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| soil/crop |
Based
on the approval of the memorandum on the need to adopt soil/ crop specific
application viz-a-viz complimentary use of organic and inorganic fertilizer by
farmers, the newly constituted National Fertilizer technical Committee has
since swam into action by meeting with blenders in order to intimate them into
keying into Federal Government directives of production in line of the new
formulation.
In
a letter sent out to farmers’ associations based on the outcome of the meeting
with fertilizer blenders as directed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural
development Chief AuduOgbeh, the chairman of the Fertilizer technical committee
Prof. Victor Chude stated that “ following the approval of the last National
Council on Agriculture meeting in Kano, 8th-12thFebruary
of the memo crops/soil specific fertilizer recommendation in Nigeria, the Hon
Minister of Agriculture has since directed that these new formulations should
be produced for the Nigerian market.
Based on this directive, the newly constituted
National Fertilizer committee met will all fertilizer blenders on 20th
April at 2pm in the HMA’s conference room to secure their buying and readiness
to produce the new formulation. The meeting ended on a positive note. This is
for your information and that of your members, please”
MEMORANDUM ON THE NEED TO
ADOPT SOIL/CROP SPECIFIC FERTILIZER APPLICATION VIZ-A-VIZ COMPLIMENTARY USE OF
ORGANIC AND INORGANIC FERTILIZER (BALANCED CROP NUTRITION) BY FARMERS
Memorandum by
the Director, Farm Inputs Support Services Department,
Federal
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Abuja
1. The
purpose of this memorandum is to apprise the council of the need to adopt
soil/crop specific fertilizer application in all the 36 States/FCT and the
complimentary use of both organic and inorganic fertilizer by farmers.
According to available
information, Nigerian soils are inherently micro-variable within short
distances. The spatial variability lends
itself to geological formation of the soil that ranges from rocks of the
basement complex, old rock formations which extend from the South West to the
Northern fringe with various formations.
These different
formations impose their mineralogical impacts on the particles that form the
soil in different locations. This is
complicated by geographical location, climatic factors, vegetation, and land
use.
The implication is that
the native soil fertility is not uniform; therefore, any amendment of such soil
with exogenous material like fertilizer must be applied with caution after
appropriate soil testing and precise calculation for nutrient balancing. Therefore, there is no scientific basis for
extrapolative application of fertilizer, except if the soil grouping is found
to be the same across the same region.
If the soil does not
have the essential nutrient in its mineralogy, there is a need to find
sustainable way of adding and conserving the nutrient and making it available
to the crop when needed.
2. There are
16 essential elements, 3 of which are naturally supplied while the remaining 13
may be supplied with mineral fertilizer.
Currently, the focus has been on the primary elements NPK; in most
crops, the assumption is that the needs fall in the order; N>P>K and not
N=K=P.
While this is so in
theory, in practice and with the intervention of different environmental
impacts and variability, the assumption has to be modified even though, it is
the most basic parameter.
Micro nutrients are also
essential if they are not adequate in the native soil and are not added in the
mineral form as fertilizers, alternative means need to be considered. Since the soil is the main medium of crop
production, soil limitations arising from different agro-ecologies is therefore
a major budget concern for crop production.
An alternative source of
nutrient is Organic Manure (OM). OM is a storehouse of nutrients and is
positively correlated with NPKs, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC) and other
exchangeable cations and micronutrients.
Agro-ecology influences
soil release and conservation of meagre nutrient reserve in tropical
soils. Soil pH is affected by rainfall
and in turn time of planting, fertilizer application and its use efficiencies.
3. Fertility Map is a useful guide for
fertility evaluation. However, holistic
approach is needed to determine meaningful diagnosis and recommendations.
Fertility Maps should be
used only for national indications of fertility levels not individual farmer’s
needs. The farmer needs to ground truth
the prescription of national nutrient map which can be done through soil
testing. Creating awareness for soil
testing by farmers will begin to make fertilizer application the right
technology to revolutionarize agriculture in Nigeria.
There are many
challenges to sampling soils such as lack of facilities and logistics problems i.e.
transportation and labour. A State by
State soil testing programme has been conducted under the FAO/National
Programme for Food Security (NPFS) in 2005.
With the availability of GIS, modern techniques can be used to go beyond
soil fertility map to evaluate soil capability and suitability and develop
calibration curves for each crop in each State/LGA. Moving to this level of evaluation is
essential to achieving a true agrarian revolution improvement in food security
and environmental conservation.
Unfortunately, the
current system of blanket fertilizer use results in a colossal waste of scarce
fertilizer investment because the soil is not well prepared to take the
nutrients for root interception within its short lifespan of arable
cropping. The cost implication of this
to the average poor farmer is enormous.
In order to address the
above challenge, the FMARD is introducing soil test kits called Soil Doctor
through the Department of Climate Change and Agricultural Land Management
Services to farmers across the country.
4. Up until
2005 when the current fertility maps were developed, maps available to policy
makers and donors supporting Nigerian fertilizer have been mineralogical or
geological and did not provide the direction needed for fertilizer
recommendations based on soils, crops and many other factors determining
nutrient needs. Soil Testing is an
important management tool for monitoring chemical, physical and biological
balance and assessment of inherent fertility.
Use of low analysis
fertilizers has remained with Nigeria over time. Existing NPKs as basal have serious
limitations. While urea has been
generally accepted, the original concept of DAP as a basal has been lost. DAP is a very good basal fertilizer as it
contains small amount of N needed after seeding and the P required. If there is a K deficiency, application of
MOP (0:0:60) makes since economically and allows the flexibility to get the K
in the right ratio. Farmers can be
trained to apply high analysis fertilizers on their own once they know their
soils nutrient requirements through soil test.
An investment in soil
testing will radically correct the present nutrient imbalances. The savings that will accrue from not
overdosing through soil test and wasting nutrients can be channelled to
increasing fertilizer quantity that will provide the nutrients needed.
5. Adopting
the model of the Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), the agro-input dealers
in Nigeria (AIDA/FEPSAN) can be used to reach millions of farmers with sample
soil nutrient status maps throughout the country. This will provide guides for the best types
of fertilizers for their various locations.
Nigerian farmers love
their soil and will do anything and everything to preserve it. Many of the farmers are progressive and they
do adopt new technologies readily despite what some critics say, particularly
after they have seen the benefits. They
do not use soil tests because they have not been oriented to them. The generic fertilizer recommendations may
not only have cost them more, but may have been detrimental to their soils. They therefore need re-orientation as well as
education on soil testing viz-a-viz soil/crop fertilizer
formulations/recommendations.
6. Using
available chemical data, a first approximation to the soil fertility map has
been produced for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, soil acidity, zinc, boron
for the various states of Nigeria including FCT. The criteria for soil fertility classes are
as defined below:
Low - The value below critical level
Medium - The range above critical level where
variable response to
fertilizer
is expected
High - The
range where response is unlikely and fertilization may not
be
necessary
7. Arising from the various soil fertility maps, specific fertilizer
formulations for 36 States and FCT were developed for different crops to enable
the crops express their maximum genetic potential in an enabling soil
environment.Lekan stop here don’t carry the diagram..
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