Data from: Fertilizer application effects on grain and storage root nutrient concentration

Fertilizer application can affect nutrient concentrations of edible plant products. Data from 70 crop-nutrient response trials conducted in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Tanzania were used to evaluate nutrient application effects on nutrient concentrations for grain of five pulse and five cereal crops and for storage roots of cassava (Manihot esculenta L.). Treatments per trial were ≥12 but this study was limited to: no fertilizer applied; macronutrients applied (NPK or PK); and the macronutrient treatment plus Mg, S, Zn, and B applied (MgSZnB). Dried grain or cassava flour samples were analyzed for concentrations of all essential soil nutrients except for Ni and Cl. Concentrations of N and K were positively correlated with concentrations of most other nutrients. The concentrations were relatively low overall for cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) and pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) compared with other pulse crops and for maize (Zea mays L.) compared with other cereal crops. Application of NPK or PK had little effect on nutrient concentrations except for increased mean cereal grain concentrations for N, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, Cu, and B. Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), maize and rice (Oryza sativa L.) grain concentrations were reduced by MgSZnB for N, K, S, Cu, Mn, and B. There were no or inconsistent effects of MgSZnB on other crop-nutrient concentrations. Nutrient concentrations are not reduced by NPK for non-legumes or PK for pulses but MgSZnB often reduced bean and cereal nutrient concentrations with greater reductions for immobile compared with mobile nutrients

Biofortification through fertilizer nutrient application in Tropical Africa

Data from 70 crop-nutrient response trials conducted in Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Tanzania were used to evaluate nutrient application effects on nutrient concentrations for grain of five pulse and five cereal crops and for storage roots of cassava

Data from: Maize-nutrient response information applied across Sub-Saharan Africa

The profit potential for a given investment in fertilizer use can be estimated using representative crop nutrient response functions. Where response data is scarce, determination of representative response functions can be strengthened by using results from homologous crop growing conditions. Maize (Zea mays L.) nutrient response functions were selected from the Optimization of Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA) database of 5500 georeferenced response functions determined from field research conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. Three methods for defining inference domains for selection of response functions were compared. Use of the OFRA Inference Tool (OFRA-IT; http://agronomy.unl.edu/OFRA) resulted in greater specificity of maize N, P, and K response functions with higher R2 values indicating superiority compared with using the Harvest Choice Agroecological Zones (HC-AEZ) and the recommendation domains of the Global Yield Gap Atlas project (GYGA-RD). The OFRA-IT queries three soil properties in addition to climate-related properties while the latter two options use climate properties only. The OFRA-IT was generally insensitive to changes in criteria ranges of 20–25% used in queries suggesting value in using wider criteria ranges compared with the default for information scarce crop nutrient response functions