http://www.ku.ac.ke/schools/environmental/images/stories/docs/communicating_complexity.pdf

Communicating complexity: Integrated assessment of trade-offs concerning soil fertility management within African farming systems to support innovation and development

The diversity of rural livelihoods and their influence on soil fertility in agricultural systems of East Africa - A typology of smallholder farms

Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies for African smallholders should consider (i) within-farm soil heterogeneity; (ii) long-term dynamics and variability; (iii) manure quality and availability; (iv) access to fertilizers; and (v) competing uses for crop residues. We used the model FIELD (Field-scale resource Interactions, use Efficiencies and Long term soil fertility Development) to explore allocation strategies of manure and fertilizers. Maize response to N fertilizer from 0 to 180 kg N ha-1 (±30 kg P ha-1) distinguished poorly responsive fertile (e.g., grain yields of 4.1-5.3 t ha-1 without P and of 7.5-7.5 t ha-1 with P) from responsive (1.0-4.3 t ha-1 and 2.2-6.6 t ha-1) and poorly responsive infertile fields (0.2-1.0 t ha-1 and 0.5-3.1 t ha-1). Soils receiving manure plus fertilizers for 12 yr retained 1.1 to 1.5 t C ha-1 yr-1 when 70% of the crop residue was left in the field, and 0.4 to 0.7 t C ha-1 yr-1 with 10% left. Degraded fields were not rehabilitated with manures of local quality (e.g., 23-35% C, 0.5-1.2% N, 0.1-0.3% P) applied at realistic rates (3.6 t dm ha-1 yr-1) for 12 yr without fertilizers. Mineral fertilizers are necessary to kick-start soil rehabilitation through hysteretic restoration of biomass productivity and C inputs to the soil. (Resume d'auteur)

Combining organic and mineral fertilizers for integrated soil fertility management in smallholder farming systems of Kenya : Explorations using the crop-soil model FIELD

Smallholder farms in sub-Saharan African exhibit substantial heterogeneity in soil fertility, and nutrient resource allocation strategies that address this variability are required to increase nutrient use efficiencies. We applied the Field-scale resource Interactions, use Efficiencies and Long-term soil fertility Development (FIELD) model to explore consequences of various manure and fertilizer application strategies on crop productivity and soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics on farms varying in resource endowment in a case study village in Murewa District, Zimbabwe. FIELD simulated a rapid decline in SOC and maize yields when native woodlands were cleared for maize cultivation without fertilizer inputs coupled with removal of crop residues. Applications of 10 t manure ha−1 year−1 for 10 years were required to restore maize productivity to the yields attainable under native woodland. Long-term application of manure at 5 and 3 t ha−1 resulted in SOC contents comparable to zones of high and medium soil fertility observed on farms of wealthy cattle owners. Targeting manure application to restore SOC to 50–60% of contents under native woodlands was sufficient to increase productivity to 90% of attainable yields. Short-term increases in crop productivity achieved by reallocating manure to less fertile fields were short-lived on sandy soils. Preventing degradation of the soils under intensive cultivation is difficult, particularly in low input farming systems, and attention should be paid to judicious use of the limited nutrient resources to maintain a degree of soil fertility that supports good crop response to fertilizer application.

Managing soil fertility diversity to enhance resource use efficiencies in smallholder farming systems: a case from Murewa District, Zimbabwe

This article presents results from a study exploring the reasons for low adoption of legume technologies to improve soil fertility by farmers from a community in central Malawi who took part in participatory trials. This study explores the influence of gender roles in agriculture and land ownership and socio-economic differentiation in the community. Because most women do not own land and are traditionally responsible for legume crops, they have little interest in managing soil fertility for maize crops. Men are not interested in using legumes in maize-cropping systems. Some are too poor: this group needs to complement their subsistence maize production with paid labour on the farms of better-off farmers; restricting the labour availability for their own farming activities. Wealthier farmers have access to, and prefer to use chemical fertilizer and cattle manure. Take-up rates among the middle group of farmers were also low. This study discusses how these (and other) factors influence the (non-)adoption of maize-legume technologies in Malawi and the effectiveness of participatory research. It emphasizes how differentiated farmer-realities affect the uptake of technologies identified as promising in participatory field evaluations.

