@article{icrisat9970,
           month = {April},
           title = {Fertilizer micro-dosing in West African low-input cereals cropping: Benefits, challenges and improvement strategies},
       publisher = {Academic Journals},
            year = {2017},
          author = {O C Blessing and A Ibrahim and E Y Safo and E Yeboah and R C Abaidoo and V Logah and U I Monica},
           pages = {1169--1176},
          volume = {12},
            note = {Authors acknowledge the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) for scholarship support to the first and second authors and institutional support to KNUST and CSIR-SRI.},
         journal = {African Journal of Agricultural Research},
          number = {14},
        keywords = {Fertilizer micro-dosing, smallholder farmer, crop yield, farmer?s income},
             url = {http://oar.icrisat.org/9970/},
        abstract = {Soil amendments are often unavailable in adequate quantities for increased crop production in smallholder cereal-based cropping systems in Africa. In order to increase crop yields and encourage farmers to apply inorganic fertilizers, fertilizer micro-dosing technology was developed. Fertilizer micro-dosing or ?micro-fertilization? consists of the application of a small quantity of mineral fertilizer together with seeds of the target crop in the planting hole at sowing or 2-4 weeks after sowing. The objective of this paper is to review literature concerning crops responses to fertilizer micro-dosing in West Africa. The review also evaluates the benefits and challenges associated with nutrient management under fertilizer micro-dosing and supportive strategies for further improvement in the efficient use of limited nutrient sources of smallholder farmers were suggested. Recent scientific developments on fertilizer micro-dosing revealed that this technology has given promising results in respect of crop yields improvement, fertilizer use efficiency and economic returns. Other studies have, however, indicated that fertilizer micro-dosing increases the risk of soil nutrient imbalances due to low-input. For this reason, we suggest that fertilizer micro-dosing should be used in concert with organic amendments to optimize productivity of smallholder farmers in West Africa.}
}