Effects of organic and mineral sources of nutrients on maize yields in three districts of central Kenya
Date
2007Author
Kimani, S.K
Esilaba, A.O
Odera, M.M
Kimenye, L
Vanlauwe, B
Bationo, A
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Trials were set up in three districts of central Kenya to evaluate organic and mineral sources of nutrients and their
effects on maize yields. The experiments were set up during the long rains 2004 with fifteen different soil fertility
management treatments. The treatments included cattle manure, green manures, maize stover,
Tithonia
, and mineral
fertilizer. The test crop was maize (
Zea mays
), intercropped with beans (
Phaseolus vulgaris
). The experimental
design was a Randomized Complete Block with three replicates. At final harvest at maturity, grain yield data were
recorded. In general the yields were low (
≤
1t ha
−
1
) in the unfertilized control, in plots intercropped with green
manure cover crops, and where maize stover alone was applied. In Kirinyaga, and Maragwa, the highest maize
grain yields (6.5t ha
−
1
) were obtained when manure was combined with mineral fertilizer. The responses were not
as clear in the Kiambu site, possibly due to soil acidity at the site. There were no significant difference (p
=
0.05)
in grain yields between the green manure cover crops (0.4–1.5t ha
−
1
), maize stover (0.3–0.9t ha
−
1
) and the unfer-
tilized control (0.4–1t ha
−
1
) across treatments and sites during this first season. The work confirms the efficiency
of combining mineral sources of nutrients with organic inputs
URI
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-5760-1_32#page-1http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/61554
Citation
Kimani, S. K., Esilaba, A. O., Odera, M. M., Kimenye, L., Vanlauwe, B., & Bationo, A. (2007). Effects of organic and mineral sources of nutrients on maize yields in three districts of central Kenya. In Advances in Integrated Soil Fertility Management in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities (pp. 353-358). Springer Netherlands.Publisher
University of Nairobi Agricultural Economics