Efficient fertilizer use for increased crop production: The humid Nigeria experience

Maduakor, H. O.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-3224-4_16

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…7 and 8). At a more general level, these results con®rm the ®ndings of Poulain et al (1974) and support the data of Uyovbisere and Lombim (1991), Halm and Dartey (1991), Jallah et al (1991) and Maduakor (1991). In combination these authors provide consistent evidence that the role of N versus P as primary limiting factors for crop growth increases with rainfall and TDM production from the semi-arid Sahel to the subhumid Guinean zone of West Africa.…”

Section: Nitrogen Versus Phosphorus Effectssupporting

confidence: 89%

Efficient phosphorus application strategies for increased crop production in sub-Saharan West Africa

Buerkert

Bationo

Piepho

2001

Field Crops Research

112

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Comparable data are lacking from the range of environments found in sub-Saharan West Africa to draw more general conclusions about the relative merits of locally available rockphosphate (RockP) in alleviating phosphorus (P) constraints to crop growth. To ®ll this gap, a multi-factorial ®eld experiment was conducted over 4 years at eight locations in Niger, Burkina Faso and Togo. These ranged in annual rainfall from 510 to 1300 mm. Crops grown were pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and maize (Zea mays L.) either continuously or in rotation with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata Walp.) and groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). Crops were subjected to six P fertiliser treatments comprising RockP and soluble P at different rates and combined with 0 and 60 kg N ha À1 . For legumes, time trend analyses showed Pinduced total dry matter (TDM) increases between 28 and 72% only with groundnut. Similarly, rotation-induced raises in cereal TDM compared to cereal monoculture were only observed with groundnut. For cereals, at the same rate of application, RockP was comparable to single superphosphate (SSP) only at two millet sites with topsoil pH-KCl < 4:2 and annual average rainfall > 600 mm. Across the eight sites NPK placement at 0.4 g P per hill raised average cereal yields between 26 and 220%. This was con®rmed in 119 on-farm trials revealing P placement as a promising strategy to overcome P de®ciency as the regionally most growth limiting nutrient constraint to cereals.

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Section: Nitrogen Versus Phosphorus Effectssupporting

confidence: 89%

Efficient phosphorus application strategies for increased crop production in sub-Saharan West Africa

Buerkert

Bationo

Piepho

2001

Field Crops Research

112

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“…Results from the Sudanian zone (above 700 mm) show cereal yield increases of similar magnitude for N and P ( Uyovbisere and Lombim, 1991), whereas in the Guinean savannah zone (above 1200 mm rainfall) N was found to be the first growth limiting nutrient ( H u h and Dartey, Jalfah et al, 1991;Maduakor, 1991). There is little experimental evidence about K limiting crop yields in the region which may be explained by the considerable deposition of K-rich dusts on Sahelian soils.…”

Section: Effects Of Mineral Nutrient Applications On Crop Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrients in the West African Sudano‐Sahelian zone: Losses, transfers and role of external inputs

