Journal of Applied Sciences1812-56541812-5662Asian Network for Scientific Information10.3923/jas.2007.132.136OmadachiUgbabe O. AhmedBen ManyongV.M. OlukosiJames O. YusufOseni 1200771The overall goal of Balanced Nutrient Management Systems (BNMS)
a collaborative project between International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
(IITA) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven) is to curb the vicious
cycle of plant nutrient depletion in maize-based farming systems in the moist
savanna and humid forest zone of West Africa. This is through integrated nutrient
management systems geared to land use practices which are economically viable,
ecologically sound and socially acceptable. In Kaduna state of Nigeria (Northern
Guinea Savannah), three improved maize-based technologies were tested in a series
of farmer-managed field trials since 2000. The first technology was a continuous
maize treatment characterized by high fertilizer rates (Sasakawa Global 2000
(SG 2000)). In the second technology, half of the fertilizer quantity was replaced
with organic manure (BNMS-manure). The third technology was a soybean-maize
rotation treatment in which the fertilizer rates to the maize was reduced by
a half (BNMS-soybean/maize). The broad objective of the study was to conduct
economic analysis of the three introduced BNMS maize-based technologies along
with the farmers own practice of maize production. The specific objectives
of the study were to: determine the costs and returns to the BNMS technologies
and farmers practice and to examine the farmers perception of the
BNMS technologies. The tools used for the analysis of the data were: partial
budget analysis to determine the costs and returns to the introduced BNMS technologies
and farmers practice and the scoring technique to examine the farmers
perception of the BNMS technologies. Findings from the partial budget analysis
showed that, BNMS-soybean/maize was the best in both the demonstration and adaptation
trials by having the highest gross margins of 18,462
and 19,785,
respectively, with the inorganic fertilizer cost constituting over 50% of the
total production cost. The farmers gave overall best perception to both the
BNM-soybean/maize and the BNMS-manure technologies.]]>Boughton, D., E. Crawford, M. Krause and B. Henry de Frahan,19901990Iit, A. and K.U. Leuven,20032003Iwuafor, E.N.O., K. Aihou, J.S. Jaryum, B. Vanlauwe, J. Diels, N. Sanginga, O. Lyasse, J. Deckers and R. Merckx,20022002pp: 185 -198pp: 185 -198Kaduna State,19961996Manyong, V.M., K.O. Makinde and A.G.O. Ogungbile,20022002pp: 75-85pp: 75-85Vanlauwe, B., K. Aihou, S. Aman, E.N.O. Iwuafor and B.K. Tossa et al.,20019311911199