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Improving Maize Productivity in Northern Benin Through Localized Placement of Amendments and Fertilizers

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Improving Maize Productivity in Northern Benin Through Localized Placement of Amendments and Fertilizers Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) Faculté des bioingénieurs Earth and Life Institute/ Environmental Sciences Université d’Abomey-Calavi (UAC) Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques Ecole Doctorale des Sciences Agronomiques Improving maize productivity in northern Benin through localized placement of amendments and fertilizers GBÈNOUKPO PIERRE TOVIHOUDJI June 2018 Thèse en cotutelle présentée en vue de l’obtention du grade de : Docteur en Sciences Agronomiques et Ingénierie Biologique de l’UCL et Docteur en Sciences Agronomiques de l’UAC Jury members: President : Prof. Jacques Mahillon (UCL, Belgique) Co-President : Prof. Philippe A. Lalèyè (UAC, Bénin) Supervisor : Prof. Charles L. Bielders (UCL, Belgique) Co-Supervisor : Prof. P.B. Irénikatché Akponikpè (UP, Bénin) Readers : Prof. Pierre Bertin (UCL, Belgique) : Prof. Bruno Delvaux (UCL, Belgique) : Prof. Euloge K. Agbossou (UAC, Bénin) : Prof. Bernard Tychon (ULg, Belgique) CREDITS The four years of this PhD were funded by the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP-Benin), and the “Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)” program of the CGIAR. I also benefitted from a doctoral fellowship of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). I’m very grateful to all these organizations for their confidence and financial support. To my wife and children “The land was lent to you by your children. It was not given to you by your parents; Treat it as it should”. Old Indian proverb Acknowledgements Acknowledgements I am so lucky that I had the opportunity of studying at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). I have really learned a lot. Now, my stay here almost ends after four years of hard but insightful and rewarding work. I want to express my gratitude to the people who have helped and accompanied me during the journey of my PhD. First and foremost, I owe a debt of gratitude to my promoter, Prof. Charles Bielders whom I affectionately call my “scientific grandfather” because he was the promotor of my co-promotor Pierre, for stimulating my interest in science and encouraging me to pursue rigorous scientific investigations. He gave me countless great suggestions regarding how to learn/write English, how to write good journal papers and elaborate scientific stories. Charles gave me the great opportunity to be a UCL Scholar and has played a huge role in my development since my research proposal setting and during my time at UCL. Besides scientific and academic support, he also provided financial support whenever required during this thesis. Thank you so much, “Big boss”. I thank my co-promoter from University of Parakou (Benin), Prof. Pierre B.I. Akponikpè (affectionately called my “scientific father”) who has supervised me since I was a master student. Akponikpè always kept training me and did all his best to help me become a qualified scientific researcher. Without his support, I could not have obtained the research grant from the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP-Benin) and the fellowship from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). I’m grateful to these organizations for their confidence and financial support. I’m also grateful to the “Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)” program of the CGIAR for funding the initial trials of this work through a grant offered to Prof. Akponikpè under the “Research Theme # 3” on the modeling of the impact of on-farm fertility management practices on soil carbon dynamics in northern Benin. Thanks a lot, Professor Akponikpè. I thank Prof. Euloge Agbossou (UAC, Bénin), for his availability, critical comments on my manuscripts and intellectual advice that enabled me to cope with other life challenges. I do extend my thanks to my jury members for the advices they gave me throughout the achievement of the study. I appreciated their valuable comments and suggestions including those of the anonymous reviewers aiming at always pushing further my expectations and improving my manuscripts. vii Acknowledgements Thanks to Drs Dagbenonbakin Gustave and Agbangba Emile from INRAB, Drs Fatondji Dougbédji and Ibrahim Ali from ICRISAT/Niger, and Dr Rosaine Yegbemey (Université de Parakou) who supported me during the many challenges of field work and for their enthusiasm and critical review of my research proposal and manuscripts. I am also deeply thankful to CRA/Nord through its current Director Dr Yaoitcha Alain and all the Staff and technicians for the facilities placed at my disposal during the implementation of my field trials. I thank all the members of the Faculté d’Agronomie, Université de Parakou, Benin through Profs. H. Edja, V. Zinsou, A.J. Djenontin, M.N. Baco, I.M. Moumouni, and Dr. C.N. Sossa. I do not forget my friend Kévin Affoukou for his critical reading of my research manuscripts and my fellow Bachelor and MSc students who