Improving fertilizer recommendations for farmers is essential to increase food security in smallholder landscapes. Currently, blanket recommendations are provided across agro-ecological zones, although fertilizer response and nutrient use efficiency by maize crop are spatially variable. We aimed to identify factors that could help to refine fertilizer recommendation by analyzing the variability in fertilizer response (FR) and the agronomic nitrogen use efficiency (N-AE). A literature search for on-farm studies across Kenya and Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), excluding Kenya, yielded 71 publications. The variability in FR was studied using a meta-analysis whereas key factors that influence FR and N-AE were studied with linear regression models. On average, the FR was 2, but it varied considerably from 1 to 28.5 (excluding outliers). In SSA, 18% of the plots were non-responsive plots with an FR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-018-9958-yAltmetric score:
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Publication year
2019
Authors
Ichami, S.M.; Shepherd, K.D.; Sila, A.M.; Stoorvogel, J.J.; Hoffland, E.
Language
English
Keywords
fertilizer application, greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture, nutrient management, pollution, soil fertility, soil quality, soil
Geographic
Kenya, Togo, Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Rwanda, Benin
