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Nitrogen availability to maize as affected by fertilizer application and soil type in the Tanzanian highlands

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Abstract

Enhancing crop production by maintaining a proper synchrony between soil nitrogen (N) and crop N demand remains a challenge, especially in under-studied tropical soils of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). For two consecutive cropping seasons (2013–2015), we monitored the fluctuation of soil inorganic N and its availability to maize in the Tanzanian highlands. Different urea-N rates (0–150 kg N ha−1; split into two dressings) were applied to two soil types (TZi, sandy Alfisols; and TZm, clayey Andisols). In the early growing season, soil mineralized N was exposed to the leaching risk due to small crop N demand. In the second N application (major N supply accounting for two-thirds of the total N), applied urea was more efficient in increasing soil inorganic N availability at TZm than at TZi. Such effect of soil type could be the main contributor to the higher yield at TZm (up to 4.4 Mg ha−1) than that at TZi (up to 2.6 Mg ha−1) under the same N rate. The best-fitted linear-plateau model indicated that the soil inorganic N availability (0–0.3 m) at the tasseling stage largely accounted for the final yield. Further, yields at TZi were still limited by N availability at the tasseling stage due to fast depletion of applied-N, whereas yields plateaued at TZm once N availability was above 67 kg N ha−1. Our results provided a valuable reference for designing the N management to increase yield, while minimizing the potentially adverse losses of N to the environment, in different agro-ecological zones in SSA.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Uyole Agriculture Research Institute in Tanzania for providing one of the research sites (i.e., TZm) and Mr. Boniface from Mangalali village in Iringa, Tanzania for his coordination in managing the other site (i.e., TZi). The authors also thank Dr. S. Sugihara (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology) for his valuable comments on the first version of this manuscript. This research was financially supported by the Inter-Graduate School Program for Sustainable Development and Survivable Societies at Kyoto University, and by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (Grant No. 24228007).

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  1. Tomohiro Nishigaki

    Present address: Crop, Livestock and Environment Division, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), 1-1, Owashi, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 305-8686, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Soil Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawaoiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan

    Jinsen Zheng, Tomohiro Nishigaki & Shinya Funakawa

  2. Uyole Agricultural Research Institute, P. O. Box 400, Mbeya, Tanzania

    William N. Mmari

  3. Department of Soil and Geological Sciences, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P. O. Box 3008, Morogoro, Tanzania

    Method M. Kilasara

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  1. Jinsen Zheng
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Zheng, J., Mmari, W.N., Nishigaki, T. et al. Nitrogen availability to maize as affected by fertilizer application and soil type in the Tanzanian highlands. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 112, 197–213 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-018-9939-1

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