Soil Fertility Status in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe in Relation to Sustainable Crop Production

Nyamangara, Justice; Mugwira, L. M.; Mpofu, S.E

doi:10.1300/j064v16n02_04

Cited by 52 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Other traits like ratio of root to shoot fresh weight [38], total dry weight of the roots, and total dry weight of the shoots have been used for identifying aluminum-tolerant genotypes. However, the inter-correlations among the traits may provide challenges for their effective utilization, as the desired trait could be positively correlated to an undesirable trait.…”

Section: Correlation Among Seedling Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genotypic Variation in Seedling Tolerance to Aluminum Toxicity in Historical Maize Inbred Lines of Zambia

et al. 2015

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Maize (Zea mays L) is the most important food grain in sub-Saharan Africa and is mostly grown by small-scale farmers under rainfed conditions. Aluminum toxicity caused by low pH is one of the abiotic factors limiting maize production among smallholder farmers. Therefore, breeding maize hybrids that are tolerant to aluminum toxicity will sustain and increase maize production in these areas. Hence this study was undertaken to assess the genotypic variation for aluminum toxicity in maize inbred lines. Fourteen maize inbred lines of historical importance that are used in maize hybrid breeding in Zambia were studied for seedling root variation under different aluminum concentrations using hydroponic conditions. The aluminum tolerance membership index based on three traits (actual root length, relative root length and root length response) classified genotypes L3233 and L1214 as highly tolerant, L5527 and ZM421 as tolerant, and L12, L3234, and ZM521 as intermediate. The high PCV, GCV, and heritability observed for the root traits indicate that opportunities for selection and breeding for aluminum tolerance among Zambian inbred lines exist. Furthermore, the study indicated that a higher genetic gain would be expected from net root growth followed by shoot length response as selection traits, thus supporting the use of root traits for aluminum tolerance screening. OPEN ACCESSAgronomy 2015, 5 201

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Section: Correlation Among Seedling Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genotypic Variation in Seedling Tolerance to Aluminum Toxicity in Historical Maize Inbred Lines of Zambia

et al. 2015

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“…The sandy soils from both districts are inherently infertile, characterised by low soil organic carbon (SOC) and deficiencies of N, P and S (Grant 1981;Ahmed et al 1997). In advanced cases of nutrient mining and high rainfall such as in Murewa, nutrient imbalances and extreme acidity have been reported (Nyamangara et al 2000).…”

Section: Description Of Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, fertiliser recommendations used in Zimbabwe are blanket in nature and target application of major nutrients (N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg) and only differentiate agro-ecological regions (Nyamangara et al 2000). In Malawi, the use of blanket fertiliser recommendations only based on N and P resulted in country-wide S deficiency and regional K, Zn and B deficiency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of farmer management strategies on spatial variability of soil fertility and crop nutrient uptake in contrasting agro-ecological zones in Zimbabwe

Masvaya

Nyamangara

Nyawasha

et al. 2009

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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Variability of soil fertility within, and across farms, poses a major challenge for increasing crop productivity in smallholder systems of subSaharan Africa. This study assessed the effect of farmers' resource endowment and nutrient management strategies on variability in soil fertility and plant nutrient uptake between different fields in Gokwe South (ave. rainfall *650 mm year -1 ; 16.3 persons km -2 ) and Murewa (ave. rainfall *850 mm year -1 ; 44.1 persons km -2 ) districts, Zimbabwe. In Murewa, resource-endowed farmers applied manure ([3.5 t ha -1 year -1 ) on fields closest to their homesteads (homefields) and none to fields further away (outfields). In Gokwe the manure was not targeted to any particular field, and farmers quickly abandoned outfields and opened up new fields further way from the homestead once fertility had declined, but homefields were continually cultivated. Soil available P was higher in homefields (8-13 mg kg -1 ) of resource-endowed farmers than on outfields and all fields on resource constrained farms (2-6 mg kg -1 ) in Murewa. Soil fertility decreased with increasing distance from the homestead in Murewa while the reverse trend occurred in Gokwe South, indicating the impact of different soil fertility management strategies on spatial soil fertility gradients. In both districts, maize showed deficiency of N and P, implying that these were the most limiting nutrients. It was concluded that besides farmers' access to resources, the direction of soil fertility gradients also depends on agro-ecological conditions which influence resource management strategies.

