Response of maize and soybean crops to inorganic fertilisers in Western Kenya
Abstract
208 words
Fertiliser performance trials involving three Farmer Associations
(FAs) were set-up starting 2011 long rains to assess the output
potential of five commercially available fertilisers, namely
Calcium Ammonium Nitrate-CAN, Triple Super Phosphate-
TSP, Diammonium Phosphate-DAP, Sympal and Canpal. The
soybean inoculated with biofix and planted with maize in a
MBILI system were used as test crops. All fertilisers were
applied at the same rate of 125 kg per ha. Farmers were invited
to experimental fields during all crop establishment stages in
order help in selection of high yielding fertilisers to be offered
under a collective fertiliser purchase program by the FAs. Initial
soil characterisation was done to determine the nutrient levels
of the soil before the treatments were applied and thereafter,
soil was sampled for measuring nitrate contents after every 4
weeks. Results showed that soils were heterogeneous with
different soil fertility gradients with all the experimental sites
being phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) deficient. Crops
responded to P fertilisers in Bungoma and to N in Teso. Maize
and soybean grain yield was not significantly (p<0.05) different
among all the fertiliser types at all sites. It is important to assess
soil nutrients before application of any fertiliser in order to get
optimal results by only applying the deficient nutrients.
Subjects
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