Broiler litter in Ghana is typically sold cheaply to neighbouring vegetable farmers or burned. Composted properly, it is worth two to three times as much — and it improves your soil in ways bagged fertiliser cannot.
A 5,000-bird broiler house running four cycles per year produces roughly 20 tonnes of litter annually. Most broiler farmers in Ghana sell this litter for GH₵ 30–50 per bag to neighbouring vegetable growers, or they let it pile at the edge of the house where it creates a fly and odour problem. We have been working with broiler operations in the Eastern Region to change this. Properly composted broiler litter sells for GH₵ 80–120 per bag, the composting process itself takes six to eight weeks, and the end product is a stable organic amendment with NPK values that rival or exceed bagged fertiliser — plus a suite of micronutrients and organic matter that inorganic fertiliser does not provide.
The composting method we use is a simple turned windrow. Fresh litter is stacked in rows 1.5 metres high and 2 metres wide and wetted to 50–60% moisture. The rows are turned every five to seven days for the first three weeks, then every ten days thereafter. Internal temperatures during the thermophilic phase reach 55–65°C, which is sufficient to kill Salmonella and reduce pathogens to safe levels. By week six, the material is stable, dark brown, and has no detectable ammonia smell. At this point it is bagged and sold, or held for on-farm use.
The on-farm application argument is compelling too. Over two seasons of trial plots in the Eastern Region, plots that received 5 tonnes per hectare of composted broiler litter alongside a half-rate of urea outperformed plots on full urea alone by 12% on maize yield and showed measurably higher soil organic carbon at the end of the season. The compound benefit — revenue from selling compost, reduced bought-in fertiliser, and improved soil health — means that treating your litter as a waste stream is leaving a significant amount of value on the table.
