Our Agent for Malawi, Agma Holding Ltd. carried out a 3-year field test on maize with Bio-Plant and Pro-Plant from 2009-2012 after offering to the Ministry of Agriculture a 0% interest Credit Fund of US$100 million over 5 years. Here is a summary of the results, which were very good.
Summary of the 3-Year Field Tests on Maize
Evaluation of Bio-Plant and Pro-Plant bio-fertilizers regarding their effects on soil fertility and maize grain yield production were evaluated at Bvumbwe and Bembeke for 3 years from 2009 to 2012. The pot experiments were carried out at Bvumbwe where sterilized and unsterilized soils were used with 5 Treatments replicated 3 times in a RCBD. 3 maize plants were planted in each 5L pot of soil. Field trials were conducted with plot sizes of 5m by 6 ridges spaced at 0.75m. One maize seed was planted per station spaced at 25cm. They were 3 replicates in RCBD.
The results indicate that Bio-Plant and Pro-Plant fertilizers improved soil fertility and maize grain yields. Their performance was much better than the recommended chemical fertilizer rate for maize at both sites.
In bio-chemical application the combined use of 30% chemical fertilizer and 660cc of Pro-Plant gave the highest maize grain yields of 5514 kgs/ha at Bvumbwe and 4883 kgs/ha at Bembeke.
In the case of bio-organic farming, Treatment 6 gave the highest grain yields at Bvumbwe (3518kgs/ha) and Bembeke (3667 kgs/ha).The increase over the recommended fertilizer was over 10%-40% and over the zero fertilizer Treatment 1 was 60%-90% depending on the site and the Treatment of Bio-Plant and Pro-Plant fertilizers. For example at Bvumbwe during 2009-10 season (Table 5), there was a 28% increase in maize grain yield in Treatment 3 compared with Treatment 2 of the recommended chemical fertilizer rate.