scholarly journals Toward Zero Hunger Through Coupled Ecological Sanitation-Agriculture Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Ryals ◽  
Elena Bischak ◽  
Katherine K. Porterfield ◽  
Steven Heisey ◽  
Julie Jeliazovski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Nitrous Oxide Emissions ◽  
Ecological Sanitation ◽  
Organic Nutrient ◽  
Human Excreta ◽  
Carry Over ◽  
Zero Hunger ◽  
Nutrient Resources

Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) systems capture and sanitize human excreta and generate organic nutrient resources that can support more sustainable nutrient management in agricultural ecosystems. An emerging EcoSan system that is implemented in Haiti and several other contexts globally couples container-based household toilets with aerobic, thermophilic composting. This closed loop sanitation system generates organic nutrient resources that can be used as part of an ecological approach to soil nutrient management and thus has the potential to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals 2 (zero hunger), 6 (clean water and sanitation for all), and 13 (climate change solutions). However, the role of organic nutrient resources derived from human excreta in food production is poorly studied. We conducted a greenhouse experiment comparing the impact of feces-derived compost on crop production, soil nutrient cycling, and nutrient losses with two amendments produced from wastewater treatment (pelletized biosolids and biofertilizer), urea, and an unfertilized control. Excreta-derived amendments increased crop yields 2.5 times more than urea, but had differing carry-over effects. After a one-time application of compost, crop production remained elevated throughout all six crop cycles. In contrast, the carry-over of crop response lasted two and four crop cycles for biosolids and biofertilizer, respectively, and was absent for urea. Soil carbon concentration in the compost amended soils increased linearly through time from 2.0 to 2.5%, an effect not seen with other treatments. Soil nitrous oxide emissions factors ranged from 0.3% (compost) to 4.6% (biosolids), while nitrogen leaching losses were lowest for biosolids and highest for urea. These results indicate that excreta-derived compost provides plant available nutrients, while improving soil health through the addition of soil organic carbon. It also improved biogeochemical functions, indicating the potential of excreta-derived compost to close nutrient loops if implemented at larger scales. If captured and safely treated through EcoSan, human feces produced in Haiti can meet up to 13, 22, and 11% of major crop needs of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, respectively.

scholarly journals Soil Fertility Management for Better Crop Production

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1349
Author(s):  
John Havlin ◽  
Ron Heiniger
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Nutrient Use Efficiency ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Soil Fertility Management ◽  
Fertility Management

Increasing crop productivity per unit of land area to meet future food and fiber demand increases both soil nutrient removal and the importance of replenishing soil fertility through efficient nutrient management practices. Significant progress in enhancing nutrient-use efficiency in production agriculture requires improved estimates of plant-available nutrients in the root zone, enhanced crop response to applied nutrients, and reduced offsite nutrient transport. This special issue, Soil Fertility Management for Better Crop Production, presents 15 manuscripts that advance our knowledge of interrelated soil, plant, and management factors important to increasing the nutrient availability and crop recovery of applied nutrients.

scholarly journals EFFECT OF INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT ON NUTRIENT USE EFFICIENCY OF MAJOR NUTRIENTS: A REVIEW

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (No 1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Barkha . ◽  
Ananya Chakraborty
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Nutrient Use Efficiency ◽  
Mineral Fertilizer ◽  
Utilization Efficiency ◽  
Nutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Nutrient Sources ◽  
Organic Nutrient ◽  
Nutrient Use ◽  
Use Efficiency

Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) is an important concept in the evaluation of crop production systems. With emerging nutrient deficiencies under intensive agriculture, there is a need to improve NUE. One of the approaches to enhance it is by judicious use of fertilizers (adequate rate, effective source, methods and time of application) as well as inclusion of organic manures. Organic nutrient sources are very effective but as their availability is not sufficient to meet the nutrient demand, we have to integrate both organic and inorganic sources of nutrients together in order to achieve higher NUE. Common measures of NUE include Partial Factor Productivity (PFP), Agronomic Efficiency (AE), Apparent Recovery Efficiency (RE), Physiological Efficiency (PE) and Internal Utilization Efficiency (IE). Mineral Fertilizer Equivalent (MFE) is another parameter that can be used to assess short term release of nutrients (mainly nitrogen) from organic nutrient sources

scholarly journals Soil Properties Spatial Variability and Delineation of Site-Specific Management Zones Based on Soil Fertility Using Fuzzy Clustering in a Hilly Field in Jianyang, Sichuan, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 7084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed S. Metwally ◽  
Sameh M. Shaddad ◽  
Manqiang Liu ◽  
Rong-Jiang Yao ◽  
Ahmed I. Abdo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Variability ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Soil Degradation ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Available Phosphorus ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Management Zones ◽  
Nutrient Contents

Avoiding soil degradation and improving crop productivity could be achieved by performing sustainable soil nutrient management with an appropriate understanding of soil properties’ spatial variability. The present fertilizer recommendations for the region where the study area is located are typically symmetric for large regions. This leads to the under-application of fertilizers in zones with low nutrient contents and over-application in zones with high nutrient contents. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess soil management zones (MZs) in the study area for effective soil nutrient management and to evaluate soil properties’ spatial variability. A total of 100 geo-referenced soil samples were collected at a depth of 0–20 cm, processed and analyzed for pH, available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorous (TP), while C:N, C:P and N:P ratios were calculated. Soil properties’ coefficients of variation (CVs) widely varied from low (1.132%) to moderate (45.748%). Ordinary kriging and semi-variogram analysis showed differed spatial variability patterns for the studied soil properties with spatial dependence ranged from weak to strong. MZs were delineated by performing principal component analysis (PCA) and fuzzy K-means clustering. Four PCs with eigen values more than 1 dominated 84.44% of the total variance, so they were retained for clustering analysis. Three MZs were delineated based on the two criteria modified partition entropy (MPE) and fuzzy performance index (FPI). The studied soil properties differed significantly among MZs. Thus, the methodology used for MZ delineation could be used effectively for soil site-specific nutrient management for avoiding soil degradation concurrently with maximizing crop production in the study area.

scholarly journals Introduction to the Integrated Nutrient Management Strategies and Their Contribution to Yield and Soil Properties

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Mostafa Mohamed Selim
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Nutrient Balance ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Residual Effect ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Organic Manure ◽  
Growth And Yield ◽  
Chemical Fertilizers ◽  
Available Nitrogen

Alleviation of poverty and achievement of zero-hunger target and food security are significant challenges faced by agricultural planners worldwide. Improving many agronomic approaches, which have drastic effects on crop growth and yield, is urgently needed to report this aim. Replacement of a part of chemical fertilizers by organic manure through a simple technique of using minimum effective dose of sufficient and balanced quantities of organic and inorganic fertilizers in combination with specific microorganisms, called INM, has a bright solution in this area. Recently, several investigators reported that integrated use of chemical fertilizers with organic manure is becoming a quite promising practice not only for maintaining higher productivity but also for greater stability to crop production. In addition, INM acts as a source of energy, organic carbon, and available nitrogen for the growth of soil microbes and improvement of physical properties of soil, and also have great residual effect on subsequent crops. So, the key component of the INM goal is to reach the eco-friendly practice through the harmonious properties of both sources by making a combination that can be used for decreasing the enormous use of chemical fertilizers and accreting a balance between fertilizer inputs and crop nutrient requirement, maintaining the soil fertility, optimizing the level of yield, maximizing the profitability, and subsequently reducing the environmental pollution. Lastly, INM is a tool that can offer good options and economic choices to supply plants with a sufficient amount of nutrients in need and can also reduce total costs, create favorable soil physiochemical conditions and healthy environment, eliminate the constraints, safeguard the soil nutrient balance, and find safety methods to get rid of agriculture wastes.

