Pearl millet production in Niger is characterized by manual sowing and weeding and low use of inputs like mineral and organic fertilizer. This objective of the study was to compare a traditional production package (control) against a new production package consisting of mechanized sowing and weeding, seed priming, seed treatment with a fungicide/insecticide, and microdosing at rate of 0.3 g NPK 15–15–15 hill−1. The experiment was conducted for 2017 and 2018 and at three sites each year. The average time used for sowing and weeding was reduced from 70.2 hours ha−1 in manual operations to 20.3 hours ha−1 in mechanized operations. The new production package reduced the time to maturity by 11 days compared with the traditional package. Average grain yield in the traditional and new production package was 947 and 1470 kg ha−1, respectively, while the corresponding stover yields were 2460 and 3005 kg ha−1, respectively. The increased yield as a result of the new production package is likely an effect of more precise sowing, better weed control, and faster crop development. The improved package increased the gross margin by 80.2% compared with the traditional production method. The improved package will be interesting for the farmers because of the increase in land and labour productivity.
Sowing and application of mineral and organic fertilizer is generally done manually in the Sahel, resulting in low precision and delayed application. The objective of this paper is to present a new mechanical planter (Gangaria) for the combined application of seeds and soil amendments (mineral fertilizer, compost, etc.), and to assess the effects of using this planter in pearl millet on labor use, yield and economic return. The labor study showed that the mechanized application of seeds and compost reduced time use by a factor of more than six. The on-station experiments were completely randomized experiments with six replications and six treatments: T0 (control), T1 (0.3 g NPK hill−1), T2 (25 g compost hill−1), T3 (25 g compost + 0.3 g NPK hill−1), T4 (50 g compost hill−1) and T5 (50 g compost + 0.3 g NPK hill−1). Treatments T1 to T5 were sown by the planter with seeds that were primed in combination with coating of seeds with a fungicide/insecticide. The treatment T5 increased grain yield and economic return compared to the control by 113% and 106%, respectively. The advantages for farmers using this approach of agricultural intensification are timelier sowing of dryland cereal crops, easy application of organic fertilizer and more precise delivery of input, thereby making this cropping system more productive and less vulnerable to drought.
The objective of this study was to characterize pearl millet production in Niger and to assess the potential impact of a low-cost production package on land- and labor productivity. The survey showed that 62% of the farmers used manure, while 22% used mineral fertilizer. Of those who used mineral fertilizer only 18% practiced microdosing. High labor demand was given as the reason why 89% of the farmers did not practice microdosing. In field experiments, we tested at three sites and over 2 years a control (no fertilizer and manual sowing) against two improved production packages consisting of mechanized sowing, seed priming, seed treatment with fungicide and NPK fertilizer in treatment 1 (T1), or phosphate coating in treatment 2 (T2). In the production package T1, seed and NPK fertilizer were mixed in a 1:1 ratio and this mixture was thereafter applied by a planter giving a fertilizer rate of 0.3 g NPK hill−1. In treatment T2, the seeds were coated with rock phosphate, and were thereafter sown by a planter giving a rate of 0.35 g rock phosphate hill−1. Compared to the control, the T1 and T2 treatments increased yield by 70.9 and 42.7%, respectively. The two improved production packages reduced time to maturity by 10 days. The net benefit increased for the T1 and T2 treatments compared to the control by 111.8 and 72.8%, respectively. This increase was particularly due to the higher grain and stover yield as well as lower weeding costs. These technologies will also render pearl millet production more resistant to climate change due to timelier sowing and weeding, a better crop establishment, and a shortened growing season.
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