HighlightsProductivity of different intercropping patterns was tested in Guinea savanna of northern Ghana.Land Equivalent Ratios in intercropping systems are greater under low soil fertility conditions.Competitive balance between intercrops in poor fields leads to greater Land Equivalent Ratios.Within-row maize-legume intercropping is more productive than distinct row systems.Radiation use efficiency is higher in intercrops than in sole crops.

<p>Northern Ghana is characterized by food insecurity largely due to over reliance on rain-fed agriculture under low farm input conditions. The present study investigated the effect of factors influencing mineral fertilizer adoption and use intensity among smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana. A total of 330 smallholder farmers selected through multi-stage sampling technique were interviewed. Adoption of fertilizer technology was determined by age, nativity, farm size, access to credit, and distance to agricultural office. The result of the truncated regression estimates indicated that income of household head, membership of farmer association, distance to agricultural office, access to input shop, income earning household that do not participate in agricultural development project and income earning male headed household were the significant factors influencing fertilizer use intensity. Distance to agricultural office was a key positive determinant of fertilizer adoption and use intensity. The study recommends improvement in road infrastructure and technical training of agricultural extension agents. Farmer based organization must be trained on regular basis to enhance their productive skills and technology uptake.</p>

HighlightsCropping system and soil fertility effects on N2-fixation were tested in northern Ghana.More N2 is fixed in sole cropping than intercropping despite comparable %Ndfa.Poorly fertile fields give limited grain legume benefits despite enhanced %Ndfa.Partial N balances are unreliable indicators of cropping system sustainability.Different grain legumes should be targeted to different sites in the Guinea savanna.

This version is distributed under a non-commencial no derivatives Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) user license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and not used for commercial purposes. Further, the restriction applies that if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.Please cite this publication as follows: 1.9 and 8.4 kg at an HI of 0.65 were required to produce 1000 kg of storage roots dry matter. 26The corresponding optimal NPK supply ratios are 6.0 -1.0 -4.2 and 5.3 -1.0 -4.2. Nutrient 27 use efficiencies decreased above yields of 77-93% of the maximum. Evaluation of the 28 performance of blanket fertiliser rates recommended by national research services for cassava 29 production resulted in average benefit:cost ratios of 2.4±0.9, which will be unattractive to 30 many farmers compared to 3.8±1.1 for the balanced fertiliser rates. The indigenous soil supply 31 of nutrients revealed that, at balanced nutrition, K was the most limiting nutrient to achieve 32 storage roots yields up to 8 Mg dry matter ha -1 at most sites, whereas N and P were needed at 33 greater yields. Dry weight of storage roots measured on the control plots in our researcher 34 managed experiment ranged from 5.6 to 12.2 Mg ha -1 , and were larger than the average

Kersting's groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum Harms) is a neglected, endangered food and medicinal legume in Africa. Efforts to harness the benefits of the legume-rhizobia symbiosis have focused on few major legumes to the neglect of underutilized ones such as Kersting's groundnut. This study assessed plant growth, N-fixed and grain yield of five Kersting's groundnut landraces in response to inoculation with Bradyrhizobium strain CB756 at two locations in the Northern Region of Ghana. The transferability of cowpea-derived Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers to Kersting's groundnut was also assessed. The symbiotic results revealed significant variation in nodulation, shoot biomass, δ15N, percent N derived from fixation, amount of N-fixed and soil N uptake. The cross-taxa SSR primers revealed monomorphic bands with sizes within the expected range in all the Kersting's groundnut landraces. The results of the aligned nucleotide sequences revealed marked genetic variability among the landraces. Kersting's groundnut was found to be a low N2-fixer, with 28–45% of its N derived from fixation at Nyankpala and 15–29% at Savelugu. Nitrogen contribution was 28–50 kg N-fixed·ha−1 at Nyankpala, and 12–32 kg N-fixed·ha−1 at Savelugu. Uninoculated plants of the Kersting's groundnut landraces Puffeun, Dowie, Sigiri and Boli, respectively, contributed 22, 16, 13, and 15 kg N-fixed·ha−1 from symbiosis at Savelugu as opposed to 89, 82, 69, and 89 kg N·ha−1 from soil. Landrace Puffeun was highly compatible with the introduced strain CB756 if based on δ15N and %Ndfa values, while Dowie, Funsi and Boli showed greater compatibility with native rhizobia in Ghanaian soils. The unimproved Kersting's groundnut in association with soil microsymbionts could produce grain yield of 1,137–1,556 kg ha−1 at Nyankpala, and 921–1,192 kg ha−1 at Savelugu. These findings suggest the need for further work to improve the efficiency of the Kersting's groundnut-rhizobia symbiosis for increased grain yield and resource-use efficiency in cropping systems.