The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa
Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a tuber crop grown for food security, income generation, and traditional medicine. This crop has a high cultural value for some of the groups growing it. Most of the production comes from West Africa where the increased demand has been covered by enlarging cultivated surfaces...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2017-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Plant Science |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.01953/full |
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| author | Emmanuel Frossard Beatrice A. Aighewi Sévérin Aké Dominique Barjolle Philipp Baumann Thomas Bernet Daouda Dao Lucien N. Diby Anne Floquet Valérie K. Hgaza Léa J. Ilboudo Delwende I. Kiba Delwende I. Kiba Roch L. Mongbo Hassan B. Nacro Gian L. Nicolay Esther Oka Yabile F. Ouattara Nestor Pouya Ravinda L. Senanayake Ravinda L. Senanayake Johan Six Orokya I. Traoré |
| author_facet | Emmanuel Frossard Beatrice A. Aighewi Sévérin Aké Dominique Barjolle Philipp Baumann Thomas Bernet Daouda Dao Lucien N. Diby Anne Floquet Valérie K. Hgaza Léa J. Ilboudo Delwende I. Kiba Delwende I. Kiba Roch L. Mongbo Hassan B. Nacro Gian L. Nicolay Esther Oka Yabile F. Ouattara Nestor Pouya Ravinda L. Senanayake Ravinda L. Senanayake Johan Six Orokya I. Traoré |
| author_sort | Emmanuel Frossard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is a tuber crop grown for food security, income generation, and traditional medicine. This crop has a high cultural value for some of the groups growing it. Most of the production comes from West Africa where the increased demand has been covered by enlarging cultivated surfaces while the mean yield remained around 10 t tuber ha−1. In West Africa, yam is traditionally cultivated without input as the first crop after a long-term fallow as it is considered to require a high soil fertility. African soils, however, are being more and more degraded. The aims of this review were to show the importance of soil fertility for yam, discuss barriers that might limit the adoption of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in yam-based systems in West Africa, present the concept of innovation platforms (IPs) as a tool to foster collaboration between actors for designing innovations in yam-based systems and provide recommendations for future research. This review shows that the development of sustainable, feasible, and acceptable soil management innovations for yam requires research to be conducted in interdisciplinary teams including natural and social sciences and in a transdisciplinary manner involving relevant actors from the problem definition, to the co-design of soil management innovations, the evaluation of research results, their communication and their implementation. Finally, this research should be conducted in diverse biophysical and socio-economic settings to develop generic rules on soil/plant relationships in yam as affected by soil management and on how to adjust the innovation supply to specific contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-14T01:51:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c3584c5b37d24e8280062ed79564c39c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-462X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T01:51:56Z |
| publishDate | 2017-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Plant Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-c3584c5b37d24e8280062ed79564c39c2022-12-22T02:19:19ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Plant Science1664-462X2017-11-01810.3389/fpls.2017.01953304872The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West AfricaEmmanuel Frossard0Beatrice A. Aighewi1Sévérin Aké2Dominique Barjolle3Philipp Baumann4Thomas Bernet5Daouda Dao6Lucien N. Diby7Anne Floquet8Valérie K. Hgaza9Léa J. Ilboudo10Delwende I. Kiba11Delwende I. Kiba12Roch L. Mongbo13Hassan B. Nacro14Gian L. Nicolay15Esther Oka16Yabile F. Ouattara17Nestor Pouya18Ravinda L. Senanayake19Ravinda L. Senanayake20Johan Six21Orokya I. Traoré22Group of Plant Nutrition, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Lindau, SwitzerlandYam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa Project, Research for Development, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Abuja, NigeriaLaboratory of Plant Physiology, Université Felix Houphouët Boigny, Abidjan, Côte d'IvoireGroup of Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandGroup of Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, SwitzerlandDepartment of International Cooperation, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Frick, SwitzerlandDépartement Recherche et Développement, Groupe de recherche sécurité alimentaire, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Côte d'IvoireCôte d'Ivoire Country Programme, World Agroforestry