Improving soil fertility through the use of organic and inorganic plant nutrient and crop rotation in Niger

Abstract

Food production can be increased through the integration of organic and inorganic nutrient sources coupled with proper land management. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the Sahelian zone of West Africa where soil fertility and rainfall are the most limiting factors for crop production. The majority of the people in this region depend on subsistence agriculture for their livelihood. The population pressure has decreased the availability of arable land and the use of extended fallow periods to restore soil fertility is not possible.

Research results have shown that yields can be increased up to five times with the improvement of soil fertility using a combination of soil tillage, organic and inorganic fertilizers than under traditional practice. Crop yields have also been shown to increase substantially using rotation of cereals with legume or intercropping. Yields of pearl millet can be doubled following cowpea as compared to continuous pearl millet cultivation. These combinations can improve soil properties such as Organic carbon content, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and pH.

There is however a constraint to the applicability of combining inorganic and organic fertilizers due to the high costs of inorganic fertilizers and the low availability of organic fertilizers at the farm level. But it can be addressed by incorporating grain legume production such as cowpea into the cropping system. The grain, which has high market value, can be sold for buying external inputs such as fertilizer and fodder used for animal feeding. The use of external inputs will result in an increasing biomass at farm level, which increases the crop residue for mulching to mitigate land degradation and increase productivity