Help, 4! Green Manuring To Produce The New Rich Rice Farmer (PH), To Help Him Raise Rice Right!

In terms of the New Rich Rice Farmer (PH), I see that “green manuring” is not talked about in PhilRice and UP Los Baños. Hardly mentioned in their respective websites – is it because it is not a product of their respective efforts in research & development (R&D)? If so, poor excuse for R&D neglect!

(image from grocycle.com)

About the subject, Satavic Farms (satavic.org) says:

(In) green manuring… a crop like dhaincha (Sesbania aculeata), sunnhemp or horsebean is sown (usually) just before the monsoons. … Just around flowering (30-45 days after sowing), the crop is cut down and mixed into the soil after which the season’s main crop is sown.

However you do your green manuring:

IRRI equates “green manuring” with “cover cropping,” but I follow the differentiation made by Satavic Farms:

“Green manuring is beneficial in two ways – firstly it fixes nitrogen, and secondly, the addition of biomass… greatly helps in improving the soil texture and water holding capacity. Green leaf manuring can also be carried out if sufficient leguminous tree leaves are available.”

PhilRice talks directly about “balanced fertilization” but not about “green manuring” (philrice.gov.ph).

UPLB (ovcre.uplb.edu.ph) has its “Program: Techno-Demonstration On Soil Fertility; Green Manuring” (ovcre.uplb.edu.ph) dated 01 Jan 2021-31 Dec 2021, but the report is not available. I ask: “Why not?”

Wikipedia says (en.wikipedia.org):

In agriculture, a green manure is a crop specifically cultivated to be incorporated into the soil while still green. Typically, the green manure's biomass is incorporated [by] a plow or disk, as is often done with (brown) manure. The primary (end) goal is to add organic matter to the soil for its benefits. Green manuring is often used with legume crops to add nitrogen to the soil for following crops, especially in organic farming, but is also used in conventional farming.

So! What have we learned so far?

Remember: When animal manure is decayed, it becomes fertilizer for plants. Same with green manure, with the difference that there is much & more varied materials of green manure available than animal manure.

If only the farmer is taught how to make use of green manure!

Jeremy Dore says (29 Aug 2008, “Green Manures – The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,” Grow Veg, growveg.com):

(First): Green manures work (when growing) by drawing goodness out of the soil and storing it in the plant’s cells and root nodules. (Next): When the plants are then dug back into the soil, they rot down and gradually release these nutrients to the next crop in a more readily-available form. Regular use of green manures improves the soil structure, breaking down hard soils and adding organic matter to light soils like mine.

Green manures can have other benefits as well. Many of them provide good soil cover, suppressing weed growth and preventing erosion. Others attract beneficial insects to the garden such as bees and hoverflies which prey on pests like aphids.

Count how many benefits from green manure!

IRRI, PhilRice, UPLB: Green manure is good for crops, not farmers?!@517

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