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Lookup NU author(s): John Gowing, David Golicha, Dr Roy SandersonORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Earthscan Ltd, 2020.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
Food security is a problem throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainable intensification has been promoted as a means to address this challenge and deliver food security without negative environmental consequences. Herein lies another dimension of the challenge, since there is abundant evidence of declining soil fertility as a result of soil nutrient depletion. Soil nutrients are being mined by small-scale farmers who continue to remove large quantities of nutrients from their soils without using sufficient manure or fertilizer inputs to replenish maintain soil fertility. This low-input agriculture will not deliver future food security and a large increase in nutrient inputs is seen as a requirement for sustainable intensification. We present here a case study from Marsabit County; the largest, most arid, and least developed region in Kenya. Evidence was gathered from field studies at four locations during 2016 and 2017 combined with a farmer survey. We show that a typical smallholder farm can achieve an acceptable nitrogen balance through better use of available livestock manure. An acceptable balance can also be achieved for phosphorus, however, there is a deficit for potassium. This case study demonstrates that an integrated crop-livestock farming system offers a potential solution to soil nutrient mining and can provide a pathway to sustainable intensification for small-scale farmers in a challenging semi-arid environment.
Author(s): Gowing JW, Golicha DD, Sanderson RA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability
Year: 2020
Volume: 18
Issue: 6
Pages: 492-504
Online publication date: 23/07/2020
Acceptance date: 07/07/2020
Date deposited: 09/07/2020
ISSN (print): 1473-5903
ISSN (electronic): 1747-762X
Publisher: Earthscan Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2020.1793646
DOI: 10.1080/14735903.2020.1793646
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