Soil, water and crop management alternatives in rainfed agriculture in the Sahel: an economic analysis

Day, John C.; Hughes, David W.; Butcher, Walter R.

doi:10.1111/j.1574-0862.1992.tb00217.x

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Such interventions may not be economically feasible, however, or may have unintended negative economic consequences 7 . While other approaches to decreasing fertilizer prices could help-for example, through improving the efficiency of input supply markets-support for the use of mineral fertilizers together with other agronomic practices to improve soil fertility and yield-such as agroforestry and crop rotation, intercropping with legumes or weed management-could be both ecologically and economically prudent [47][48][49] . For example, while nitrogen fertilizer use will generally increase maize yields, in some regions fertilizer use efficiency can also be improved by introducing more legumes in the cropping system 50,51 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertilizer and grain prices constrain food production in sub-Saharan Africa

2021

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rop yields in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are generally much lower than elsewhere. For instance, average maize yield in SSA is 1,446 kg ha −1 , whereas average global maize yield, excluding SSA, is 5,783 kg ha −1 (refs. 1,2 ), and increasing agricultural productivity in SSA could improve food security and rural welfare [3][4][5][6][7][8] . Increasing staple crop yield, the amount produced per unit cropland area, is also considered an important strategy to mitigate crop area expansion, and thus spare land for nature 9 . It is technically possible to strongly increase crop yields in many regions of SSA because there are large 'ecological yield gaps' , the differences between the actual crop yields and the crop yields that could be attained given available technology and the soil and weather conditions 3,4 . Reported national average ecological yield gaps for rainfed maize are as high as 4,800 kg ha −1 for Tanzania and Burkina Faso and over 9,000 kg ha −1 for Nigeria and Ethiopia 10 .To achieve such substantially higher crop yields, farmers would need to intensify their production systems in several ways. While there are different approaches to increase yields, in all cases farmers would need to use much more fertilizer than they currently do [11][12][13] , and it is not clear if and/or where this would be economically sensible from the farmers' perspectives. The profitability of fertilizer use depends on the effective local price of fertilizer and crop outputs, and on the local crop response to fertilizer. Reported maize responses to nitrogen fertilizer across SSA vary between 5 and 53 kg grain per kg N applied (refs. [14][15][16][17][18][19] ), and fertilizer use has been found to be profitable in some regions [20][21][22][23][24] , but not in others 25,26 , with considerable variation within countries. It is a challenge to generalize such reports because of the spatial variation in input and output prices, as well as in crop responses to fertilizer.To better understand opportunities for increasing staple food production in SSA through increased use of fertilizers, we evaluated location-specific ecological and economic conditions and how they affect crop responses to and economic returns on fertilizer investments. We compiled high-spatial-resolution data on soils, weather and local prices of fertilizer and maize grain. To predict crop response to fertilizer, we used an empirical machine-learning model derived from 12,081 observations from maize trials in 1,141 unique locations across SSA, and a mechanistic (rule-based) fertilizer response model called QUEFTS. Both models were used to predict maize yield in response to 539 different fertilizer applications combinations of nitrogen (0-200 kg ha −1 ), phosphorus and potassium (0-100 kg ha −1 ) for all 9 × 9 km spatial resolution grid cells of maize production in SSA.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fertilizer and grain prices constrain food production in sub-Saharan Africa

2021

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“…The adoption of land-enhancing technologies is seen as critical to the future development of the Sahelian region (Ramaswamy and Sanders, 1992;Sanders et al, 1995). Much of the technological change is particularly expected in rainfed agriculture (Day et al, 1992) because of limitations to achieving large output gains from irrigation (Biwas, 1986). Also, the potential area where irrigation can be economic and sustainable is limited in the Sahel.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors influencing adoption of land-enhancing technology in the Sahel: lessons from a case study in Niger

Baidu‐Forson¹

1999

Agricultural Economics

128

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Technical change, through the introduction of land‐enhancing conservation technologies, is essential to economic growth in the Sahel. Tobit analysis was used to identify factors that motivate level and intensity of adoption of specific soil and water management technologies. The results show that higher percentage of degraded farmland, extension education, lower risk aversion, and the availability of short‐term profits are important for increasing the adoption and intensity of use of improved ‘tassa’ and half‐crescent shaped earthen mounds. Age and attitudes to differential gains between farm and non‐farm income showed no influence on adoption. Three main policy implications emerge from these findings. First, technologies should be targeted to locations that have large percentages ol degraded farmlands. The probability of adoption and intensity of use are likely to be high at such locations. Second, there is the need to provide extension education that demonstrates risk reduction capacities of conservation techniques. I his will make available information capable of stimulating adoption of land‐enhancing technologies. Finally, policy‐makers should not seek to target innovations to younger farmers because age has no relationship to adoption of the improved ‘tassa’ and half‐crescent shaped earthen mounds. Lessons from the case study have broad relevance to cropped areas in the Sahel.

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