What good are inorganic fertilizers when soil water is limiting?
In addition to yield gaps attributed to suboptimal soil fertility and land degradation, large regions of Africa have been facing increased climate variability and growing frequency and intensity of drought events. Smallholder farmers regularly experience additional and simultaneously occurring environmental stresses and these challenges to stable food production should not be left out of the discussion.
Restoring soils provides an entry-point to build resilience to multiple abiotic stresses through maintenance of critical ecosystem services under sub-optimal conditions. Although soil degradation is widely recognized as reducing agricultural potential, few studies have explicitly measured its effects on system vulnerability. Enhancing soils capacity to perform agronomic and environmental functions have been shown to increase yield stability and help mitigate hot and dry weather in the Midwest US rainfed systems (eg. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0113261). Additional studies are needed to investigate the impact of better soil quality and health on soil water conservation and its functional significance on African soil; however, agro-ecological approaches toward system improvement will likely show greater promise to reduce risk of crop failure in a context of greater yield variability than inorganic fertilizers.
What good are inorganic fertilizers when soil water is limiting?
In addition to yield gaps attributed to suboptimal soil fertility and land degradation, large regions of Africa have been facing increased climate variability and growing frequency and intensity of drought events. Smallholder farmers regularly experience additional and simultaneously occurring environmental stresses and these challenges to stable food production should not be left out of the discussion.
Restoring soils provides an entry-point to build resilience to multiple abiotic stresses through maintenance of critical ecosystem services under sub-optimal conditions. Although soil degradation is widely recognized as reducing agricultural potential, few studies have explicitly measured its effects on system vulnerability. Enhancing soils capacity to perform agronomic and environmental functions have been shown to increase yield stability and help mitigate hot and dry weather in the Midwest US rainfed systems (eg. PLoS ONE 10(2): e0113261). Additional studies are needed to investigate the impact of better soil quality and health on soil water conservation and its functional significance on African soil; however, agro-ecological approaches toward system improvement will likely show greater promise to reduce risk of crop failure in a context of greater yield variability than inorganic fertilizers.