SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA

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• SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA
• By
• Prof V. O. Chude
• Soil Fertility Initiative
• National Programme for Food Security (NPFS)

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INTRODUCTION

• In the past 40 years, technologies to improve
  the productivity capacity of Nigerian soils have
  been generated. Unfortunately, these technologies
  have not been transferred to or implemented by
  the intended beneficiaries. The known
  technologies for restoring soil fertility can be
  grouped as follows
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• Increased and more efficient use of mineral
  fertilizers.
•  
• Exploitation and use of locally available soil
  amendments such as phosphate rocks, lime, and
  dolomites.
•  
•  
• Maximum recycling of organic products, both from
  within and from outside the farm (crop residues,
  animal manure, urban refuse, compost etc.).
•  
• Improved land use systems, based on both
  indigenous and science-based technologies
  (rotation in addition to intercropping,
  agroforestry and related tree-based farming
  systems, increased used of species that can fix
  nitrogen from the atmosphere, alternatives to
  slash-and-burn so that fallows can be improved,
  etc.).
•  
•  
• Effective methods to control wind and water
  erosion, tailored to indigenous knowledge and
  using local biological and physical resources.
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• The concept of integrated nutrient management,
  which translate into the use of most efficient
  and attractive combination of previously known
  technologies, tailored to local farming systems
  and to specific agroecological niches that play a
  role at different system levels regional
  (subhumid vs. semiarid), district (peri-urban vs.
  rural), watershed (rainfed uplands vs. valley
  bottoms), and farm (home garden vs. plots farther
  away).
•  

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Constraints

• Agriculture can only be persistent and
  sustainable when the technologies are developed
  with the participation of the end users (and
  taken into consideration these clients needs,
  means and circumstances). As much as possible,
  local institutions should lead the way but with
  adequate support from external research and
  development institutions. Sustainability is also
  enhanced by the existence of an enabling policy
  environment. Constraints that impinge on one or
  more of the technologies previously listed are as
  follows
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• 1. Mineral fertilizer use is hampered by
  unavailability of capital and credit, by national
  and international disincentives, by poor
  marketing and pricing, and by gender bias.
•  
• Use of much cheaper soil amendments is hampered
  by lack of awareness and misconceptions on the
  returns to investment in soil fertility
  restoration using local resources, by low
  availability of identified local resources, and
  by lack of institutional support and extension.
•  
•  3. Use of organic inputs is limited mainly by
  lack of labor and sheer relative scarcity as a
  result of multiple uses.
•   
• Non-adoption of improved land-use systems is
  exacerbated by limited knowledge on the need to
  integrate land used systems into farming systems
  and thus increase farmers awareness and
  perceptions of the benefits, while specifically
  highlighting the role of women by failure to
  recognize that tree systems and such other
  long-term investment packages require clear-cut
  land tenure arrangements.
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• Labor availability, perceived high investment
  cost, reluctance to accept a long payback period,
  and lack of clear-cut land tenure arrangements
  are the major constraints to adoption of soil
  conservation measures.
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• THANK YOU