helped in many and various aspects of research within the framework of this PhD project: Aziz, Fabius, Kader, Joel, Dine, Christian, Maité and O’neil. I would also like to thank all the academics, my friends and colleagues from the GERU group and the Earth and Life Institute of the UCL. During these four years of thesis, I shared really nice moments with them at work but not only. Special thanks to Aimé, Raed, Mokrane, Adèle, and Jean-Claude. I am also grateful to Mme Carine De Meyer and all the technicians. I do not forget the GERU football team (Sebastien, Félicien, Jean-Baptiste, Tanguy, Brieuc and others). The exceptional goalkeeper that I was ( ) will certainly miss you but we will find a good substitute. My PhD. colleagues of the WAAPP-Benin and the Université de Parakou (Complexe de l’Innovation) specially Dr. A. Attingli, Dr. L. Zinsou, Dr. J. Egah, A. Adjogboto, L. Akponikpè, D. Likpété, G. Allakonon, F. Ouidoh, M. Diallo, I. Bello, S. Adéchian are acknowledged for their cooperation, the fruitful discussions and the good time that we shared during the last four years. I deeply acknowledge the moral support, patience and encouragement offered by the family Défourny during my stay at UCL through Maité and her dad Pierre. As Master student from UCL within the framework of this PhD project, Maité accepted to go, stay in Parakou and Ina (northern Benin) to collect data. “Na siara, Maité”. I don’t forget Maité’s sisters (Noémie and Elisabeth) and her boyfriend Loïc. I am also thankful to all my countrymates whom I met in Belgium particularly in LLN for their nice conversations, continuous support and encouragements during my stay. They include but are not limited to P.I. Hounzandji, K. Gnimassou, F. Assogba, Y. Djivoh, N. Kpadonou, H. Prodjinoto, S. Gnonlonfoun, A. Houndji, B. Sinhouenon, J. Lawson, E. Gbedonou and R. Saré. I am really thankful to Prof. Christophe Gandonou for his encouragement and support during his stay in Louvain-la-Neuve. viii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my wife Marie Kindji and my children (Ronelle, Ronique and Rosaine) especially for their love, patience and endless support all along the way. Sorry if you did have to cope with my long absence from home: your sacrifice is yet invaluable, but truly appreciated! My utmost acknowledgement goes to my brothers of blood (S.P. Ahannougbé and R. Dohou and their wives) as well as my in-law parents (families Kindji and Aboudou) and Mme R. Djaboutou and his mum for their prayer and the tireless assistance every time I am away. Last but not least, I wish to express my deepest thanks to my former school teacher and headmaster Mr. Pascal Koukoui for his moral support, encouragement and prayer during these last few years. Thanks a lot, Teacher Koukoui; May God bless you and your family. This list is not exhaustive in view of the number of people whose meeting allowed the long and sometime difficult delivery of this work. I therefore apologize to all those who have contributed to this work and who have not been mentioned here. May all of you find here your share of recognition. ix Summary Summary Throughout much of Sub-Saharan Africa, maize production in smallholder farms is characterized by low productivity due to low fertility soils, the scarce availability and use of external inputs and recurrent droughts exacerbated by climate variability. This situation calls for exploring fertilizer and amendment management practices that are efficient and can concurrently improve soil fertility, yields and economic returns. One such technology is the localized application of small quantities of manure and/or mineral fertilizers in the planting holes either at sowing or shortly after planting. Unlike for sorghum and millet, few studies have evaluated the agronomic and economic performances of this technology on maize. Besides, few studies have quantified the risk associated with this technology due to variability in crop management, soil and climatic factors. The general objective of this study was therefore to assess the agronomic and economic potential of localized application of manure and fertilizers in maize-based cropping system in northern Benin, with a long-term goal of developing recommendations. For this purpose, we combined three different approaches: (1) two on-station experiments to assess the agronomic potential and economic profitability of hill-placed manure and mineral fertilizer (or fertilizer microdosing), (2) farmer-field trials to quantify the variability in yield response, economic profitability and risk associated with some of the most promising treatments under real-world conditions and (3) modeling the response of maize across a range of rainfall conditions to further evaluate the sustainability of these practices in northern Bénin. All experiments were carried out in Ina district (Bembèrèkè, northern Benin) from 2012 to 2015. The on-station experiments showed that localized application of manure and fertilizers significantly increased grain and stover yields by 64-132% and 28-131%, respectively, across years. Combining hill-placed manure and fertilizers further increased grain yields by 31-55% on average.
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