AUTHOR=Desta Gizaw , Legesse Gizachew , Agegnehu Getachew , Tigabie Abiro , Nagaraji Satish , Gashaw Tadesse , Degefu Tulu , Ayalew Baye , Addis Ayalew , Getachew Tsegaye , Managido Demis , Bazie Zerfu , Abathun Tamir , Abera Abate , Dache Abrham , Adissie Samuel , Sebnie Workat , Feyisa Tesfaye , Yakob Getahun , Amede Tilahun , Van Rooyen Andre , Jat Mangi Lal , Harawa Rebbie 

TITLE=Landscape-based nutrient application in wheat and teff mixed farming systems of Ethiopia: farmer and extension agent demand driven approach

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1241850

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2023.1241850

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Adapting fertilizer use is crucial if smallholder agroecosystems are to attain the sustainable development goals of zero hunger and agroecosystem resilience. Poor soil health and nutrient variability characterize the smallholder farming systems. However, the current research at the field scales scale does not account for nutrient variability across landscape positions, posing significant challenges for targeted nutrient management interventions. The purpose of this research was to create a demand-driven and codevelopment approach for diagnosing farmer nutrient management practices and determining landscape specificlandscape-specific (hillslope, mid slopemid-slope, and foot slope) fertilizer applications for teff and wheat. A landscape segmentation approach was aimed to address gaps in farm-scale nutrient management research as well as the limitations of blanket recommendations to meet local nutrient requirements. This approach incorporates the concept of interconnected socio-technical systems as well as the concepts and procedures of co-development. A smart mobile app was used by extension agents to generate crop-specific decision rules at the landscape scale and forward the specific fertilizer applications to target farmers through SMS messages or print formats. The findings reveal that farmers apply more fertilizer to hillslopes and less to mid-and foot slopes. However, landscape-specific fertilizer application guided by crop-specific decision rules via mobile applications resulted in much higher yield agronomic improvements, 23% and 56% at foot slopes and 21% and 6.5% at mid slopes for wheat and teff, respectively.