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Browsing Book Chapter by Subject "Crops"

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    Promoting Sustainable Crop-Livestock Integration Through Farmer’s Participation and Integrated Soil Fertility Management in the Sahel of West Africa
    (2012) Bidjokazo Fofana; Zacharie Zida; Guillaume Ezui
    The Sahelian region of West Africa faces challenges in sustainable agriculture due to low and variable rainfall, leading to declining soil fertility and limited livestock feed resources. This study focuses on integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) and participatory approaches to improve crop-livestock integration for sustainable agricultural systems in the Sahel. Field experiments and participatory rural appraisals were conducted in Burkina Faso to assess farmers' knowledge of soil fertility management, understand traditional practices, and identify solutions for sustainable mixed crop-livestock systems. Results indicate spatial variability in soil fertility between infield and outfield sites, with infields being more fertile due to continuous application of organic amendments. Livestock ownership correlates with manure availability, impacting crop production. Participatory approaches revealed farmers' reliance on rainfall and nutrient deficiencies as major constraints, with proposed solutions including manure and compost use, and improved crop rotations. Modeling with SIMFIS (SImulating Mixed Farming In the Sahel) provided insights into management alternatives for sustainable soil fertility. Field experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of manure and compost application combined with mineral fertilizer on crop yields. Economic analysis indicated positive returns on investment for integrated nutrient management practices. These findings underscore the importance of farmer participation and integrated approaches to address soil fertility and promote sustainable crop-livestock integration in the Sahel.
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    Role of Local Agro-minerals in Mineral Fertilizer Recommandations for Crops: Examples of Some West Africa Phosphate Rocks
    (2018-04-04) François Lompo; Andre Bationo; Michel P. Sedogo; Vincent B. Bado; Victor Hien; Badiori Ouattara
    One of the major constraints to enhanced crop productivity in West Africa is low soil fertility and particularly soil deficiency in available phosphorus (P). When P is limiting, crop production is greatly compromised even though the other nutrients are available in large amounts. The use of soluble P fertilizers is hampered by the cost of the P fertilizers commercially available, too high for resource-poor farmers. Therefore, exploitation of the locally available phosphate rock (PR) deposits represents an alternative for soil P supply to ensure mineral plant nutrition. The effectiveness of a particular PR depends mainly on its chemical and mineralogical composition, and to some extent on environmental conditions, crop type and management practices. This communication highlights some results of the research works that have been carried out in the region to enhance the direct use of PR in agriculture and how theses PR can be integrated in fertilizer recommendations for crops. Direct application of phosphate rocks may be an economical alternative to the use of the more expensive imported water-soluble P fertilizers for certain crops and soils.
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    The Native Shrubs Philiostigma reticulatum and Guiera senegalensis: The Unrecognized Potential to Remediate Degraded Soils and Optimize Productivity of Sahelian Agroecosystems
    (2012-01) Richard P. Dick; Modou Sène ; Mateugue Diack; Mamadou Khouma; Aminata N. Badiane ; Samba Arona Ndiaye Samba; Ibrahima Diedhiou; Abel Lufafa; Ekwe L. Dossa; Fred Kizito; Sire Diedhiou; Jay Noller; Maria Dragila
    The global objective of this study was to determine the unrecognized role of shrubs as key determinants in sequestration of C, water relations, and soil degradation mitigation in semiarid climatic regimes of Senegal that are representative of much of Sub-Sahelian Africa. The results showed that shrubs are the dominant controllers of hydrology, C biomass on the landscape, microbiology, and crop productivity in agroecosystem of Senegal. The major findings were: Shrubs residues decompose rapidly enough to allow non-thermal management. Shrub residues promote crop growth but it takes 2 years of incorporation before beneficial impacts on crops were measured. Both shrubs are doing hydraulic lifting of water from wet subsoils to dry surface soils Shrubs are non-competitive with crops for water and increase water and nutrient efficiency. During periods of excess rainfall shrubs promote groundwater recharge and therefore reduce surface runoff losses. G. senegalensis had the most profound impact on yields which after fours cropping the declining yields in the absence of crops resulted in a 242% difference in yield between plots with and with out this shrub. These positive impacts occurred even in the absence of fertilizer applications