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Agronomic use efficiency of N fertilizer in maize-based systems in sub-Saharan Africa within the context of integrated soil fertility management

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Abstract

Traditionally, crop production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) depends primarily on mining soil nutrients. Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) is an approach for intensifying agriculture in SSA that aims at maximizing the agronomic efficiency (AE) of applied nutrient inputs. ISFM contains the following essential components: proper fertilizer management, use of improved varieties, the combined application of organic inputs and fertilizer, and adaptation of input application rates to within-farm soil fertility gradients where these are important. This paper evaluates, through meta-analysis, the impact of these components on the AE of fertilizer N (N-AE), defined as extra grain yield per kg fertilizer N applied, in maize-based systems in SSA. Since N-AE is low for excessive fertilizer N application rates or when fertilizer is applied on fertile, unresponsive soil, as was confirmed by scatter plots against control yields and fertilizer N application rates, such values were removed from the database in order to focus on and elucidate the more variable and complex responses under less than ideal conditions typical for SSA. Compared with local varieties, the use of hybrid maize varieties significantly increased N-AE values (17 and 26 kg (kg N)−1, respectively) with no differences observed between local and improved, open-pollinated varieties. Mixing fertilizer with manure or compost resulted in the highest N-AE values [36 kg (kg N)−1] while organic inputs of medium quality also showed significantly higher N-AE values compared with the sole fertilizer treatment but only at low organic input application rates (40 and 23 kg (kg N)−1, respectively). High quality organic inputs (Class I) and those with a high C-to-N ratio (Class III) or high lignin content (Class IV) did not affect N-AE values in comparison with the sole fertilizer treatment. Application of N fertilizer on infields resulted in significantly higher N-AE values [31 kg (kg N)−1] compared with the outfields [17 kg (kg N)−1]. The obtained information indicates that N-AE is amenable to improved management practices and that the various components embedded in the ISFM definition result in improvements in N-AE.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for supporting various workshops and discussion sessions during which the main ideas presented in this paper were developed. The Belgian Directorate General for Development Cooperation (DGDC) is also acknowledged for supporting scientific staff time in the context of the project on ‘Improving agriculture-based livelihoods in Central Africa through sustainably increased system productivity to enhance income, nutrition security, and the environment – CIALCA-II’. J. Six and P. Chivenge acknowledge the support by a grant from the US National Science Foundation (DEB: 0344971).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT), PO 30677, Nairobi, Kenya

    Bernard Vanlauwe, Job Kihara & Pieter Pypers

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, One Shields Ave, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Pauline Chivenge & Johan Six

  3. World Agroforestry Centre, PO 30677, Nairobi, Kenya

    Ric Coe

Authors
  1. Bernard Vanlauwe
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  2. Job Kihara
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  3. Pauline Chivenge
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  4. Pieter Pypers
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  5. Ric Coe
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  6. Johan Six
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernard Vanlauwe.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Hans Lambers.

Annex 1

Annex 1

Papers included in this study. Themes addressed are: (1) local, farmer-lead fertilizer management, (2) good, researcher-lead fertilizer mgt, (3) improved varieties, (4) fertilizer + organic inputs, and (5) within-farm soil fertility gradients.

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Vanlauwe, B., Kihara, J., Chivenge, P. et al. Agronomic use efficiency of N fertilizer in maize-based systems in sub-Saharan Africa within the context of integrated soil fertility management. Plant Soil 339, 35–50 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0462-7

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