As the time is upon us for planting of Soybean, there are two quick and simple things that you must do to ensure your yield is favourable and is the best it can be under the circumstances. Increased fertiliser prices around the world and particularly in Ghana are simply a fact, and whilst fertiliser is still a hugely important part of any farmer’s plan and should still be used (you can still contact us for your fertiliser requirements), there are many other things you can do to achieve the same yield whilst reducing dependence on fertilisers.
The most important thing farmers can do is:
Apply inoculant to your seeds before planting.
Check out this blog to learn more about why we use inoculants. In summary, inoculants create the conditions that allow Nitrogen Fixation to occur. This is all important, because it means that the soybean plant can create its own Nitrogen by converting the nitrogen in the air into nitrogen in the soil.
If you don’t use inoculant, you are limiting your plant’s nitrogen availability, which is depriving the plant of its main source of nutrition.
And check out this video to see how the results speak for themselves!
The other important thing to do is:
Ensure your soil is pH optimal, and not too acidic.
Acidity will cause problems for the health of your crop, as well as reduce the availability of key plant nutrients which will prevent uptake. This will reduce yield. You can see how much acidity limits yield in the below table:
It’s very clear that correcting soil pH is the best way to make the most out of the nutrients in the soil - and that until you have corrected soil pH, most investment made on fertilisers is likely to be money spent inefficiently. It’s therefore really important to get this right so that you get the best return on your investment in fertiliser and crop nutrition solutions. Read more about why this is important here.
You correct your soil pH by first testing your soil and then applying Calciprill® which is available from Demeter Ghana Ltd. Get in touch to either take our allocation, or start by getting your soil tested. We can offer soil tests at your farm in every region of Ghana.
