Crop responses to fertilizers, lime and micronutrients under continuous cultivation in northern Nigeria

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at the Agricultural Research Station Farm of Institute for Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University, Mokwa. In the present study, it has clearly been demonstrated that chemical fertilizers can maintain crop productivity at relatively high level in twelve years of continuous cultivation. Maize and cotton responded significantly to annual dressing of nitrogen. However, response of sorghum to N was not significant. In general, yield response of maize, cotton and groundnut to K application was significant, where as for sorghum it was not significant. Generally, lime application did not give any significant increase in yield of any crop tested in this trial. Application of boronated superphosphate increased the cotton yield significantly in two out of four years. There was no yield response of groundnut or sorghum to boron application. However, maize responded significantly in two out of eight years to boron application.