Chapter 650 Cow Dung Economy
Mombasa Port.
The dock workers looked at the cartloads of goods with wonder, trying to breathe as little as possible, and even covered their noses and said: "This year is really strange! Can cow dung be exported? Such a big year The boat is specially used to haul cow dung. What is it used for? "
"Cow dung is a good thing, but it is really unheard of to haul so much cow dung on a boat. It has never been done in Mombasa before. We have transported cow dung out there.”
“I heard that these ships are from the Northern Province and Juba Province. Isn’t that a desert? Are they transporting so much cow dung as fuel?”
"It's really possible. Everything is lacking in the desert, like there are no trees or grass. So what do they use to make fire for cooking?"
"Don't talk nonsense, I asked the brother on the boat , they said that these cow dung are fermented fertilizers, which are In the north, agricultural experts there say they use cow dung to cultivate fruits.”
The workers at Mombasa Port were talking about it, not because they were particularly fond of cow dung, but because of the taste. It's really big, and the contrast with the goods usually transported is too strong.
As for the fuel issue, Northern Province and Juba Province are really scarce, but it is not necessary to import cow dung from other places to use as fuel. Local camel dung and wood cut from the west are the main sources of fuel in the two provinces. Fuel source.
In ancient times, Arabs were accustomed to using camel dung to make fires for cooking. This tradition was still retained in many Arab regions in the 19th century, and the two provinces of Somalia under the rule of East Africa naturally retained this habit.
In addition to the 15% of the forests in the traditional area, the Somali region in East Africa also includes large forests in the southeastern mountains of the Ethiopian plateau. There are also some wheat fields in the two rivers (Juba River, Shabelle River), and wheat straw after the harvest. Very good fuel.
Not only the workers at the Mombasa Port find it novel, people in the northern pastoral areas are also interested in this year’s cow dung market, because cow dung was a popular item in previous years, and many southern provinces imported it from the northern pastoral areas, but this year Zhu The addition of Ba Province and Northern Province has made the already short supply of cow dung production capacity in the northern pastoral areas even tighter.
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Melty Ranch, Oriental Province.
Agricultural technician Li Ersen told the ranch workers: “Raw cow dung is easy to breed bacteria. Therefore, in ranches that do not handle cow dung carefully, cow dung often affects the breeding groups.
At the same time, because cow manure can generate heat, it will deplete the oxygen content of the soil, causing roots and seedlings to burn, which also has a negative impact on the growth of grass in the pasture.
Furthermore, feces can also spread parasites and pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, pastures without cow manure treatment will be harmed by parasites, and even cause the pasture breeding groups to be infected with diseases. ”
“Therefore, the removal of cow dung from pastures in northern East Africa is a big ecological problem. If it is not solved in place, it will not only cause damage to the environment, but more importantly, it will affect the entire livestock industry in East Africa. develop. ”
Li Ersen is not exaggerating. The number of livestock in the northern pastures of East Africa will have an important impact on the northern pasture area every year.
This was especially significant ten years ago. A large ranch every year Manure may be measured in tens of thousands of tons, and there were hundreds of such large-scale ranches in northern East Africa at that time. The smell emitted and the damage to the pastures were visible to the naked eye. Things are much better now. The East African government has implemented regulations on cattle. Manure is effectively utilized and managed
Li Ersen continued: "Last year our Melty Ranch alone produced a total of 30,000 tons of cow dung, 80% of which was exported to southern plantations and grain-producing areas for soil improvement.
Cow dung helps to improve the soil structure and increase the soil's water-holding capacity. In East Africa, a lot of land is seriously hardened. In addition to improving soil fertility, the most important thing about fermented cow dung is to make the soil in the fields more fluffy. This is also the role of cow dung. An important advantage of fertilizer. "As far as we know, the Somali region recently plans to introduce large quantities of cow dung from the pastoral areas of Eastern Province to increase the production of fruits, vegetables, and flowers."
< br>“So one of our important tasks is to thoroughly process cow dung. Cow dung must be fermented to make fertilizer, and it can be used after it is fully fermented and decomposed. If fresh cow dung is applied to the field, it will release heat during fermentation. It may harm the plants and introduce pathogens into the soil, so the fermentation must be sufficient to kill the eggs and microorganisms in the cow dung.”
Nowadays, large ranches in East Africa have allocated special land. It is used to accumulate cow dung for fermentation. Most of these lands are barren, so there is no fear of causing damage to the pasture.
Some small ranches do not have this condition, so the local government will designate areas for small ranches to send these excrements for treatment.
While the supply of cow dung exceeds demand, large pastures such as Melty Ranch have reserved part of it, mainly for making fuel.
At present, in many parts of Europe, fuel has been developing in the direction of coal, especially the United Kingdom.
In the 18th century, the coal production of the United Kingdom was already the total coal production of other countries in the world. 5 times. Even so, the British still felt that the speed of coal mining was too slow.
In this context, the British invented the original "steam engine" and quickly applied it to coal mining.
Before coal, the main fuel for the British was firewood, which required large-scale deforestation. In addition to being used for cooking and heating, wood was also critical to other manufacturing areas, such as houses, household appliances, farm tools, containers, and other related items. Important ships. The British Navy reacted very strongly. They were worried that the forest crisis would seriously affect the development of the naval fleet, so the British completely enforced the law to replace firewood with coal.
Many areas in East Africa are also facing fuel problems, and the demand for wood for warships and ships also exists objectively.
The fuel problem in the northern pastoral area is obviously more prominent than in the southern region of East Africa. It is completely dominated by grassland, with relatively sparse forests and no large farmland.
In other rural areas in East Africa, wheat straw, rice straw, and corn stalks are used together with firewood. Even Somalia has grain agriculture, so the fuel problem is relatively easy to solve.
Northern pastures are mainly based on animal husbandry, and grasslands are also relatively short of fuel. After all, grassland vegetation is not as easy to harvest and use as fuel as in forests.
The benefits of cow dung as fuel are evident. Of course, the cow dung in the northern pasture area is definitely not dried and burned directly like the Indians do.
But after crushing it into powder, add coal ash to make cow dung briquettes. The burning effect of cow dung briquettes is better than that of ordinary briquettes, mainly because there is less smoke.
Because the coal in the northern pastures mainly relies on coal mines in the northern industrial belt, and the quality of the coal mines in the northern industrial belt is very poor, which will cause a lot of losses when burned. However, after adding cow dung powder, it can be burned more fully. Furthermore, Generally speaking, this kind of cow dung briquette is also suitable for industrial production, so it has become an important industry in northern pastures and is also supplied to surrounding cities, such as Nairobi and Mombasa.
In addition to these, cow dung can also be used to produce other animal feeds and used to breed pigs, chickens, fish, etc.
So the cow dung economy has become an important part of the East African economy. It has an important impact on the East African environment, energy, production, and life. On the whole, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
(End of this chapter)