Centre, Abidjan, Côte d'IvoireLaboratoire d'Analyse des Dynamiques Sociales et du Développement, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, BeninDépartement Recherche et Développement, Groupe de recherche sécurité alimentaire, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan, Côte d'IvoireCôte d'Ivoire Country Programme, World Agroforestry Centre, Abidjan, Côte d'IvoireGroup of Plant Nutrition, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Lindau, SwitzerlandLaboratoire Sol Eau Plante, Institut de l'Environnement et Recherches Agricoles, Ouagadougou, Burkina FasoLaboratoire d'Analyse des Dynamiques Sociales et du Développement, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin0Laboratoire d'étude et de recherche sur la fertilité du sol, Institut du Développement Rural, Université Nazi Boni, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina FasoDepartment of International Cooperation, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Frick, SwitzerlandLaboratoire d'Analyse des Dynamiques Sociales et du Développement, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, BeninLaboratoire d'Analyse des Dynamiques Sociales et du Développement, Université d'Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Benin0Laboratoire d'étude et de recherche sur la fertilité du sol, Institut du Développement Rural, Université Nazi Boni, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina FasoGroup of Plant Nutrition, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Lindau, Switzerland1Department of Agriculture, Field Crops Research and Development Institute, Mahailluppallama, Sri LankaGroup of Sustainable Agroecosystems, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland0Laboratoire d'étude et de recherche sur la fertilité du sol, Institut du Développement Rural, Université Nazi Boni, Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina FasoYam (Dioscorea spp.) is a tuber crop grown for food security, income generation, and traditional medicine. This crop has a high cultural value for some of the groups growing it. Most of the production comes from West Africa where the increased demand has been covered by enlarging cultivated surfaces while the mean yield remained around 10 t tuber ha−1. In West Africa, yam is traditionally cultivated without input as the first crop after a long-term fallow as it is considered to require a high soil fertility. African soils, however, are being more and more degraded. The aims of this review were to show the importance of soil fertility for yam, discuss barriers that might limit the adoption of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) in yam-based systems in West Africa, present the concept of innovation platforms (IPs) as a tool to foster collaboration between actors for designing innovations in yam-based systems and provide recommendations for future research. This review shows that the development of sustainable, feasible, and acceptable soil management innovations for yam requires research to be conducted in interdisciplinary teams including natural and social sciences and in a transdisciplinary manner involving relevant actors from the problem definition, to the co-design of soil management innovations, the evaluation of research results, their communication and their implementation. Finally, this research should be conducted in diverse biophysical and socio-economic settings to develop generic rules on soil/plant relationships in yam as affected by soil management and on how to adjust the innovation supply to specific contexts.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.01953/fullDioscorea spp.soil fertilityinterdisciplinaritytransdisciplinarityinnovation platforms |
| spellingShingle | Emmanuel Frossard Beatrice A. Aighewi Sévérin Aké Dominique Barjolle Philipp Baumann Thomas Bernet Daouda Dao Lucien N. Diby Anne Floquet Valérie K. Hgaza Léa J. Ilboudo Delwende I. Kiba Delwende I. Kiba Roch L. Mongbo Hassan B. Nacro Gian L. Nicolay Esther Oka Yabile F. Ouattara Nestor Pouya Ravinda L. Senanayake Ravinda L. Senanayake Johan Six Orokya I. Traoré The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa Frontiers in Plant Science Dioscorea spp. soil fertility interdisciplinarity transdisciplinarity innovation platforms |
| title | The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa |
| title_full | The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa |
| title_fullStr | The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa |
| title_short | The Challenge of Improving Soil Fertility in Yam Cropping Systems of West Africa |
| title_sort | challenge of improving soil fertility in yam cropping systems of west africa |
| topic | Dioscorea spp. soil fertility interdisciplinarity transdisciplinarity innovation platforms |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2017.01953/full |
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