Precision of farmer-based fertility ratings and soil organic carbon for crop production on a Ferralsol
By P. Musinguzi, P. Ebanyat, J. Tenywa, T. Basamba, M. Tenywa, D. Mubiru. 2015
49 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract. Simple and affordable soil fertility ratings are essential, particularly for the resource-constrained farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in planning and implementing prudent interventions. A study was conducted on Ferralsols in Uganda to evaluate farmer-based soil fertility assessment techniques, hereafter referred to as farmers' field experiences (FFE), for ease of use and precision, against more formal scientific quantitative ratings using soil organic carbon (SQR-SOC). A total of 30 fields were investigated and rated using both techniques, as low, medium and high in terms of soil fertility – with maize as the test crop. Both soil fertility rating techniques were fairly precise in delineating soil fertility classes, though the FFE was inefficient in distinguishing fields > 1.2 % SOC with medium and high fertility. Soil organic carbon, silt and clay were exceptionally influential, accounting for the highest percentage in grain yield of 50 % in the topsoil (0–15 cm) and 67 % for the mean concentrations from 0 to 15 and 15 to 30 cm. Each unit increase in SOC concentration resulted in 966 to 1223 kg ha−1 yield gain. The FFE technique was effective in identifying low-fertility fields, and this was coherent with the fields categorized as low (SOC
Subfields: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law, Plant Science, Soil Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/601a6c2aba2573185b3d6cb68b3d47091ae5deb0
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
In Soil Science
Citations in the corpus
- Farmland Conversion Decreases Regional and National Land Quality in China (2017, background): “Land degradation threatens food security and sustainable development (Musinguzi et al., 2015).”
- Legumes Functional Group Promotes Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Storage by Increasing Plant Diversity (2017, background): “Plant diversity and soil are important contributors to primary productivity and the storages of soil C and N through complex processes (Catovsky et al., 2002; Fornara & Tilman, 2008; Steinbeiss et al., 2008; Schmidt et al., 2011; Musinguzi et al., 2015).”