The management of soil fertility by smallholder farmers is a complex process that is dependent on socio-economic and biophysical factors. An understanding of the determining factors is essential in developing suitable interventions. It is also essential to recognise that soil fertility management practices are dynamic, and to identify the constraints and opportunities for modifying and changing current practices. It is now recognised that farmers have shifted away from extensive use of purchased fertiliser inputs to making use of locally available fertility resources and supplementing them with inorganics where available. In this paper, it is argued that researchers and extension have been slow to see this change and should strive to generate tools that can be used by farmers for assessing options of using the different scarce resources for maintaining soil fertility and improving crop yields. Current research emphasis should therefore be on combining organic and inorganic nutrient sources. This paper presents an approach for combining organic and inorganic nutrient sources, and advocates joint research between farmers, researchers and extension at the farm level. Very often poor productivity has been ascribed to poor crop management by the farmer. If that is the case, then the methods accessible to the farmer are deficient. Therein lies a gap which research and extension need to fill by working more closely with the farmer in developing technology interventions.

English

0103|AL-Maize Program|AGRIS 0102|AJ

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