Lessons learned from Long-term Soil Fertility Management Experiments in Africa

Lessons learned from Long-term Soil Fertility Management Experiments in Africa Andre Bationo Ivan Adolwa Editors Boaz Waswa Job Kihara Bernard Vanlauwe Koala Saidou Lessons learned from Long-term Soil Fertility Management Experiments in Africa Editors Andre Bationo Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Resource Mobilization Office, CSIR Office Complex #6 Agostino Neto Road Airport Residential Area PMB KIA 114 Airport Accra, Ghana Job Kihara Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) ICIPE Duduville Campus off Kasarani Road Nairobi, Kenya Bernard Vanlauwe Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) ICIPE Duduville Campus off Kasarani Road Nairobi, Kenya Boaz Waswa Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) ICIPE Duduville Campus off Kasarani Road Nairobi, Kenya Ivan Adolwa Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) ICIPE Duduville Campus off Kasarani Road Nairobi, Kenya Koala Saidou Tropical Soil Biology & Fertility Institute of International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT-TSBF) ICIPE Duduville Campus off Kasarani Road Nairobi, Kenya ISBN 978-94-007-2937-7 ISBN 978-94-007-2938-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2938-4 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2012934458 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied,with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface Long-term experiments (LTE) play an important role in understanding the effects of land management on soil fertility, sustainability of yield or wider environmental issues. It may take decades to reveal an ongoing negative trend of depletion of a soil’s productivity. Similarly, it can take an equally long time to rehabilitate and restore productivity of land. Monitoring such changes can only be achieved if long term experiments that are systematically managed without compromising their sci-entific integrity existed. The Classical LTEs at Rothamsted Research in the UK are among the oldest existing agronomic experiments in the world dating back to 1843. Other old LTE include the Morrow Plots, located at the University of Illinois in the US, which were established in 1876. Countries such as Sweden have had LTE since 1930s and 1950s. Only a handful LTE have been established and maintained to date in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Where such LTE exist, data from such experiments are scat-tered, difficult to access and have remained unpublished. The experiments continue to suffer from inconsistency in management as well as poor funding. Despite these limitations, there exist some potential LTE from which lessons on changes in soil properties and crop productivity can be assessed. The Samaru, Zaria experiment in Nigeria, established in 1950 and the Saria experiment in Burkina Faso, established in 1960 are among the oldest soil fertility experiment in Africa. Other experiments are the Long Term Experiment at the National Agriculture Research Laboratories (NARL), Kabete, Kenya established in 1976. Most other experiments are of inter-mediate age ranging from 5-10 years. The LTE in Africa have been established in a wide range of agroecological zones (AEZ) ranging from the tropical humid to the arid and semi arid regions. These AEZ are characterized by a wide range of soil types. Most experiments have tar-geted the main cereal (maize, millet, sorghum, rice) and legume (beans, cowpea, groundnuts, pigeon pea) crops in the respective regions. The experiments cover a wide range of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) technologies such as efficient use of inorganic fertilizer, combining organic and inorganic nutrient sources, integration of legumes in cropping systems, use of manure and crop resi-dues, use of rock phosphate and other soil amendments, soil and water conservation v ... - tailieumienphi.vn