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Assessment of maize yield gap and major determinant factors between smallholder farmers in the Dedza district of Malawi

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Title Assessment of maize yield gap and major determinant factors between smallholder farmers in the Dedza district of Malawi
 
Creator Tamene, Lulseged
 
Contributor Mponela, Powell
Kihara, Job Maguta
Ndengu, Gift
 
Subject household typology
maize yield gap
farmers’ management practices
dedza district
 
Description This study explored the effect of soil nutrient status, agronomic practices and socio-economic
factors on maize yield attained by smallholder farmers in the Dedza District of Malawi. Results show
that maize yield ranged between 0.4 and 12 t ha-1 with a mean value of 4.1 t ha-1. Observed high yields
([8.0 t ha-1) were associated with households using improved varieties combined with improved management practices such as NPK, urea and animal manure. With regards to soil factors, boron (B) and nitrogen (N) which are critically deficient in the area were significantly (b = 21.1, p\0.01) associated with maize yield increase. From agronomic factors, weeds, seed spacing, plant density and fertilizer application played significant role in maize yield. Weed rating inversely impacted yield (b = -0.5; p\0.001) where fields with the lowest weed rating had the highest yield (4.6 t ha-1) than those with the highest rating (2.3 t ha-1). Socio-economic factors such as household wealth, household members with off-farm
employment, number of years the household head has been involved in farming decision making, access to agricultural advice and group membership also influenced agronomic practices and resulted in yield gap. Household wealth and off-farm employment contributed to increased yield while household head experience in farming had negative impact. Extension service impacted yield negatively which can be attributed to the low extension worker to farmer ratio.
The study demonstrated that closing yield gap in maize mixed farming systems requires integrated approach to addressing agronomic, biophysical and socio-economic constraints.
 
Date 2016-07-31
2016-03-23T07:10:39Z
2016-03-23T07:10:39Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier https://mel.cgiar.org/dspace/limited
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10705-015-9692-7
Lulseged Tamene, Powell Mponela, Job Maguta Kihara, Gift Ndengu. (31/7/2016). Assessment of maize yield gap and major determinant factors between smallholder farmers in the Dedza district of Malawi. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 105 (3), pp. 291-308.
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/4580
Timeless limited access
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
 
Format PDF
 
Publisher Springer Verlag (Germany)
 
Source Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems;105,(2015) Pagination 291,308