Inherent low soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is one of the major hindrances of increased soybean productivity in Malawian soils. Although, inoculation of legumes with rhizobia, has been advocated for decades as a way of boosting leguminous crops' productivity through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), the effectiveness of this strategy, has been low. An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of the application of small doses of N and P to inoculated soybean. It was laid out in a complete block design (CBD) replicated three times and the treatments included: 1. Soybean only, 2. Inoculated soybean, 3. Inoculated soybean + 30 kg N ha -1
Low productivity characterizes the production of groundnut among smallholder farmers in Malawi. There is a need to explore options capable of increasing the productivity of the crop sustainably more especially under the changing climate. Against this background, experiments were conducted during the 2016/17 cropping season to investigate the potential to enhance the productivity of groundnut in Malawi through the combined use of inoculants (Graph-Ex and Histick-BASF) and foliar application of nutrients using Allwin fertilizer (legumes). The experiments were established at Bvumbwe and Chitala Agricultural research Stations and were laid in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated four times. Data collected were analyzed in Genstat Discovery Edition 4 and were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) at a 95% level of confidence. Means were separated by the least significant difference (LSD0.05). In general, foliar application of Allwin fertilizer alone particularly when conducted twice at two and four weeks after emergence produced a positive significant (p<0.05) groundnut grain yield response (97.8-170.8%) above the control. The yield increase is attributable to enhanced growth and development of the groundnut through the foliar supply of nutrients. In general, under the changing climate and amidst other constraints foliar feeding of nutrients using Allwin fertilizer alone particularly when conducted twice can increase significantly groundnut productivity in Malawi.
In Malawi, inoculating soybean with rhizobia, has been advocated for decades as a way of boosting productivity through enhancement of biological nitrogen fixation. The effectiveness of this strategy however, has been constrained by the low soil fertility status of soils in Malawi, necessitating the use of mineral fertilizer to supply nutrients to the soybean for increased productivity. Alternative strategies like foliar feeding of nutrients to improve grain yields are yet to be widely promoted due to lack of research evidence. Therefore experiments involving the soybean were conducted during the 2016/17 cropping season, laid in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated four times, at Bvumbwe, Bembeke and Chitala in Malawi to evaluate yields response to foliar feeding using a foliar fertilizer (Allwin-legumes). Agronomic data were analyzed in Genstat Discovery Edition 4 and were subjected to analysis of variance at 95% level of confidence. Means were separated using the least significant difference (LSD0.05). Generally, the result indicate that foliar feeding produced significantly higher (p<0.05) grain yields ranging from 33.7-364.7%, above the control across the different agro-ecological zones. The result underscores the importance of judicious and methodical application of nutrients to soybean under the changing climate and conditions of low soil fertility. In general, foliar feeding using Allwin fertilizer particularly when conducted twice can increase significantly soybean productivity in Malawi. The grain yields increase is attributable to the enhanced crop growth and development through foliar supply of nutrients.
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