scholarly journals Application of human excreta on the farms as an effective option to the uptake and replication of ecological sanitation (Ecosan) in Burera District, Rwanda

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Celestin Banamwana ◽  
David Musoke ◽  
Nazarius Mbona Tumwesigye ◽  
Theoneste Ntakirutimana ◽  
Pierre Dukuziyaturemye
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Community Education ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Sampling Strategy ◽  
Environmental Aspect ◽  
Household Level ◽  
Ecological Sanitation ◽  
Human Excreta ◽  
Multistage Sampling

The ecological sanitation (Ecosan) technology continues to be challenged by diverse factors including exposure of human excreta to the users in different geographical settings. The purpose of the study is to understand the linkage between the uptake of Ecosan technology and theapplication of human excreta on the farms among farmers in Burera district. A quantitative study was conducted to assess the linkage between the application of human excreta on the farms and the uptake of Ecosan technology among farmers of Burera District, Northern Province of Rwanda. By using a multistage sampling strategy, a sample of 361 household farmers was selected in the sectors of Rugarama, Gahunga and Cyanika in the District of Burera where the Ecosan technology has been mostly implemented at the household level Findings show that Ecological sanitation  technology is favorable among females and 70% of females prefer to use it as sanitation facilities due to its privacy and design compared to the pitlatrine technology. In addition, the application of human excreta on the farm was high and 60% of farmers apply excreta on the farmers especially when there is a time of emptying excreta from their sanitation technologies. However, only 3% of the users of Ecosan technology apply also human excreta as Ecosan products on their farms. This implies that there is a need to scale up the Ecosan technology in the community of Burera district to optimize the proper use of human excreta. The high uptake of Ecosan technology will evolve the implementation strategies such as community education, the supply of Ecosan materials in the community and the construction of Ecosan technology. This will boost sanitation coverage and increase crop production in Burera district by taking into account the community health as well as the environmental aspect

scholarly journals Organic Nutrient Source Allocation and Use in Smallholder Farming Communities: What Are We Missing?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blessing Nyamasoka-Magonziwa ◽  
Steven J. Vanek ◽  
Michael Carolan ◽  
John O. Ojiem ◽  
Steven J. Fonte
Keyword(s):  
Land Tenure ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Soil Nutrient ◽  
Dominant Strategy ◽  
Environmental Drivers ◽  
Smallholder Farming ◽  
Organic Nutrient ◽  
Resource Endowment

Organic nutrient sources (ONS) are managed as a key resource by smallholder farmers to maintain the productivity of soils. Recycling of ONS by applying them to soils is a globally dominant strategy of ecological nutrient management. Understanding how ONS produced on-farm are allocated and what drives farmer decision making around their use is critical for sustainable nutrient management in smallholder agroecosystems. Using focus group discussions and a survey of 184 farming households, we studied socio-economic, socio-cultural, and environmental drivers of ONS allocation and use at the farm scale in three contrasting agroecological zones of western Kenya. Farm typologies of ONS management were also developed using cluster analysis based on resource endowment and the connectedness of farmers, management norms, and interaction with extension. Our findings suggest that the more resource endowed a farmer is, the more ONS are allocated to the main plot within the farm. We also observed that farmers preferred allocating more resources to plots that were considered more fertile. Land tenure had an important influence, in that main plots not owned by farmers were more likely to retain ONS such as crop residues. Management of residues is dependent on farmer gender, for instance, female farmers tended to burn legume residues in particular, which is notable since these higher quality residues are often considered key to sustainable soil nutrient management. Farm typologies featured different allocation patterns of ONS and were associated with resource endowment and farmer networks, including external ties to extension agents and internal ties to other farmers. Finally, there was a strong overarching influence of agroecological zone that often escapes characterization on the allocation of ONS. As research and development organizations continue to engage with smallholder farmers to reduce the burden of global food insecurity, the insights gained by this research will allow better anticipation of drivers and obstacles to improved nutrient management in these farming landscapes and communities.

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