Climate-smart cropping arrangement and integrated soil fertility technologies for maize and cowpea to enhance soil health, yield, and income in Malawi

Simple item page
cg.authorship.typesCGIAR and developing country instituteen
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Institute of Tropical Agricultureen
cg.contributor.affiliationChitedze Research Station, Malawien
cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Potato Centeren
cg.contributor.donorEuropean Unionen
cg.contributor.initiativeExcellence in Agronomy
cg.coverage.countryMalawi
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2MW
cg.coverage.regionAfrica
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Africa
cg.creator.identifierJohn Omondi: 0000-0003-3521-8686en
cg.creator.identifierArega Alene: 0000-0002-2491-4603en
cg.creator.identifierSika Dofonsou Gbegbelegbe: 0000-0001-6373-6195en
cg.creator.identifierGbenga Akinwale: 0000-0001-7330-2825en
cg.howPublishedGrey Literatureen
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.25502/zb55-8718/den
cg.placeLilongwe, Malawien
cg.reviewStatusInternal Reviewen
cg.subject.actionAreaResilient Agrifood Systems
cg.subject.iitaAGRONOMYen
cg.subject.iitaFARMING SYSTEMSen
cg.subject.iitaINTEGRATED SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENTen
cg.subject.impactAreaNutrition, health and food security
cg.subject.impactPlatformNutrition, Health and Food Security
cg.subject.sdgSDG 1 - No povertyen
cg.subject.sdgSDG 2 - Zero hungeren
cg.subject.sdgSDG 15 - Life on landen
dc.contributor.authorOmondi, J.O.en
dc.contributor.authorSimwaka, P.en
dc.contributor.authorKamwana, F.en
dc.contributor.authorSiyeni, D.en
dc.contributor.authorAlene, A.en
dc.contributor.authorGbegbelegbe, S.en
dc.contributor.authorKadwala, P.en
dc.contributor.authorWupe, M.en
dc.contributor.authorKyei-Boahen, S.en
dc.contributor.authorChinwada, P.en
dc.contributor.authorAkinwale, G.en
dc.date.accessioned2025-04-09T10:10:02Zen
dc.date.available2025-04-09T10:10:02Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/174092
dc.titleClimate-smart cropping arrangement and integrated soil fertility technologies for maize and cowpea to enhance soil health, yield, and income in Malawien
dcterms.abstractShrinking agricultural land size, declining soil health, poor site-specific crop varieties, and minimum cropping systems diversification to combat vagaries of climate are key factors that influence yields and production in Malawi. This study aimed to develop innovations that could improve farmers’ crop yields, while enhancing their soil health, income, climate resilience, and adaptation. A study on various nutrient combinations and crop arrangements (alternating a row of maize with a row of cowpeas) was conducted in various agro-ecologies in Malawi. The nutrient combinations ranged from 0 kg N ha-1, 100 kg N ha-1, and 200 kg N ha-1 applied to maize, while cowpea received either 30 kg N ha-1, plus or no inoculant. The application of these nutrients was split into two for 100 kg N ha-1 (two halves, at planting and at six weeks after planting) and thrice for 200 kg N ha-1—25% at planting, 37.5% at three weeks after planting, and 37.5 % at six weeks after planting. These led to a total of eleven treatments being tested across three agro-ecologies of Malawi for two seasons (2020/2021 and 2021/2022) at Chitala, Mbawa and Makoka Research Stations in Salima, Mzimba and Zomba districts, respectively. Thereafter, five promising treatments with one control were subjected to on-farm trials in seven districts (Mulanje, Chiradzulu, Zomba, Salima, Mangochi, Nkhotakota, and Kasungu) across Malawi for two seasons (2022/2023 and 2023/2024). These were evaluated by farmers in terms of yields, and acceptability through participatory evaluations and economic evaluations. Altogether, the on-station, on-farm evaluations, farmer participatory evaluation, and economic analysis revealed that application of either 100 or 200 kg N ha-1 to maize with either inoculant or 30 kg N ha-1 to cowpea in an intercropping arrangement of alternating single rows of maize with cowpea were superior to current practices in terms of grain yield, land equivalent ratio, farmer perception, and net benefit returns. Therefore, we recommended the release of these technologies to combat declining soil health, climate change and improve smallholder farmers’ income, but only two were released by the Agricultural Technology Clearing Committee of Malawi. Those two were: application of 100 kg N ha-1 to maize with either: 1) inoculant or 2) 30 kg N ha-1 to cowpea in an intercropping arrangement of alternating single rows of maize with cowpea.en
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Access
dcterms.audienceScientistsen
dcterms.bibliographicCitationOmondi, J.O., Simwaka, P., Kamwana, F., Siyeni, D., Alene, A., Gbegbelegbe, S., ... & Akinwale, G. (2025). Climate-smart cropping arrangement and integrated soil fertility technologies for maize and cowpea to enhance soil health, yield, and income in Malawi. Lilongwe, Malawi: IITA, (33 p.).en
dcterms.extent33 p.en
dcterms.issued2025-04en
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCC-BY-NC-4.0
dcterms.publisherInternational Institute of Tropical Agricultureen
dcterms.subjectyieldsen
dcterms.subjectsustainable agricultureen
dcterms.subjectintensificationen
dcterms.subjectfarming systemsen
dcterms.subjectland managementen
dcterms.typeReport

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Released_maize_cowpea_technology_2024_1.pdf
Size:
1014.74 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

IITA Reports and Documents
CGIAR Initiative on Excellence in Agronomy