Fertilizer is a vital input for agriculture production. With the growing popularity of modern agriculture, fertilizer consumption in Nepal has been increasing over the years. Since, Nepal does not produce any fertilizers, demand for fertilizers are being met through formal and informal imports. Over the years, fertilizer policy changes have been observed several times in a bid to satisfy farmer...

Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from a maize field in the North China Plain (Wangdu County, Hebei Province, China) were investigated using static chambers during two consecutive maize growing seasons in the 2008 and 2009. The N2O pulse emissions occurred with duration of about 10 days after basal and additional fertilizer applications in the both years. The average N20 fluxes from the CK (control...

Peanut and corn are two major crops in the tri-state area of the southeast USA, an area encompassing north Florida, southwest Georgia, and southeast Alabama. Sharecroppers in this region apply higher amount of input in crop production than the average farmers. We analyzed the behavior of sharecroppers in this region with regard to their fertilizer application decisions. Two hypotheses were form...

Dissolved phosphorus (P) in runoff from surface-applied fertilizers can be relatively great, but commonly used, field or watershed-scale computer models often do not simulate direct transfer of fertilizer P to runoff. Using data from our own simulated rainfall experiments and published runoff studies, we developed a simplemodel to predict fertilizer P release during rain and the concentration o...

Nitrogen (N) export from soils to streams and groundwater under the intensifying cropping schemes of the Pampas is modest compared to intensively cultivated basins of Europe and North America; however, a slow N enrichment of water resources has been suggested. We (1) analyzed the fate of fertilizer N and (2) evaluated the contribution of fertilizer and soil organic matter (SOM) to N leaching un...

A 3-year study was conducted in cornfield to evaluate how composted cattle manure application affects net global warming potential (GWP; the sum of nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) minus net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB)) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI; net GWP per unit of plant biomass yield). In the first experiment, conducted from 2010 to 2012, five fertilization strategies that i...

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) plays a vital role in supply agricultural ecosystem but is generally impaired by fertilization. Understanding the trade-off between fertilization and BNF, underlying mechanisms are essential to optimize management for sustainable agriculture production. In this study, we examined potential rate of asymbiotic N2 fixation, nifH gene abundance, composition co-occ...

Poor soil fertility and erratic rainfall constrain crop production in rain-fed smallholder farming systems sub-Saharan Africa. Integration of drought tolerant N2-fixing crops into maize-based cropping is a risk-averse strategy that also improves nitrogen cycling. A field experiment was carried out during the 2017/18 2018/19 seasons Goromonzi district Zimbabwe. The trials were established on 14 ...

MARKETING BOARDS, FERTILIZER SUBSIDIES, PRICES, & SMALLHOLDER BEHAVIOR: MODELING & POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR ZAMBIA By Nicole Marie Mason Grain marketing boards (GMBs), strategic grain reserves (SGRs), and fertilizer subsidies have experienced a renaissance in eastern and southern Africa over the last decade. Relatively little is known about how the re-emergence of GMBs/SGRs as major players in m...