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 a critical role to play in the agroecological transition towards sustainable land management. Such a participatory research approach involving farmers are important for the development of technologies and management innovations. The research reported aimed at eliciting farmer's knowledge on soil health within the context of fertilization and post-harvest residue management practices, as well as their awareness on the indigenous indicators of soil health in Ebelle, Edo state. Knowledge was elicited from sixty-five (65) smallholder farmers in the area through the use of questionnaires and data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics. Results show that about 46% of the interviewed farmers used organic manure, 19.9% preferred to use chemical fertilizers while 20.2% did not adopt any method of fertilization. The use of organic manure by these farmers was attributed 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 the farmers (72.2%) tend to burn post-harvest residue while only 6.7% incorporate these 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 agrees with the classical methodology of identification. However, their fertilization practices are not well established, as this can lead to degradation of soil in the area.