Meeting the demand for staple food crops, especially cereals, is one of the challenges sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) continues to grapple with. Low crop productivity in SSA is the main contributor to the inability to meet the food demand. Increasing crop productivity in smallholder farming systems, hence closing the gap between potential and actual farm yields, is needed to meet the food demand on existing arable land. In order to address the low soil fertility that limits crop productivity, farmers apply NPK fertilisers. Yet, fertilisation with only NPK is not always resulting in better yields on farmers' fields. Crop responses to NPK fertilisation can be influenced by other nutrients, recommended agronomic practices (RAP) and inherent soil fertility. However, there is little attention to secondary and micro-nutrient fertiliser use by smallholder farmers, while farmers' application of RAP tends to be sub-optimal. Also, variation in inherent soil fertility level exists among farmers' fields because of crop management differences.Improved understanding of the role of secondary and micro-nutrients, RAP, and inherent soil fertility is therefore required to design management packages to enhance grain yield and NPK use efficiency. The aim of this thesis is to quantify for lowland rice the effect of secondary and micro-nutrients, RAP under researcher supervision and as applied by farmers, and inherent fertility on rice yield and NPK use efficiency, and to identify feasible options to improve productivity.Researcher-and farmer-managed joint on-farm experiments were conducted under irrigated and rainfed lowland conditions in Tanzania and Uganda. For the researchermanaged on-farm trials conducted between 2015 and 2017, treatments tested included RAP combined with: zero fertilisation as a control, NPK fertilisation with and without secondary and micro-nutrients (S, Mg, B, Cu, Mn, Zn), and/or treatments where B, Mn and Zn were omitted one at a time from the NPK + secondary and micro-nutrient treatment. Treatments for the joint on-farm trials conducted in 114 farmers' fields in Uganda in 2019 included farmers' practice (FP) as a control, RAP with and without NPK, and farmer-selected best practices geared towards intensification (farmers' intensification practice, FIP). One year after the joint on-farm trials, a follow-up evaluation study using a semi-structured questionnaire and field observations was conducted. For the researcher-and farmer-managed joint trials, data were collected on grain yield and yield components. Plant sample analyses were also made for the joint on-farm trials to determine N, P and K tissue concentrations. While data on socio-Abstract viii economic, crop management practices and grain yield were collected during the followup evaluation study.Grain yield improved due to NPK fertilisation by ca. 32 and 29% in Tanzania during 2015 and 2016, and by 24 and 100% in Uganda during 2016 and 2017, respectively. Applying NPK + secondary and micro-nutrients further increased grain yield in Tanzania by 7 and 11% during...