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“…Therefore it is unlikely that the effects were due to improvements in soil physical properties, but could be due to nutrients supplemented by the manure, e.g. Ca, Mg that are known to limit plant growth in granitic sandy soils (Grant, 1967;Nyamangara, Mugwira & Mpofu, 2000).…”

Section: N Uptake and Grain Yieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of cattle manure and nitrogen fertilizer application on the agronomic and economic performance of maize

Nyamangara¹,

Mudhara²

2005

South African Journal of Plant and Soil

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The effects of N fertilizer and aerobically composted cattle manure, applied separately or in combination, on maize (Zea mays L.) grain yields and net benefits were determined over three seasons. A field experiment was established on a moderately leached sandy loam soil (Typic Kandiustalf). Manure was a poor source of N. In the first year, increase in grain yield was much higher when manure (12.5 t ha-1 and 37.5 t ha-1 ) was combined with the 60 kg N ha-1 mineral N rate (40% and 25.1 %, respectively), and a relatively smaller further increase of 17.5% was recorded for the 37.5 t ha-1 rate while there was a decrease of 3.7% for the 12.5 t ha-1 rate, when mineral N rate was doubled to 120 kg N ha-1 . In the third season increase in grain yield was also much higher when manure (12.5 t ha-1 and 37.5 t ha-1 ) was combined with the 60 kg N ha-1 mineral N rate (66.2% and 16%, respectively) and relatively smaller further increases were recorded when the mineral N rate was doubled to 120 kg N ha-1 (21.4% and 15.1 %, respectively). Net benefit indications are that residual effects of cattle manure last for at least three seasons and thus farmers could apply up to 40 t ha-1 in the first season and benefit from its residual fertility in subsequent seasons. It was concluded that smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa could positively exploit the combined application of manure and N fertilizer to increase maize yield and net benefits.Keywords: manure, net benefits, N fertilizer, N mineralization, N uptake *To whom correspondence should be addressed: (E-mail: jnyamangara@agric.uz.ac.zw) IntroductionThe inherent poor fertility of most soils in the tropics and subtropics constitutes a major constraint to sustainable smallholder crop production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Myers et aI., 1994; Smaling, Nandwa & Janssen, 1997). Use of both organic and mineral fertilizers is often limited and this has resulted in a gradual depleti'on of soil nutrients (Smaling et aI., 1997). For example, in 1:990, the average fertilizer use in SSA was only 8.4 kg ha-1 , cbmpared with 81 kg ha-1 in otherdeveloping countries, and 75% of the fertilizer use was limited to only six countries (Gerner & Harris, 1993). Cattle manure remains the major squrce of nutrients for the growing of maize in Zimbabwe, whhe fertilizer is unaffordable for most smallholder farmers (Campbell et al., 1998). Livestock also play an important role in nutrient cycling in countries of the West African Sahel (Powell et al., 1996). Nitrogen is the most critical nutrient limiting plant growth , in most soils in Zimbabwe (Grant, 1981) and elsewhere in Africa (Giller et al., 1997), and most of the N fertilizers are applied to maize (Zea mays L.), the staple food crop. Nitrogen in mineral fertilizer is immediately available for plant uptake but it is susceptible to loss in gaseous forms or~by leaching if added at the wrong time or in excess of plant demand. Manure contains both some mineral N that may be immediately available, whilst the majority o...

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Soil Fertility Status in the Communal Areas of Zimbabwe in Relation to Sustainable Crop Production

Cited by 52 publications

References 2 publications

Genotypic Variation in Seedling Tolerance to Aluminum Toxicity in Historical Maize Inbred Lines of Zambia

Genotypic Variation in Seedling Tolerance to Aluminum Toxicity in Historical Maize Inbred Lines of Zambia

Effect of farmer management strategies on spatial variability of soil fertility and crop nutrient uptake in contrasting agro-ecological zones in Zimbabwe

Effectiveness of cattle manure and nitrogen fertilizer application on the agronomic and economic performance of maize

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