The cheapest fertiliser you'll ever use is one you grow yourself. A…

The cheapest fertiliser you'll ever use is one you grow yourself. A legume cover crop planted between seasons - mucuna, lablab or cowpea depending on your rain - fixes its own nitrogen out of the air and stores it in its leaves and roots. A well-run mucuna relay lifted the next maize crop by up to 1.9 tonnes a hectare in East Uganda trials, around 38 extra bags of 50 kg.

Match the species to your zone: lablab, cowpea or pigeonpea if your rains are short and uncertain, mucuna, jack bean or sunn hemp if the wet season runs long. Sow it into your maize at knee-height, 6-8 weeks after planting, and slash it the moment it starts to flower - that's when it's holding the most nitrogen, and you don't need a tool to tell, just watch for the first flowers.

It also breaks the force of heavy rain and saves moisture for the next planting.

Choose your legume and get the seed in the ground before the season turns dry.

https://divisi.africa/insights/cover-crops-green-manure-feed-soil-el-nino/