African Entrepreneurship Record

Mombasa Port.

The dock workers curiously watched the loads being shipped onto the vessel, trying to minimize their breathing, and one even covered his nose and said, ”This year truly is strange! Cow dung can be exported now? Such a large ship dedicated to carrying cow dung, what for?”

”Cow dung is actually a good thing, but transporting so much by ship? I’ve never seen this before. Mombasa has never exported cow dung in past years.”

”I heard these ships are from the Northern Province and Juba Province. Isn’t there a desert over there? Bringing so much cow dung as fuel?”

”It’s quite possible. Deserts lack almost everything, like trees or grass. What do they use to start a fire for cooking?”

”Don’t make assumptions. I asked the folks on the ship, and they said all this cow dung is fermented fertilizer to be used in the north to enrich the soil. Their agricultural experts say it’s used to cultivate fruits and vegetables.”

The workers at Mombasa Port were buzzing with discussion, not out of any fondness for cow dung, but because its smell was truly strong, contrasting sharply with the usual goods transported.

Regarding the fuel issue, the Northern Province and Juba Province indeed face substantial shortages, but it’s not to the extent of importing cow dung as fuel. The provinces primarily rely on local camel dung and lumber from the west as fuel sources.

Historically, ancient Arabs were accustomed to using camel dung for cooking and heating, a tradition preserved in many Arab regions even into the 19th century, naturally retained by Somali provinces governed by East Africa.

Alongside the traditional regions constituting fifteen percent of forest coverage in the Somali area within East Africa, there also exist expansive forests in the southeastern Ethiopian highlands, and the Two Rivers (Juba River, Shabelle River) basin does boast some wheat fields whose post-harvest straw serves as excellent fuel.

The cow dung trend not only intrigued the workers at Mombasa Port but also piqued interest in the northern pastoral areas. Generally, cow dung is a sought-after item, eagerly imported by southern provinces, but the involvement of Juba Province and the Northern Province this year has made the already strained cow dung production in northern pastoral areas even more tense.

...

Merti Ranch in the Eastern Province.

Agricultural technician Li Ersen explained to the ranch workers, ”Fresh cow dung is prone to breeding bacteria, so if a ranch doesn’t meticulously handle cow dung, the dung can often negatively affect livestock populations.

Additionally, cow dung generates heat, consuming soil oxygen and leading to root and seedling scorch, which negatively impacts pasture grass growth on the ranch.

Furthermore, manure can help spread parasites and pathogenic microorganisms, so ranches that don’t properly manage cow dung are vulnerable to parasite harm, potentially causing livestock populations to contract diseases.”

”Thus, handling cow dung from the northern pastures in East Africa is a significant ecological issue. If inadequately addressed, it’s not just an environmental damage problem; it primarily impacts the development of the entire East African livestock industry.”

Li Ersen wasn’t exaggerating. The livestock numbers in East African northern pastures annually exert significant influence within the pastoral area.

It was particularly evident a decade ago; a large ranch might produce dung by the tens of thousands of tons each year. Such large ranches numbered in the hundreds in the East African northern pastures back then, releasing visible odors and severely damaging pastures. Nowadays, it’s much improved, as the East African government has effectively utilized and managed cow dung.

Li Ersen continued, saying, ”Just last year, our Merti Ranch produced a total of thirty thousand tons of cow dung, of which eighty percent was shipped to southern plantations and grain-producing areas to improve the soil.

Cow dung helps enhance soil structure and increase its moisture retention capacity. In East Africa, many lands suffer severe compaction, and fermented cow dung not only enhances soil fertility but importantly makes land soil more friable. This is a significant advantage of using cow dung as fertilizer.”

”To our knowledge, the Somali region recently plans to import a large volume of cow dung from the Eastern Province pastures to boost fruit, vegetable, and flower yield.”

”Therefore, a critical task for us is to thoroughly process cow dung. As fertilizer, cow dung must be fermented; once fully fermented and decomposed, it’s used. If fresh cow dung is applied directly to fields, the heat it releases during fermentation can harm plants and introduce pathogens to the soil, so fermentation must be complete to kill parasite eggs and microorganisms within the dung.”

Large pastures in East Africa now allocate specific lands for cow dung fermentation heaps. These lands are generally barren and thus aren’t at risk of pasture damage.

Some smaller ranches lack these resources, so the local government designates areas for smaller pastures to deliver their manure for processing.

Amidst the shortage of cow dung supply, large pastures like Merti Ranch reserve a portion primarily for fuel production.

Currently, many areas in Europe have transitioned their fuel sources toward coal, especially exemplified by Britain.

In the 18th century, Britain’s coal output was five times the combined total of other countries. Even so, Britons at the time still found coal extraction too slow.

Under this backdrop, Britons invented the first ”steam engine,” quickly applying it to coal mining.

Before coal, Britain’s main fuel was wood, necessitating large-scale deforestation. Wood was not only used for cooking and heating but was crucial to other manufacturing sectors—houses, household items, farm tools, containers, and critically important ships. The British navy was deeply concerned, fearing the forestry crisis would severely impact naval fleet development, leading Britain to implement strict laws mandating coal replace wood.

Similar fuel challenges arise in many East African regions, with objective needs for wood in naval and shipping endeavors.

The northern pastoral area faces more prominent fuel issues than southern East Africa. The area predominantly features grasslands, with scant forests and no extensive farmland.

In other rural regions of East Africa, straw, rice stalks, and corn stalks are used alongside wood. Even the Somali region engages in grain agriculture, making fuel issues more resolvable.

Nonetheless, the northern pastures mainly focus on animal husbandry, with grasslands scarce in fuel, unlike forests whose vegetation is easily harvested for fuel.

This underscores the benefits of cow dung as fuel. However, cow dung in northern pastures isn’t dried and burned directly like in India.

Instead, it’s powdered and mixed with coal ash to make cow dung briquettes, which burn even better than ordinary briquettes, notably producing less smoke.

The northern pastures source coal primarily from northern industrial mines, where coal quality is particularly poor, causing substantial burn loss. Adding cow dung powder, however, promotes complete combustion, and the production of cow dung briquettes is suited to industrial manufacturing. Thus, it becomes a key industry in northern pastures, with supply reaching adjacent cities like Nairobi and Mombasa.

Beyond these uses, cow dung is also applicable for producing other animal feeds used in raising pigs, chickens, fish, etc.

Thus, the cow dung economy becomes an essential component of the East African economy, significantly influencing environment, energy, production, and living, being overall more beneficial than harmful.