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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Optimizing Fertilizer Use by Smallholder Farmers and Economic Returns to Maize in Semi-arid Niger
Author(s)
Nouri Maman1, Gonda Abdou2 and Maman Garba2
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DOI:10.17265/2161-6264/2018.02.002
Affiliation(s)
1. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), Département des Culture Pluviales, Maradi BP 240, Niger
2. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique du Niger (INRAN), Département de Gestion des Ressources Naturelles, Niamey BP 429, Niger
ABSTRACT
Maize (Zea mays L.) is an important food crop in Niger, but low and
irregular rainfall combined with sandy soils having low fertility level limit
productivity. A two-year
study was conducted at Institut National de Recherche
Agronomique du Niger (INRAN) stations in Tarna/Maradi and Bengou/Gaya
in 2014 and 2015 in order to evaluate maize agronomic and economic fertilizer
use efficiency. The
experimental design was a randomised complete block
design (RCBD) with three replications.
Results indicate higher effect of fertilizer in 2015
compared to 2014. At low N rates 20 kg N/ha
and 40 kg N/ha, application of 20 kg
P/ha increased maize grain yield across locations and
years. The highest agronomic efficiency of N (AEN) was recorded with 60 kg N/ha in 2015 at Bengou and Tarna with 9.65 kg and 14.05 kg
grain yield per kg of applied N, respectively. At Tarna, the low N rates of 20 kg
N/ha and 40 kg N/ha recorded important
AEN of more than 12 kg yield increases per kg of applied N. The highest rainfall
use efficiency (RUE) of 6.13 kg/year/mm was obtained with application of 80 kg/ha N, 0 kg/ha P and 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P in 2015 at Tarna.
Without P, the highest value cost ratio (VCR) value of 4.31 was recorded at
Tarna in 2015 with 60 kg/ha N, and the lowest value of 0.08 at Bengou in 2014 with
20 kg/ha N. Based on VCR and
RUE derived from this study, the optimal fertilizer recommendation for maize in
the semi-arid conditions of Niger could be 40 kg/ha N, 20 kg/ha P and 0 kg/ha K.
KEYWORDS
Maize, agronomic efficiency, semi-arid, fertilizer recommendation, nutrient use efficiency, rain use efficiency, profitability of fertilizer use.
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