Abstract
Empirical evidence shows complementarity between maize and soybean as a sustained agricultural system across North and South America as well as Eastern Europe. The potential application to sub-Saharan Africa motivates this literature review. Maize is one of the most important crops on the African subcontinent, accounting for over half of daily caloric intake in some regions. However, continuous cropping of maize has led to extensive degradation of soil and decrease in crop productivity and endangers household food and nutritional security. The cultivation of soybean holds great promise in improving agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Introducing soy into rotation with maize is a method to diversify diets, better nutritional status, reduce abiotic and biotic stresses, and improve soil fertility, while enhancing crop productivity and generating more income for farmers. However, limited access to extension services and other sources of technical support constrains adoption of the more complex rotation cropping system involving a new crop, soybean. Rotating soybean with maize too challenges farmers as there is not a specific prescription that can guide farmers operating across Africa’s diverse agroecological environments. Finally, soybean is an input-intensive crop requiring significant investment at planting, which may not allow small holders with limited resources and no access to credit.
Highlights
By the year 2050, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to account for 22% of the global population due to high population growth rates [1]
Limited work has been carried out on maize-soybean rotations for SSA (Figure 6), especially when considering maize-soybean rotation practices as a physical, biological, social, and economic system. Addressing this gap between an agronomic or component approach versus a systems understanding of the maize, soybean rotation may provide the knowledge necessary to sufficiently increase yields and profitability and, by doing so, may close the adoption gap Africa faces compared with the rest of the world
No work explicitly looks at maize-soybean rotations to improve resiliency in the tropics to the effects of climate change. e openings for further research are especially apparent in light of the success of the soybean-maize succession system that dominates row crop agriculture in tropical Brazil
Summary
By the year 2050, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to account for 22% of the global population due to high population growth rates [1]. Understanding this conundrum of clear benefits, weak adoption of maize-soybean rotation systems yet motivates this literature review. The analysis of the literature will yield the necessary research needed to close the adoption gap between producers in sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. Is review (within the context of SSA) (i) gives an overview of soy-maize rotation systems; (ii) examines the agronomic, economic, and nutritional benefits of utilizing soymaize rotations; (iii) recognizes some of the limitations to widespread implementation of soy-maize rotations; and (iv) identifies some of the current gaps and challenges in the literature that are limiting our understanding of how to successfully implement soy-maize rotations in sub-Saharan Africa
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