Soil Fertility Maintenance and Food Crop Production in Semi-Arid West Africa: Is Reliance on Manure a Sustainable Strategy?

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.O. Williams ◽  
J.M. Powell ◽  
S. Fernández-Rivera
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Animal Manure ◽  
Level Of Use ◽  
Term Basis ◽  
Food Crop Production ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Arid West

Animal manure is of vital importance in maintaining soil fertility in semiarid west Africa due to the low level of use of inorganic fertilizer. Using data from Niger however, it is shown that insufficient animals are available to provide the manure needed to sustain crop yields on a long-term basis. The limitations posed by animal numbers and feed availability imply that with the increasing intensity of land use in Niger and other countries In the region, manure alone will not provide the key to attaining sustainable yield levels. External Inputs in the form of inorganic fertilizers are needed. However, the gap between present fertilizer use and the required level is wide. To ensure the availability and increased use of fertilizers at the farm level, appropriate public policies are needed to ease the constraints that have inhibited the widespread use of fertilizers in semiarid west Africa.

scholarly journals Weather Differentials and Discount Rate Impact on Farmers’ Net Revenue: Modeling Results from Ghanaian Data Focusing on Different Agro-Climatic Zones

2021 ◽  
pp. 2150012
Author(s):  
Isaac Dasmani ◽  
Samuel K. N. Dadzie
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Discount Rate ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Critical Issue ◽  
Management Policy ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Climatic Zones ◽  
Net Revenue ◽  
Using Data

In most developing countries, climate variabilities and discount rate played an integral role in the decision-making of farmers, which mostly affect their net revenue. Our study employs Ricardian models to empirically verify this hypothesis using data collected from three major agro-climatic zones in Ghana. We particularly estimated the comparative effect of climate change variability, discount rate, and soil fertility; due to trade-off effect of certain farm practices in response to climate change across major climatic zones and also the fact that discount rate becomes an extremely critical issue in formulating and evaluating conservation and management policy to address climate change. The result indicates that discount rate has a positive and significant effect on the farmers’ net revenue. Further, effect of changes in temperature on food crop production and hence net revenue is more felt in the forest and savannah zones. On the other hand, an increase in rainfall has significant negative effects on crop net revenues and whole-farm net revenue, but a positive effect on net revenue of farmers in the savannah zone. We also found a significant increase in soil fertility to increase crop net revenues.

Rainfall and crop yields in seasonally arid West Africa

Geoforum ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.D. Dennett ◽  
J. Elston ◽  
C.B. Speed
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Arid West

scholarly journals Soil fertility and crop yields in long-term organic and conventional cropping systems in Eastern Nebraska

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam E. Wortman ◽  
Tomie D. Galusha ◽  
Stephen C. Mason ◽  
Charles A. Francis
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Animal Manure ◽  
Conventional System ◽  
Organic System ◽  
Organic Systems ◽  
Long Term Study ◽  
Conventional Systems

AbstractOrganic agriculture aims to build soil quality and provide long-term benefits to people and the environment; however, organic practices may reduce crop yields. This long-term study near Mead, NE was conducted to determine differences in soil fertility and crop yields among conventional and organic cropping systems between 1996 and 2007. The conventional system (CR) consisted of corn (Zea maysL.) or sorghum (Sorghum bicolor(L.) Moench)–soybean (Glycine max(L.) Merr.)–sorghum or corn–soybean, whereas the diversified conventional system (DIR) consisted of corn or sorghum–sorghum or corn–soybean–winter wheat (wheat,Triticum aestivumL.). The animal manure-based organic system (OAM) consisted of soybean–corn or sorghum–soybean–wheat, while the forage-based organic system (OFG) consisted of alfalfa (Medicago sativaL.)–alfalfa–corn or sorghum–wheat. Averaged across sampling years, soil organic matter content (OMC), P, pH, Ca, K, Mg and Zn in the top 15 cm of soil were greatest in the OAM system. However, by 2008 OMC was not different between the two organic systems despite almost two times greater carbon inputs in the OAM system. Corn, sorghum and soybean average annual yields were greatest in either of the two conventional systems (7.65, 6.36 and 2.60 Mg ha−1, respectively), whereas wheat yields were greatest in the OAM system (3.07 Mg ha−1). Relative to the mean of the conventional systems, corn yields were reduced by 13 and 33% in the OAM and OFG systems, respectively. Similarly, sorghum yields in the OAM and OFG systems were reduced by 16 and 27%, respectively. Soybean yields were 20% greater in the conventional systems compared with the OAM system. However, wheat yields were 10% greater in the OAM system compared with the conventional DIR system and 23% greater than yield in the OFG system. Alfalfa in the OFG system yielded an average of 7.41 Mg ha−1annually. Competitive yields of organic wheat and alfalfa along with the soil fertility benefits associated with animal manure and perennial forage suggest that aspects of the two organic systems be combined to maximize the productivity and sustainability of organic cropping systems.

Pasture cropping: a new approach to integrate crop and livestock farming systems

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (10) ◽  
pp. 777 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. D. Millar ◽  
W. B. Badgery
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Ground Cover ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Perennial Grasses ◽  
Crop Failure ◽  
Gross Margin ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
No Till

Pasture cropping is a farmer-initiated concept of sowing a winter active cereal into a summer-active native perennial pasture. Proponents claim that by using pasture cropping they are able to maintain or improve the perennial pasture. Research was carried out on a Bothriochloa macra dominant pasture at Wellington, in the central western slopes of New South Wales, to compare pasture cropping to conventional no-till cropping and pasture only systems under different fertiliser rates and rotations. Key variables for the comparison included forage and crop production, pasture perenniality and ground cover, soil fertility and water use, and profitability. Our results show that pasture cropping can successfully retain perennial grasses and ground cover while still producing profitable cropping and grazing compared with continuous pasture. Crop yields from pasture cropping were less than 65% of those for conventional no-till cropping, which led to conventional no-till cropping having the greatest, but also most volatile, gross margin throughout the experiment. However, the lower input costs associated with pasture cropping reduced the effects of crop failure on farm profit. While soil moisture differences did not occur between treatments during the experiment, soil fertility, especially N, played a major role in determining crop yield. The role of pasture cropping in farming systems is discussed.

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