A cost-benefit analysis for utilization of poultry manure in cabbage production among smallholder crop-livestock farmers

Abstract Efficient utilization of animal manures is critical in sustaining productivity and profitability of smallholder crop-livestock production systems. However, adoption of particular manure application regimes would only be possible if the recommended regimes make economic sense to farmers whose major objective is usually to generate incomes. An on-farm experiment was conducted for three rainy seasons in Uganda to evaluate the economic benefits derived from production of cabbage under different levels of poultry manure (PM). The PM levels investigated included 0t/ha-1, 1t/ha-1, 2t/ha-1, 3t/ha-1, and 4t/ha-1 replicated three times per season. The total costs that vary, the gross and net benefits for each treatment were calculated and subsequently used to construct a partial budget from which dominance analysis was conducted. The non dominated treatments were then selected for marginal rate of analysis. The highest net benefits (Ug. shs 9,266,000) were obtained at 4t/ha. The net benefits at 4 and 3 t/ha were 21 and 13% higher than the benefits at 0 t/ha. Dominance analysis indicated that the net benefits of treatments 1 and 2 t/ha was lower than the net benefits of treatment 0 t/ha. The marginal rate of return (MRR) from 0 to 3 was 189%. Increasing the rate of PM from 3 to 4 t/ha resulted into a MRR of 237% while increasing the rate from 0 directly to 4 t/ha showed a much higher MRR of 384%. The results of study revealed that cabbage production was most profitable at 4t/ha of PM application.