Plant nutrient deficiencies: AGRA identifies balanced fertiliser blends

Mon, Apr 5, 2021
By editor
4 MIN READ

Agriculture

THE Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) says it has commenced a three-year identification of balanced fertilizer blends in Nigeria to augment nutrients deficiency in the soil.

Prof. Victor Chude, AGRA Fertiliser Systems Project Coordinator,  disclosed this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

AGRA is a farmer-centered, African-led, and partnerships-driven institution that is transforming Africa’s smallholder farming from a solitary struggle to survive to businesses that thrive.

It deals with improving agricultural products and supporting local farm owners and labor.

Chude added that the intervention will remedy the current practice of using generic fertilizer blends and blanket application rates across the country.

He said the project, which is being piloted in two states of Niger and Kaduna, is aimed at strengthening fertilizer systems partnership for the production of balanced fertilizer blends in the country.

He emphasized that the use of a balanced fertilizer blend is required to augment for nutrient deficiencies in soils, adding that facilitating the sustainable maximization of the genetic potentials of crops has been proven by a good number of studies.

The coordinator explained that the primary objective of the intervention is to catalyze the production and use of appropriate crop and soil-specific fertilizer blends to enhance maize, rice, and soybean production in the pilot states.

“Based on the success recorded in the two piloted states, extend to other states across the country.

“One of the common agricultural practices in Nigeria is the use of generic fertilizer blends to address issues of soil fertility.

“This practice across various regions is often without investigations to determine unique challenges common to that region ultimately negates the specificity of soil nutrient requirements.

“It also undermines the benefits of secondary and micro-nutrients required for crop growth and the production of highly nutritious food.

“To say the least, inappropriate formulation and often-misguided use of organic/mineral fertilizers is a setback to the achievement of food and nutrition security in Nigeria and many other African countries.

“Although East African countries like Kenya (with support from AGRA) and Zambia are fast promoting the adoption of balanced fertilizers,” he said.

Chude explained that the methodology involves soil testing, on-field evaluation trials, use of visual ranking, and technical yield evaluations to assess the performance of the fertilizer blends on maize, rice, and soybean commodity value-chains at designated locations.

The coordinator, who described the benefits as numerous, says they include an increase in productivity which is expected to drive demand for these blends.

According to him, blanket fertilization of soils should be passionately discouraged at all levels nationwide.

“The results of initial field trials show that crop/site-specific fertilizer blends can improve the productivity of crops by at least 25 to 40 percent while improving their nutrient content.

“This translates to economically efficient parameters with a multiplier effect, as it would increase income for affected stakeholders including fertilizer blending plants, agro-input distributors and farmers.

“It will as well as possibly encourage more investors into the agricultural sector thereby stimulating economic growth. This is a great stride towards improving the business of agriculture in Nigeria,” he stressed.

The coordinator further stated that for the trials, three crops and soil-specific formulations were adopted for the focus commodity value-chains.

These formulations, according to him, are a blend of NPK with appropriate mixes of secondary and micronutrients such as Sulphur, Boron, Zinc and Calcium as required.

“Since 2019, approximately 1,500 demonstration plots have been established for trials, while approximately 2,500 farmers and 40 fertilizer producing companies have been actively engaged in realizing the goal of the project.

“One of the next steps will be to acquire optimal land area required to optimize the yield effects on individual crop enterprises and aggregate them into nutrient requirements for statewide application in standard formulations.

“This is targeted at the policy instruments of relevant government agencies to promote the use of appropriate fertilizer blends for the production of different crops.

“In addition, fertilizer blenders would be encouraged to invest in and produce more of balanced fertilizer blends,” he said. (NAN)

– Apr. 05, 2021 @ 11:59 GMT

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