Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review

Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Masso, C., Baijukya, Frederick P., Ebanyat, Peter, Bouaziz, S., Wendt, J., Bekunda, Mateete A., Vanlauwe, Bernard
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/89021
_version_ 1855538472965636096
author Masso, C.
Baijukya, Frederick P.
Ebanyat, Peter
Bouaziz, S.
Wendt, J.
Bekunda, Mateete A.
Vanlauwe, Bernard
author_browse Baijukya, Frederick P.
Bekunda, Mateete A.
Bouaziz, S.
Ebanyat, Peter
Masso, C.
Vanlauwe, Bernard
Wendt, J.
author_facet Masso, C.
Baijukya, Frederick P.
Ebanyat, Peter
Bouaziz, S.
Wendt, J.
Bekunda, Mateete A.
Vanlauwe, Bernard
author_sort Masso, C.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both insufficient use and excessive loss, and thus the continent must address the ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ paradox. Too little N is used in food production (80% of countries have N deficiencies), which has led to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. Conversely, too much N load in water bodies due mainly to soil erosion, leaching, limited N recovery from wastewater, and atmospheric deposition contributes to eutrophication (152 Gg N year–1 in Lake Victoria, East Africa). Limited research has been conducted to improve N use for food production and adoption remains low, mainly because farming is generally practiced by resource-poor smallholder farmers. In addition, little has been done to effectively address the ‘too much’ issues, as a consequence of limited research capacity. This research gap must be addressed, and supportive policies operationalised, to maximise N benefits, while also minimising pollution. Innovation platforms involving key stakeholders are required to address N use efficiency along the food supply chain in SSA, as well as other world regions with similar challenges.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace89021
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
publisherStr Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace890212025-12-08T10:29:22Z Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review Masso, C. Baijukya, Frederick P. Ebanyat, Peter Bouaziz, S. Wendt, J. Bekunda, Mateete A. Vanlauwe, Bernard eutrophication land degradation food security food supply chain innovation platforms policies quality standards nitrogen use efficiency Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both insufficient use and excessive loss, and thus the continent must address the ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ paradox. Too little N is used in food production (80% of countries have N deficiencies), which has led to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. Conversely, too much N load in water bodies due mainly to soil erosion, leaching, limited N recovery from wastewater, and atmospheric deposition contributes to eutrophication (152 Gg N year–1 in Lake Victoria, East Africa). Limited research has been conducted to improve N use for food production and adoption remains low, mainly because farming is generally practiced by resource-poor smallholder farmers. In addition, little has been done to effectively address the ‘too much’ issues, as a consequence of limited research capacity. This research gap must be addressed, and supportive policies operationalised, to maximise N benefits, while also minimising pollution. Innovation platforms involving key stakeholders are required to address N use efficiency along the food supply chain in SSA, as well as other world regions with similar challenges. 2017 2017-10-16T09:04:32Z 2017-10-16T09:04:32Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/89021 en Open Access application/pdf Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Masso, C., Baijukya, F., Ebanyat, P., Bouaziz, S., Wendt, J., Bekunda, M. & Vanlauwe, B. (2017). Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa–a review. Soil Research, 55(6), 425-434.
spellingShingle eutrophication
land degradation
food security
food supply chain
innovation platforms
policies
quality standards
nitrogen use efficiency
Masso, C.
Baijukya, Frederick P.
Ebanyat, Peter
Bouaziz, S.
Wendt, J.
Bekunda, Mateete A.
Vanlauwe, Bernard
Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title_full Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title_fullStr Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title_full_unstemmed Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title_short Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review
title_sort dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub saharan africa a review
topic eutrophication
land degradation
food security
food supply chain
innovation platforms
policies
quality standards
nitrogen use efficiency
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/89021
work_keys_str_mv AT massoc dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT baijukyafrederickp dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT ebanyatpeter dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT bouazizs dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT wendtj dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT bekundamateetea dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview
AT vanlauwebernard dilemmaofnitrogenmanagementforfuturefoodsecurityinsubsaharanafricaareview