Abstract
This study investigated the speciation, transformation, and availability of P during indigenous vegetable production by employing a combination of chemical and spectroscopic techniques. The study focused on sites in two ecozones of SSA, the dry savanna (lna, Republic of Benin) and rainforest (Ilesha, Nigeria). Both sites were cultivated with two indigenous vegetable species: local amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus (AC)) and African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon (SM)). The soils were treated with 5 t/ha poultry manure and urea fertilizer at the rates of 0, 20, 40, 60, and 80 kg N/ha. Soil samples were collected before planting and after harvest. Phosphorus K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy was used to determine P speciation in these soils. Quantitative analysis showed that adsorbed and organic P were the two dominant P species in the manure amended dry savanna (DS) soils before planting and after harvest in soils cultivated with both AC and SM, with the addition of urea (40 kg N/ha) causing an increase in the organic P form in dry savanna soils cultivated with AC. Soils of the rainforest (RF) cultivated with AC initially had large amounts of apatite P in the manure amended soils prior to planting, which was transformed to adsorbed and organic P after harvest. Urea addition to the rainforest soils shifted the dominant P species from organic P to adsorbed and apatite P, which was likely to limit P availability. Soils cultivated with SM had similar proportions of both organic and adsorbed P forms, with 40 kg N/ha addition slightly increasing the proportion of adsorbed P.
Highlights
Soils of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are generally highly weathered, sandy textured, and characterized by poor fertility [1] and low phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) levels [2]
For the Amaranthus cruentus (AC), the T40 had the highest yield in the RF, while the T60 gave the highest yield in the dry savanna (DS) (Figure 2a)
This study investigated the solid phase speciation of P in manure amended and urea fertilized soil of the rainforest ecozone of Nigeria and dry savanna ecozone of the Republic of Benin under cultivation with two indigenous vegetable species: local amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) and African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon), using P K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy
Summary
Soils of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are generally highly weathered, sandy textured, and characterized by poor fertility [1] and low phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) levels [2]. One of the ISFM fertilization techniques is fertilizer microdosing; the precise application of relatively small quantities of fertilizer to plants near their planting holes, which reduces the volume of fertilizers farmers need to apply due to improved nutrient uptake efficiency This technique has proven to be economical and efficient in a wide variety of agricultural systems [2,8]. Indigenous leaf vegetables such as Amaranthus cruentus and Solanum macrocarpon are an integral part of agriculture in SSA; they contribute to human nutrition and traditional medicine and play a key role in the rural economy and family subsistence [9,10,11,12] This MicroVeg project is incorporating the fertilizer microdosing technique to increase indigenous vegetable production in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. Fertilizer microdosing has proven to increase yields in cereals across SSA, but has been much less frequently utilized for vegetable crops
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