Abstract
Nitrogen is a key element in food crop production in tropical Africa. To a large extent, stable food crop production in the tropics is a function of the degree to which the soil fertility is maintained. Nitrogen, the most mobile plant nutrient, is the most easily exhaustible nutrient element in the soil. This is particularly true in the fragile, poorly buffered soils commonly found in tropical Africa. Traditional farmers in Africa found adequate solutions to deal with this problem through shifting cultivation and use of leguminous crops to restore soil fertility. Return of crop residues and maintenance of a continuous crop stand were means of avoiding soil degradation. The increase in population pressure, coupled with the urbanization of the countryside, has led to farmland being continuously used with a resulting loss of productivity. Use of fertilizer is increasingly seen as a partial solution to the problem of restoring soil fertility and providing food for the African population.
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© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Mughogho, S.K., Bationo, A., Christianson, B., Vlek, P.L.G. (1986). Management of nitrogen fertilizers for tropical African soils. In: Mokwunye, A.U., Vlek, P.L.G. (eds) Management of Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4398-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4398-8_6
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