Western Kenya is one of Africa’s most densely populated rural areas, characterised by intensive smallholder crop–livestock systems on degraded lands managed with small inputs of mineral fertiliser and animal manure. Competing uses for crop residues and other organic resources often results in poo...
Castellanos-Navarrete, A.
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Rufino, Mariana C.
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Giller, Ken E.
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[Feeding, crop residue and manure management for integrated soil fertility management—A case study from Kenya]
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Feeding, crop residue and manure management for integrated soil fertility management—A case study from Kenya
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.
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
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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]
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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
Globally, 38% of the land area is agricultural land, of which 45% are located on drylands, mainly in Africa and Asia, constituting the basis for about 60% of the world’s food production. Of all farms worldwide, 83% are smallholder farm systems, whose livelihoods depend on effective land managemen...
Michalscheck, Mirja
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Groot, Jeroen C.J.
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Fischer, Gundula
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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[Land use decisions: By whom and to whose benefit? A serious game to uncover dynamics in farm land allocation at household level in northern Ghana]
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Land use decisions: By whom and to whose benefit? A serious game to uncover dynamics in farm land allocation at household level in northern Ghana
It has been repeatedly argued that mineral fertiliser application combined with in situ retention of crop residue biomass can sustain long-term productivity of West African soils. Using 20-year experimental data from southern Togo, a biannual rainfall area, we analysed the effect of two rates of ...
Kintché, K.
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Guibert, H.
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Sogbedji, J.M.
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Levêque, J.
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Bonfoh, Bassirou
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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[Long-term mineral fertiliser use and maize residue incorporation do not compensate for carbon and nutrient losses from a Ferralsol under continuous maize-cotton cropping]
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Long-term mineral fertiliser use and maize residue incorporation do not compensate for carbon and nutrient losses from a Ferralsol under continuous maize-cotton cropping
Sommer, Rolf
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Thierfelder, Christian
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Hove, L.
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Mureithi, J
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Mkomwa, S
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[Fertilizer use should not be a fourth principle to define conservation agriculture: Response to the opinion paper of Vanlauwe et al. (2014) ‘A fourth principle is required to define conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: The appropriate use of fertilizer to enhance crop productivity’]
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Fertilizer use should not be a fourth principle to define conservation agriculture: Response to the opinion paper of Vanlauwe et al. (2014) ‘A fourth principle is required to define conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: The appropriate use of fertilizer to enhance crop productivity’
Andrieu, Nadine
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Vayssières, Jean-François
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Corbeels, Marc
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Blanchard, M.
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Vall, Eric
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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[From farm scale synergies to village scale trade-offs: cereal crop residues use in an agro-pastoral system of the Sudanian zone of Burkina Faso]
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From farm scale synergies to village scale trade-offs: cereal crop residues use in an agro-pastoral system of the Sudanian zone of Burkina Faso
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.
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Muriuki, A.
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Klapwijk, C.J.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Coe, R.
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
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[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
Different fields within a farm have been observed to have different soil fertility status and this may affect the response of a maize crop to applied N, P, and K fertiliser. A limiting nutrient trial was carried out at six farms each, in three districts of Western Kenya. In each of the farms, the...
Vanlauwe, Bernard
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Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Mukulama, J
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[Within-farm soil fertility gradients affect response of maize to fertilizer application in Western Kenya]
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Within-farm soil fertility gradients affect response of maize to fertilizer application in Western Kenya
The need to promote fertiliser use by African smallholder farmers to counteract the current decline in per capita food production is widely recognised. But soil heterogeneity results in variable responses of crops to fertilisers within single farms. We used existing databases on maize production ...
Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
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Corbeels, Marc
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Giller, Ken E.
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[Yield gaps, nutrient use efficiencies and response to fertilisers by maize across heterogenous smallholder farms of western Kenya]
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Yield gaps, nutrient use efficiencies and response to fertilisers by maize across heterogenous smallholder farms of western Kenya
To guide soil fertility investment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa, better understanding is needed of the relative importance of soil and crop management factors in determining smallholder crop yields and yield variability. Spatial variability in crop yields within farms is strongly influenced b...
Tittonell, Pablo A.
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Shepherd, Keith D.
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Vanlauwe, Bernard
,
Giller, Ken E.
,
[Unravelling the effects of soil and crop management on maize productivity in smallholder agricultural systems of western Kenya : An application of classification and regression tree analysis]
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Unravelling the effects of soil and crop management on maize productivity in smallholder agricultural systems of western Kenya : An application of classification and regression tree analysis