<mods:mods version="3.3" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-3.xsd" xmlns:mods="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"><mods:titleInfo><mods:title>Effect of soil fertility management strategies and resource-endowment on spatial soil fertility gradients, plant nutrient uptake and maize growth at two smallholder areas, north-western Zimbabwe</mods:title></mods:titleInfo><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">J</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Nyamangara</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">E</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Makarimay</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">E N</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Masvaya</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">S</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Zingore</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:name type="personal"><mods:namePart type="given">R J</mods:namePart><mods:namePart type="family">Delve</mods:namePart><mods:role><mods:roleTerm type="text">author</mods:roleTerm></mods:role></mods:name><mods:abstract>We investigate the effects of smallholder farmer resource-endowment and soil nutrient management strategies&#13;
on plant nutrient uptake and growth across soil fertility gradients under semi-arid conditions. Soil fertility gradients&#13;
as influenced by farmers’ resource availability may affect the response of crops to fertilizer addition and&#13;
therefore productivity. The study was conducted in Njelele and Nemangwe smallholder areas (450-800 mm per&#13;
annum, unimodal) in north-western Zimbabwe. Soil and maize cobleaf samples were collected from fields of&#13;
farmers (varying resource endowment) located near to (homefields) and far away (outfields) from the farmers’&#13;
homesteads during the 2005-6 season. The samples were analysed for selected soil fertility indicators and soil&#13;
samples were further used to test maize growth response to various nutrient applications under greenhouse&#13;
conditions. Soil fertility (organic C, total N and available P) significantly (P&lt;0.05) decreased from resourceendowed&#13;
to resource-constrained farmers, and from outfields to homefields, but the latter differences were only&#13;
significant for available P. Besides resource-endowment and field type, response to nutrient applications also&#13;
depended on soil texture. In sandy soil, both N and P were limiting to MAIZE growth in outfields while N was&#13;
most limiting in the homefield. It was concluded that resource-endowment and nutrient resource management&#13;
strategies employed by farmers result in soil fertility gradients which affect response of crops to fertilisation and therefore need to be factored in the development of fertiliser recommendations.</mods:abstract><mods:classification authority="lcc">Soil Science</mods:classification><mods:originInfo><mods:dateIssued encoding="iso8061">2011</mods:dateIssued></mods:originInfo><mods:originInfo><mods:publisher>Sabinet</mods:publisher></mods:originInfo><mods:genre>Article</mods:genre></mods:mods>