conventional compost application from viewpoints of reducing soil and nutrient losses under natural rainfall, and of plant growth for 2 cycles of cultivation in agricultural field. The experimental results showed that in the natural rainfall having 14 to 38 mm/hr, the losses of soil, total nitrogen and organic matter from the plot applied granular compost were significantly lower than that from the plot applied chemical fertilizer or conventional compost. Additionally, the results of the 1st cultivation showed that plant length and live weight of the ridge broadcasted granular compost after planting were higher as same as the ridge applied chemical fertilizer. However for the 2nd crop, plant length and live weight of the ridges applied granular compost before or after planting were the highest among all ridges. It means granular compost application is the effective way for decreasing the amounts of soil and nutrient losses from agricultural fields, and for making plants grow efficiently.