The soil diagnostic method to compute fertilizer requirements in cocoa plantations

Snoeck Didier. 2007. The soil diagnostic method to compute fertilizer requirements in cocoa plantations. In : International Conference on Soil Science, 7-11 January 2007, Accra, Ghana. s.l. : s.n., 7 p. International Conference on Soil Science, Accra, Ghana, 7 Janvier 2007/11 Janvier 2007.

Résumé : Soil analysis is not often used for fertilizer recommendations, because it is difficult to interpret. We developed a soil diagnostic software programme to help the agronomist to understand and interpret soil analysis to formulate fertilizer requirements (formulae and doses) on cocoa plantations. The methodology used to determine the fertilizer needs is based on the Diagnostic Soil method developed by Jadin and Snoeck (1985). The model evaluates the levels of nutrients in the soil and the ratios among them at the soil¿s pH to determine the required amount of Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Once this is done, the K, Ca and Mg ratios are compared to determine the amounts of each nutrient. The final recommendations are computed to reach the optimum values and to compensate for the nutrients exported by the yields. The software was tested on some peasant cocoa farms used in a Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) fertilizer trial to compare and classify them according to their nutrient needs (Appiah et al., 2000). The results show that most of the farms need P fertilizers. Among the exchangeable bases, Ca was more often found as being the limiting factors. The results indicate that the soil diagnostic method can be a powerful tool for fertilizer recommendation to be made on cocoa farms.

Classification Agris : F04 - Fertilisation
P35 - Fertilité du sol

Auteurs et affiliations

• Snoeck Didier, CIRAD-PERSYST-UPR Systèmes de pérennes (FRA)

Source : Cirad - Agritrop (https://agritrop.cirad.fr/554340/)

Métriques

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