Sub-Saharan Africa faces huge food supply challenges due to increasing human population, limited opportunities to increase arable land, and declining yields associated with continuously declining soil fertility. To cater for their food requirements, smallholders use only modest levels of inorgani...
Waithaka, M.M.
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Thornton, Philip K.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Ndiwa, Nicholas N.
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[Enhancing sustainable soil fertility management by smallholders: the case of Vihiga, western Kenya]
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Enhancing sustainable soil fertility management by smallholders: the case of Vihiga, western Kenya
Arable land in western Kenya is under considerable pressure from increasing human population. Rural households depend on farming for at least part of their livelihood, and poverty rates are among the highest in Kenya. Land is often depleted of nutrients, and for most farmers, access to inputs and...
Waithaka, M.M.
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Thornton, Philip K.
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Herrero, Mario T.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
,
[Bio-economic evaluation of farmers’ perceptions of viable farms in western Kenya]
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Bio-economic evaluation of farmers’ perceptions of viable farms in western Kenya
Organic resources constitute a major source of nutrient inputs to both soils and livestock in smallholder tropical production systems. Determination of resource quality attributes using current laboratory methods is both timely and costly. This study tested visible and near-infrared (wavelengths ...
Shepherd, Keith D.
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Palm, C.A.
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Gachengo, CN
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
,
[Rapid characterization of organic resource quality for soil and livestock management in tropical agroecosystems using near-infrared spectroscopy]
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Rapid characterization of organic resource quality for soil and livestock management in tropical agroecosystems using near-infrared spectroscopy
The impact of ecosystem services on human livelihood is rarely demonstrated. We investigated whether ecosystem services influence household wealth in semi-arid rural Mali, where climate variability and soil degradation were expected to regulate subsistence production. Mean rainfall, mean rain use...
King Liebenow D.
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Cohen M.J.
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Gumbricht, Thomas
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Shepherd, G.
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[Do ecosystem services influence household wealth in rural Mali?]
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Do ecosystem services influence household wealth in rural Mali?
80% of arable land in Africa has low soil fertility and suffers from physical soil problems. Additionally, significant amounts of nutrients are lost every year due to unsustainable soil management practices. This is partially the result of insufficient use of soil management knowledge. To help br...
Hengl, Tomislav
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Heuvelink, Gerard B.M.
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Kempen, Bas
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Leenaars, Johan G.B.
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Walsh, Markus G
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Sila, Andrew
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MacMillan, Robert A
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Mendes de Jesus, Jorge
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Tamene, Lulseged
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Tondoh, Jérôme E.
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[Mapping soil properties of Africa at 250 m resolution: random forests significantly improve current predictions]
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Mapping soil properties of Africa at 250 m resolution: random forests significantly improve current predictions
Soils are increasingly recognized as major contributors to ecosystem services such as food production and climate regulation (1, 2), and demand for up-to-date and relevant soil information is soaring. But communicating such information among diverse audiences remains challenging because of incons...
Sánchez, P.A.
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Ahamed, S
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Carre, F
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Hartemink, A.E.
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Hempel, J
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Huising, Jeroen
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Lagacherle, P
,
McBratney, AB
,
McKenzie, N
,
Mendonca-Santos, ML
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Minasny, B
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Montanarella, L
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Okoth, Peter F.
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Palm, C.A.
,
Sachs, JD
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Vagen, T.G.
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
,
Walsh, M
,
Winowiecki, Leigh A.
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Zhang, GL
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[Digital soil map of the world]
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Digital soil map of the world
Milne, Eleanor
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Aynekulu, Ermias
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Bationo, B. André
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Batjes, Niels H.
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Boone, Randall B.
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Conant, Richard T.
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Davies, Jonathan
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Hanan, Niall
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Hoag, Dana
,
Herrick, Jeffrey E.
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Knausenberger, Walter
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Neely, Constance
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Njoka, Jesse
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Ngugi, Moffatt
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Parton, Bill
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Paustian, Keith
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Reid, Robin S.
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Said, Mohammed Yahya
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Swift, David
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Thornton, Philip K.
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Williams, Stephen
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Miller, Sue
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Nkonya, Ephraim M.
,
[Grazing lands in sub-Saharan Africa and their potential role in climate change mitigation: What we do and don't know]
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Grazing lands in sub-Saharan Africa and their potential role in climate change mitigation: What we do and don't know
Technological interventions to address the problem of poor productivity of smallholder agricultural systems must be designed to target socially diverse and spatially heterogeneous farms and farming systems. This paper proposes a categorisation of household diversity based on a functional typology...
Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Muriuki, A.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Mugendi, D.
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Kaizzi, K.C.
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Okeyo, J.
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Verchot, Louis V.
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Coe, R.
,
Vanlauwe, Bernard
,
[The diversity of rural livelihoods and their influence on soil fertility in agricultural systems of East Africa – A typology of smallholder farms]
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The diversity of rural livelihoods and their influence on soil fertility in agricultural systems of East Africa – A typology of smallholder farms
Herrick, Jeffrey E.
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Kevin C. U.
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Jason W. K.
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Boos, J.
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Johnson, M.V.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Hempel , J.
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Davies, J.
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Guerra, J. L.
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Kosnik, C.
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Kimiti. D.W.
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Losinyen, Abraham E.
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Muller, K
,
Norfleet, L.
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Ozor, N.
,
Reinsch, T.
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Sarukhan, J.
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West, L. T.
,
Bestelmeyer, B.T.
,
[The global Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS): Supporting evidence-based, site-specific land use and management through cloud computing, mobile applications, and crowdsourcing]
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The global Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS): Supporting evidence-based, site-specific land use and management through cloud computing, mobile applications, and crowdsourcing
Heterogeneity in soil fertility in these smallholder systems is caused by both inherent soil-landscape and human-induced variability across farms differing in resources and practices. Interventions to address the problem of poor soil fertility in Africa must be designed to target such diversity a...
Tittonell, Pablo A.
,
Muriuki, A.
,
Klapwijk, C.J.
,
Shepherd, Keith D.
,
Coe, R.
,
Vanlauwe, Bernard
,
[Soil Heterogeneity and Soil Fertility Gradients in Smallholder Agricultural Systems of the East African Highlands]
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Soil Heterogeneity and Soil Fertility Gradients in Smallholder Agricultural Systems of the East African Highlands