Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments
Acid soils are widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural lime can be used to alleviate production constraints associated with soil acidity, but lime is not widely available in the region, and it is unclear if applying it would be profitable. Using lime requirement models and crop yield resp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
Springer
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176294 |
| _version_ | 1855515058785746944 |
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| author | Silva, João Vasco Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Baudron, Frédéric Gameda, Samuel Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw Ruganzu, Vicky Meliyo, Joel Debello, Moti Jaleta Chamberlin, Jordan Hijmans, Robert J. |
| author_browse | Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Baudron, Frédéric Chamberlin, Jordan Debello, Moti Jaleta Gameda, Samuel Hijmans, Robert J. Meliyo, Joel Ruganzu, Vicky Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw Silva, João Vasco |
| author_facet | Silva, João Vasco Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Baudron, Frédéric Gameda, Samuel Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw Ruganzu, Vicky Meliyo, Joel Debello, Moti Jaleta Chamberlin, Jordan Hijmans, Robert J. |
| author_sort | Silva, João Vasco |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Acid soils are widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural lime can be used to alleviate production constraints associated with soil acidity, but lime is not widely available in the region, and it is unclear if applying it would be profitable. Using lime requirement models and crop yield responses to soil acidity modelled as plateau-linear decay functions, we estimated the profitability of acid soil remediation through liming. Crop yield loss to soil acidity occurs on 32.7 Mha, or 23% of sub-Saharan Africa's cropland. The burden of acid soils is US$6.0 billion (6% of the current production value), and 75% of that could be profitably alleviated. Under prevailing conditions, liming would be profitable in the year of application on 6.2 Mha (with an average profitability of US$278 ha-1) and on 8.8 Mha when lime's long-term effect is considered. Intensification of crop production and lower relative lime/output prices could make liming profitable on more cropland. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace176294 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Springer |
| publisherStr | Springer |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1762942025-12-08T09:54:28Z Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments Silva, João Vasco Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Baudron, Frédéric Gameda, Samuel Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw Ruganzu, Vicky Meliyo, Joel Debello, Moti Jaleta Chamberlin, Jordan Hijmans, Robert J. soil pH yield losses investment crop production Acid soils are widespread across sub-Saharan Africa. Agricultural lime can be used to alleviate production constraints associated with soil acidity, but lime is not widely available in the region, and it is unclear if applying it would be profitable. Using lime requirement models and crop yield responses to soil acidity modelled as plateau-linear decay functions, we estimated the profitability of acid soil remediation through liming. Crop yield loss to soil acidity occurs on 32.7 Mha, or 23% of sub-Saharan Africa's cropland. The burden of acid soils is US$6.0 billion (6% of the current production value), and 75% of that could be profitably alleviated. Under prevailing conditions, liming would be profitable in the year of application on 6.2 Mha (with an average profitability of US$278 ha-1) and on 8.8 Mha when lime's long-term effect is considered. Intensification of crop production and lower relative lime/output prices could make liming profitable on more cropland. 2025-07 2025-09-01T15:36:24Z 2025-09-01T15:36:24Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176294 en Limited Access Springer Silva, J. V., Aramburu-Merlos, F., Baudron, F., Gameda, S., Sida, T. S., Ruganzu, V., Meliyo, J., Jaleta, M., Chamberlin, J., & Hijmans, R. J. (2025). Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01194-z |
| spellingShingle | soil pH yield losses investment crop production Silva, João Vasco Aramburu Merlos, Fernando Baudron, Frédéric Gameda, Samuel Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw Ruganzu, Vicky Meliyo, Joel Debello, Moti Jaleta Chamberlin, Jordan Hijmans, Robert J. Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title | Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title_full | Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title_fullStr | Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title_short | Soil acidity remediation in sub-Saharan Africa requires targeted investments |
| title_sort | soil acidity remediation in sub saharan africa requires targeted investments |
| topic | soil pH yield losses investment crop production |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/176294 |
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