Farmers’ perception of pigeon pea fertilization and soil health indicators in Ebelle, Edo State

Farmers represent the largest group of natural resource managers and have acritical role to play in the agroecological transition towards sustainable landmanagement. Such a participatory research approach involving farmers are important for the development of technologies and management innovations. Theresearch reported aimed at eliciting farmer's knowledge on soil health within thecontext of fertilization and post-harvest residue management practices, as well astheir awareness on the indigenous indicators of soil health in Ebelle, Edo state.Knowledge was elicited from sixty-five (65) smallholder farmers in the areathrough the use of questionnaires and data were analyzed using basic descriptivestatistics. Results show that about 46% of the interviewed farmers used organicmanure, 19.9% preferred to use chemical fertilizers while 20.2% did not adoptany method of fertilization. The use of organic manure by these farmers wasattributed to its low cost (45.3%), high crop response (31.4%), availability(13.8%), and common practice (9.5%). Results also show that the majority of thefarmers (72.2%) tend to burn post-harvest residue while only 6.7% incorporatethese residues into the soil after harvest. Farmers in the area described eleven(11) indicators of soil health. Most frequently mentioned were; soil colour(37.3%), mesofauna (28.1%) , crop vigour (26.9%) and moisture content (7.7%).This implies that farmers have a clear notion of soil health indicators that agreeswith the classical methodology of identification. However, their fertilizationpractices are not well established, as this can lead to degradation of soil in thearea.