Meta-analysis of maize yield response to woody and herbaceous legumes in sub-Saharan Africa

Sileshi, Gudeta W.; Akinnifesi, Festus K.; Ajayi, Oluyede C.; Place, Frank

doi:10.1007/s11104-008-9547-y

Cited by 176 publications

(133 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Notably, the technology's positive impacts appear to be more pronounced with outcome variables that are closely related with the maize crop. This is not surprising since the most common crop grown after the improved fallows is maize (Sileshi et al 2008). Maize being the staple food in Zambia and most parts of sub Saharan Africa, the contribution of the improved fallows in ensuring food security and hence alleviating food poverty cannot be over emphasized.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the causal effect of improved fallows on farmer welfare using robust identification strategies in Chongwe, Zambia

Kuntashula

Mungatana

2013

Agroforest Syst

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Agricultural technological improvements are crucial to increase on farm production and thereby reduce poverty. However the use of improper identification strategies on the impacts of improved technologies on farmer welfare could potentially pose a threat to good practice agricultural policy making. In this paper, propensity matching strategies and endogenous switching regression were used to test whether an improved fallow, a soil fertility improving technology that passed the requirements for a high impact intervention based on non randomised impact assessment methodologies could still pass this test. Using data from 324 randomly surveyed households in Chongwe district of Zambia, the rigorous econometric methods confirmed the positive impact of improved fallows on household maize yields, maize productivity, per capita maize yield and maize income. Conflicting results were obtained when a broader welfare indicator -per capita crop income, was considered. Whereas the non-randomised and kernel matching methods showed that per capita crop incomes were significantly higher for the adopters than for the non adopters, the causal effect of improved fallows on this variable was non significant when nearest neighbour matching strategy and the more robust endogenous switching regression were used. It was concluded that the technology improves welfare through increased maize and hence increased food security, and through incomes from the maize crop. The maize income derived from improved fallows were however not sufficient enough to drive the general crop income to significantly higher 2 levels. The need to diversify the use of improved fallows on high valued crops was recommended while the importance of using better and more robust methodologies in evaluating impact of interventions was emphasised.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the causal effect of improved fallows on farmer welfare using robust identification strategies in Chongwe, Zambia

Kuntashula

Mungatana

2013

Agroforest Syst

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“…Extensive research has been conducted into the broader frameworks of integrated soil fertility management [130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137], conservation agriculture [138][139][140][141][142][143], erosion control [144][145][146][147][148], and improved grazing management [149][150][151]. There is also a wealth of information on the benefits of specific practices such as short legume rotations (improved fallows) [152][153][154][155][156][157][158], agroforestry systems [159][160][161][162][163][164][165], and no-till systems [166][167][168][169][170]. Most of these studies, however, are short-term and geographically limited.…”

Section: Positive Trajectories and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The State of Soil Degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Baselines, Trajectories, and Solutions

et al. 2015

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Abstract:The primary cause of soil degradation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expansion and intensification of agriculture in efforts to feed its growing population. Effective solutions will support resilient systems, and must cut across agricultural, environmental, and socioeconomic objectives. While many studies compare and contrast the effects of different management practices on soil properties, soil degradation can only be evaluated within a specific temporal and spatial context using multiple indicators. The extent and rate of soil degradation in SSA is still under debate as there are no reliable data, just gross estimates. Nevertheless, certain soils are losing their ability to provide food and essential ecosystem services, and we know that soil fertility depletion is the primary cause. We synthesize data from studies that examined degradation in SSA at broad spatial and temporal scales and quantified multiple soil degradation indicators, and we found clear indications of degradation across multiple indicators. However, different indicators have different trajectories-pH and cation exchange capacity tend to decline linearly, and soil organic carbon and yields non-linearly. Future research should focus on how soil degradation in SSA leads to changes in ecosystem services, and how to manage these soils now and in the future. OPEN ACCESS

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“…Soil management practices such as modified tillage, crop residue management, and soil nutrient status have been shown to increase water use efficiency and are a key means of adaption to periods of water stress (Hatfield et al 2001). Nutrient additions increased water use efficiency up to 25 % and conferred significant resilience of yields during Bdrought^years (Sileshi et al 2008). Studies in Africa have shown an increase in yields and rain use efficiency (RUE) with the application of mineral fertilizers, legume tree crops, or their combination (Sileshi et al 2011).…”

Section: Socio-economic Impediments To Adopting the 4rsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent varieties of soybean that produce significant amounts of leaf biomass (Krisnawati and Adie 2015), which could remain on the field as crop residue that nourishes the next crop with its nutrients, show promise in terms of crop production as well as the subsequent N benefits. Leguminous trees and cover crops in tropical cropping systems fix much more N (100-200 kg N per hectare per year) than grain legumes, providing significant N that promotes yield increases to succeeding crops (Sileshi et al 2008). Despite the N benefit as well as other benefits such as fuelwood, fodder, and weed control from some of these tree and herbaceous legumes, rates of adoption have been disappointing in many places (Kiptot et al 2007;Keil et al 2005).…”

Section: Innovative Cropping Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nutrients in the nexus

et al. 2016

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Synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer has enabled modern agriculture to greatly improve human nutrition during the twentieth century, but it has also created unintended human health and environmental pollution challenges for the twentyfirst century. Averaged globally, about half of the fertilizer-N applied to farms is removed with the crops, while the other half remains in the soil or is lost from farmers' fields, resulting in water and air pollution. As human population continues to grow and food security improves in the developing world, the dual development goals of producing more nutritious food with low pollution will require both technological and socioeconomic innovations in agriculture. Two case studies presented here, one in sub-Saharan Africa and the other in Midwestern United States, demonstrate how management of nutrients, water, and energy is inextricably linked in both small-scale and large-scale food production, and that science-based solutions to improve the efficiency of nutrient use can optimize food production while minimizing pollution. To achieve the needed large increases in nutrient use efficiency, however, technological developments must be accompanied by policies that recognize the complex economic and social factors affecting farmer decision-making and national policy priorities. Farmers need access to affordable nutrient supplies and support information, and the costs of improving efficiencies and avoiding pollution may need to be shared by society through innovative policies. Success will require interdisciplinary partnerships across public and private sectors, including farmers, private sector crop advisors, commodity supply chains, government agencies, university research and extension, and consumers.

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Meta-analysis of maize yield response to woody and herbaceous legumes in sub-Saharan Africa

Cited by 176 publications

References 52 publications

Estimating the causal effect of improved fallows on farmer welfare using robust identification strategies in Chongwe, Zambia

Estimating the causal effect of improved fallows on farmer welfare using robust identification strategies in Chongwe, Zambia

The State of Soil Degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Baselines, Trajectories, and Solutions

Nutrients in the nexus

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