Innovations in Dryland Agriculture

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judicious amounts of fertilisers and improved nutrient management are the major
components of soil fertility management, investment in chemical fertilisers is lim-
ited in SSA for various reasons: (1) chemical fertilisers are expensive while agricul-
tural products are sold relatively cheaply such that it may not cover the cost of
investment; (2) most of the nutrient movement is facilitated by erosion, which com-
monly emerges from upstream, communal lands. However, there is rarely an institu-
tion or a community strategy committed to manage these resources as there is
limited incentive for individuals to invest labour and money to manage them; (3)
farmers manage multiple enterprises of crops, livestock and/or woodlots which are
interdependent on each other. Hence priority is given to those which have a direct
impact on farmer income rather than those contributing to longterm food security.
In some cases, the trade-offs among components is much stronger than the benefits
in terms of environmental services (e.g. effect on water, nutrients and so on) and yet
they could be economically attractive in the longer term. In this case, farmers single
out enterprises with better economic benefits regardless of the negative impact on
other system components and future production scenarios.
Moreover, fertiliser efficiency is very low due to soil erosion, recurrent drought
and inappropriate choice of crop varieties. Farmers are also reluctant to apply chem-
ical fertilisers for food crops due to high fertiliser costs, which are higher in land-
locked African countries (e.g. Ethiopia, Zambia) than coastal countries. Most
importantly, there is limited market regulation to ensure the quality of inputs
(Amede et al. 2014a). There is a general concern that the chemical fertilisers cur-
rently available could be adulterated. There is also a lack of expert knowledge on
what fertiliser mix would best fit where within the different agroecological zones
and landscapes. For instance, ammonium sulphate could aggravate acidity if applied
to soils with low pH while it may be appropriate on saline or sodic soils. Moreover,
the major fertiliser inputs that have been applied to date are predominantly nitrogen
and phosphorus which create long-term nutrient imbalances. Costly ameliorative


Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa

8
20
21
51
60
66
75
79
85
99

World

Transitional Markets

Developed Markets

Developing Markets

101
107
108
123
159
174
224

Eurasia
South Africa
Central America
Oceania
West Asia
North Africa
Eastern Europe
North America
World
Latin America
South Asia
South America
Asia
Western Europe
East Asia

Fig. 3 Fertilizer use per ha by markets and sub-continents (2004–2005) (Roy 2007 )


T. Amede and A. Tsegaye
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