Review of Soil Fertility Improvement and Crop Responses to Application of Fertilizers in the Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Soil fertility is declining most rapidly and resulted in low crop yields and livestock numbers that led to reduced food security and increased poverty in the highlands of Southern Ethiopia, which are characterized by high population, high rainfall and sloppy lands. Improving soil fertility and productivity can be achieved through applications of manure, other organic materials, inorganic fertilizers, lime and the inclusion of legumes and crop rotations in the cropping systems, or a combination of these. There are a number of site and crop specific fertilizer recommendations made for different crops being grown in southern nations nationalities and people’s region (SNNPR). However, they are not collected together in such a way that the extension workers and end users can easily access them. Collecting together and documenting these technologies can greatly help both the distributers and the end users in using the technologies to increase crop production and productivity. Therefore, this review work was conducted to assemble fertilizer recommendations made on different crops in SNNPR for making accessible for disseminators. Fertilizers recommendations made for different crops including teff, maize, sorghum, barley, wheat, haricot bean, potato, enset and sweet potato in various areas of the region were collected from different literatures and summarized.

Keywords: Fertilizer recommendation, Soil fertility, Manure, Productivity, Response