Participatory trials and farmers' social realities: understanding the adoption of legume technologies in a Malawian farmer community

Keywords: smallholder farmers, soil fertility, experimentation, "inconvenience", realist. The focus in this thesis is to form a view of how well soil fertility research performs within the ever shifting smallholder contexts. This study examined application of agro-ecological knowledge for soil fertility management by smallholder farmers, with the view to enhancing the utility of research among resource-deprived farmers of western Kenya . A realist methodological approach to the study of soil management was applied. It is shown that soil fertility management operates under the assumption that consequences (soil management) are to be explained not just by contextual states (in this case farmer knowledge) but by "mechanisms" of decision making and soil management that need to be uncovered. Knowledge is nothing unless it engages with real soil management processes. Between 2003 and 2005, participatory experimentation, monitoring and evaluation of technologies and concepts were explored. Those experiments involved: (i) cereal-legume rotations; (ii) screening new soyabean varieties for selection among smallholders; (iii) organic resource quality concepts and biomass transfer; and (iv) mineral fertiliser response. Farmers' practices following these experiments were investigated, with particular focus on their underlying justifications and livelihood objectives. Participating farmers selected experimental plots to ensure that the soils were representative in terms of type, fertility status and history of cultivation. These farms were classified as infertile during the participatory soil characterisation. Farmers deliberately selected the infertile plots to "see if the new technologies worked", and as part of their wider objective. These experimental plots were researcher-designed. Researcher notions of organic resource quality was interpreted and amended by farmers based on existing knowledge, experiences and cultural constructs. For instance, Tithonia was perceived as a "hot resource" that could be added to composts to increase the "speed of cooking". Amendments to this concept, and to new soil fertility management technologies, were based on "ordinary" applications and reflected perceptions of inconvenience; meaning especially labour constraints, land shortage, uncertain yield and economic returns. Alternative (i.e. not-for-soil-fertility-management) uses of the different technologies were prominent. For example, legume varieties with utility beyond soil fertility management were preferred which resulted in readily observable gains when applied under variable local conditions. Those local conditions demanded the use of mineral (P) fertiliser in the successful implementation of the cereal-legume rotation scheme or adoption of new promiscuous soyabean varieties. Farmers selected varieties primarily on the basis of yield, rate of growth and appearance. Poor yields when mineral fertiliser was not applied, or unsteady crop responses after its use, cost - coinciding with priority expenditures and association with particular technologies such as hybrid maize - complicated the use of fertiliser. Limited understanding of fertiliser functionality, soil nutrients or soil fertility mechanisms is clarified in terms of the context-mechanism-outcome paradigm of "realist" explanation. The farmer paradigm refers mainly to context and outcomes, which we interpret as a kind of positivism. On the one hand, scientists' focus on mechanisms (to the apparent exclusion of context and outcome) does not match the highly variable local social, physical and economic contexts made more difficult by poor (implementation of) policy. Both farmers and researchers, it is argued, need to enhance their capacity to modify their knowledge sets by engaging in well-designed joint research drawing on the context-mechanism-outcome configuration. Experimentation is seen as one way to expand farmers' knowledge sets on soil fertility and to make mechanisms (e.g. nutrient availability) more visible, so that farmers can engage in soil fertility improvement activity in ways that are both more effective and more meaningful. This thesis also concludes that to increase the utility of research requires a shift from component research to research at subsystem or whole-farm system level to address broader household objectives. The chances of sustainable application of scientific innovations by smallholders will be greatly enhanced if field research embraces and embeds social science methods of engaging the farmer sustainably as a partner in technology development and not simply as a client.

/pdf/fertile-ground-soil-fertility-management-and-the-african-4g8tiqwyum.pdf

Fertile ground? : soil fertility management and the African smallholder

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Fertile ground? : soil fertility management and the African smallholder