TY  - JOUR
AV  - public
A1  - Blessing, O C
A1  - Ibrahim, A
A1  - Safo, E Y
A1  - Yeboah, E
A1  - Abaidoo, R C
A1  - Logah, V
A1  - Monica, U I
TI  - Fertilizer micro-dosing in West African low-input cereals cropping: Benefits, challenges and improvement strategies
UR  - http://doi.org/10.5897/AJAR2016.11559
JF  - African Journal of Agricultural Research
SN  - 1991-637X
PB  - Academic Journals
N1  - 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.
N2  - 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.
KW  - Fertilizer micro-dosing
KW  -  smallholder farmer
KW  -  crop yield
KW  -  farmer?s income
Y1  - 2017/04//
SP  - 1169
ID  - icrisat9970
EP  - 1176
VL  - 12
IS  - 14
ER  -