Buerkert

Hiernaux²

1998

J Plant Nutrition & Soil

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Crop growth on acid sandy soils of the Sudano‐Sahelian zone is primarily limited by the low amounts of organic matter and available mineral nutrients in the topsoil. The shortening of fallow periods with population growth, the exploitation of fire wood, spatial nutrient transfers by wind and water and net nutrient exports with crop yields in the order of 15 kg nitrogen (N) 2 kg phosphorus (P) and 15 kg potassium (K) ha−1 yr−1 for traditional fields planted to pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.) in the southern Sahel have exhausted these resources. Large productivity declines in the prevailing agro‐pastoral systems are the consequence. Data are presented to show bow nutrient exports at the level of individual fields, through grain yields and biomass removal as forage, firewood, construction material, and also through run‐off, wind and water erosion, leaching and volatilisation, are either losses for the ecosystem or sources of nutrients transferred within the ecosystem. Livestock is a vector of nutrients from rangelands to manured fields through forage intake and excretion and helps to shortcut nutrient cycles, but it is also a net consumer of organic matter and minerals. Through the effects of trampling on the soil and of grazing on the vegetation composition and production, livestock also indirectly affects the cycling and transfer of nutrients. Net nutrient inputs by heavy rains causing overland flow, dust deposition and through biological nitrogen fixation, are also unequally distributed and thus aggravate the fertility gradient from large nutrient ‘source’ areas such as rangelands to small ‘sink’ areas such as fallows, low lands, temporary lakes and river benches. At a finer resolution, shrubs and trees with their alternating periods of nutrient storage and recycling in leaves and wood, micro‐depressions, termite mounts and ant nests become localised points of nutrient concentration and high crop productivity. To balance losses of nutrients in these integrated systems and to obtain sustainable increases in production, external inputs of nutrients are necessary. These may be introduced by two different pathways, either via mineral fertilisers applied to croplands or via externally produced supplements fed to livestock. These pathways are complementary and each one has direct effects on the other. Fertiliser application to croplands affect livestock through the increase in available forage and crop residue feed, whereas feed supplementation affects crop production through higher amounts and better quality of manure. The adoption of either strategy by farmers requires a high nutrient use efficiency at low cost. Data from regional field trials revealed increases in total dry matter (TDM) of cereals with broadcast annual P application at 13 kg ha−1 ranging across three years from 19 to 88% for rockphosphate and from 34 to 102% for single superphosphate (SSP). Still, a low‐external input approach seemed more advantageous to farmers. The placement of NPK fertiliser at 4 kg P ha−1 with the seed at or shortl...

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“…Field trials have shown repeatedly that the importance of N as a primary growth-limiting nutrient for crops in sub-Saharan Africa increases with rainfall (Halm and Dartey, 1991;Jallah et al, 1991;Maduakor, 1991). This may be explained by the increased NO 3 7 losses with leaching and an overall higher TDM production.…”

Section: Cerealsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-Site Time-Trend Analysis of Soil Fertility Management Effects on Crop Production in Sub-Saharan West Africa

2002

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Soil fertility constraints to crop production have been recognized widely as a major obstacle to food security and agro-ecosystem sustainability in sub-Saharan West Africa. As such, they have led to a multitude of research projects and policy debates on how best they should be overcome. Conclusions, based on long-term multi-site experiments, are lacking with respect to a regional assessment of phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer effects, surface mulched crop residues, and legume rotations on total dry matter of cereals in this region. A mixed model time-trend analysis was used to investigate the effects of four nitrogen and phosphorus rates, annually applied crop residue dry matter at 500 and 2000 kg ha 71 , and cereal-legume rotation versus continuous cereal cropping on the total dry matter of cereals and legumes. The multi-factorial experiment was conducted over four years at eight locations, with annual rainfall ranging from 510 to 1300 mm, in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Togo. With the exception of phosphorus, treatment effects on legume growth were marginal. At most locations, except for typical Sudanian sites with very low base saturation and high rainfall, phosphorus effects on cereal total dry matter were much lower with rock phosphate than with soluble phosphorus, unless the rock phosphate was combined with an annual seed-placement of 4 kg ha 71 phosphorus. Across all other treatments, nitrogen effects were negligible at 500 mm annual rainfall but at 900 mm, the highest nitrogen rate led to total dry matter increases of up to 77% and, at 1300 mm, to 183%. Mulch-induced increases in cereal total dry matter were larger with lower base saturation, reaching 45% on typical acid sandy Sahelian soils. Legume rotation effects tended to increase over time but were strongly species-dependent. introdutionThe yield-enhancing effects of surface-applied crop residue (CR) mulch, mineral phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) fertilizers, and of legume rotations have been reported frequently with respect to the nutrient-depleted, acid sandy soils of West Africa Buerkert and Hiernaux, 1998;Bationo and Ntare, 2000). However, most of the available results and the derived conclusions referred to pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and maize (Zea mays). Much less is known about the effects of CR, P, and N on legume growth and on cereal legumes (Hafner et al., 1992;Rebafka et al., 1993b).

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Efficient fertilizer use for increased crop production: The humid Nigeria experience

Cited by 10 publications

References 38 publications

Efficient phosphorus application strategies for increased crop production in sub-Saharan West Africa

Efficient phosphorus application strategies for increased crop production in sub-Saharan West Africa

Nutrients in the West African Sudano‐Sahelian zone: Losses, transfers and role of external inputs

Multi-Site Time-Trend Analysis of Soil Fertility Management Effects on Crop Production in Sub-Saharan West Africa

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