Poster prepared by Vimbayi Chimonyo, Wezi Mhango,Regis Chikowo and Sieg Snapp for the Africa RISING ESA Project Review and Planning Meeting, Lilongwe, Malawi, 3–5 October 2018.

1. Application of mineral fertilisers and organic resources - Malawi
Vimbayi Chimonyo1, Wezi Mhango2,Regis Chikowo1, Sieg Snapp1
1Michigan State University; 2Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Challenges & Study objective
 Soil organic matter has declined on most farms, making fertilizer use
efficiencies poor.
 In Malawi, the most feasible approach to building SOM is through
cycling low and high quality crop residues. Livestock populations are
low, while an important resource elsewhere, animal manure is in
insufficient quantities to make a significant impact on farms.
 Residues from grain legumes can be used to optimize fertilizer
responses of maize, improve soil health and food security across
diverse agro-ecologies. Burning of crop residues as part of land
preparation is practice that must be discouraged
Main study objective: To quantify the ecological, economic and nutrition
benefits of growing maize in rotations with legumes when crop residues are
properly used in the cropping systems
Partners
This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
September 2018
We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their contributions to this work. We also acknowledge the
support of all donors which globally support the work of the CGIAR centers and their partners through their
contributions to the CGIAR system
Introduced technologies
I) Mineral fertilizer (Mz69) at 10 kg P & 69 kg N ha-1.
II) Maize in rotation with soybean (SbRot), groundnut (GnRot), or
peanut/pigeonpea intercrop (GnDLR douled-up) at 6 kg P and 35 kg N
ha-1 and,
III) Continuous maize/pigeonpea intercrop (MzPp) –improving the
traditional system hat 6 kg P and 35 kg N ha-1
Evidence
• There were no significant differences between fertilized maize (Mz69) and
maize in rotation with legumes at reduced
• Rotating maize with legumes increased nitrogen use efficiency by 56%
relative to Mz69.
• Adding half the rate of fertilizer and integrating legumes increased gross
margins of maize by 29 – 75% and increased protein and calorie
production by 200 – 450%.
• Over time, integrating grain legumes in maize systems resulted in stable
maize yields (Fig 1)
Approaches of taking the technologies to scale
• Field days and training workshops centered on showcasing the benefits of
good fertilizer practices and legume integration (Fig 2).
• Capacity building of extension system – institutionalizing knowledge in
Malawi extension system
• Private sector involvement – local agrodealers/farmer partnerships for
improved access to seed or fertilizer availability
Proposals for the future
• Using a calibrated and validated APSIM model for the different
technologies we will further optimize maize – legume by exploring
management options such as plant ratios, fertilizer rates, cultivar
types and planting dates.
• Make use of ICT technologies for targeted reach to thousands of
farmers
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1
Maize yield (kg/ha)
[max yield 5000
kg/ha]
Calories (Mcal/ha)
[max Cal. 300%
daily contribution
for a family of 5]
Protien (kg/ha)
[max Cal. 500%
daily contribution
for a family of 5]
Stability (rank)
Nitrogen use
efficieny (kg/kgN)
[max. agronomic
effciency of 100
kg/kgN]
Gross margin
($/ha) [max. gross
of $1000/ha ]
Mz69 MzPp GnRot SbRot GnDLR
Figure 2 Farmers participating in a farmer field day in Linthipe
Figure 1. Comparison of SI parameters [yield, calories, proteins, yield stability, nitrogen
use efficiency, gross margin] for the different treatments