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Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review

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Title Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
 
Creator Masso, C.
Baijukya, Frederick P.
Ebanyat, Peter
Bouaziz, S.
Wendt, J.
Bekunda, Mateete A.
Vanlauwe, Bernard
 
Subject eutrophication
land degradation
food security
food supply chain
innovation platforms
policies
quality standards
nitrogen use efficiency
 
Description Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both insufficient use and excessive loss, and thus the continent must address the ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ paradox. Too little N is used in food production (80% of countries have N deficiencies), which has led to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. Conversely, too much N load in water bodies due mainly to soil erosion, leaching, limited N recovery from wastewater, and atmospheric deposition contributes to eutrophication (152 Gg N year–1 in Lake Victoria, East Africa). Limited research has been conducted to improve N use for food production and adoption remains low, mainly because farming is generally practiced by resource-poor smallholder farmers. In addition, little has been done to effectively address the ‘too much’ issues, as a consequence of limited research capacity. This research gap must be addressed, and supportive policies operationalised, to maximise N benefits, while also minimising pollution. Innovation platforms involving key stakeholders are required to address N use efficiency along the food supply chain in SSA, as well as other world regions with similar challenges.
 
Date 2017
2017-10-16T09:04:32Z
2017-10-16T09:04:32Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Masso, C., Baijukya, F., Ebanyat, P., Bouaziz, S., Wendt, J., Bekunda, M. & Vanlauwe, B. (2017). Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa–a review. Soil Research, 55(6), 425-434.
1838-675X
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/89021
https://doi.org/10.1071/sr16332
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Open Access
 
Format 425-434
application/pdf
 
Publisher CSIRO Publishing
 
Source Soil Research