Chapter 6
Diagnostic of Mineral Deficiencies
and Interactions in Upland Rice
Cropping Across Different Agroecologies
of West Africa
Brahima Kone ´, Kouadio Firmin Konan, and N’ganzoua Rene ´ Kouame ´
Abstract Haphazardly fertilization can impaired rice production inducing yield
declining in continuous cropping even with high input management. Ecological
difference can account for such weakness of upland rice agrosystems. Thus, omission
multi-locations trial was conducted in humid forest and guinea savanna of Cote
d’Ivoire as well as the sudan savanna of South Mali and a derived savanna of South
Benin. A complete fertilizer treatment (Fc) was composed of N (80 k gha
1),
P (100 k gha
1
), K (50 k gha
1
), Ca (50 k gha
1
), Mg (50 k gha
1
) and Zn
(50 k gha
1
) while six other treatments were defined by excluding of a specific
nutrient (Fc-N, Fc-P, Fc-K, Fc-Ca, Fc-Mg and Fc-Zn) and not fertilized plot was
the control. Soil test, rice grain yield and Chaminade index were used for
assessing soil nutrient deficiency. Soil K deficiency was often observed
according to soil test unless in the subsoil (20–40 cm) coupled with unbalance
ratio of cations. Slight to moderate deficiencies of N (savanna ecologies) and P
(forest) were observed by Chaminade method and a latitudinal gradient of soil
nutrient deficiency was emphasized. Basal fertilizer requirement was identified
as NPKMg, NPKZn, NK and NPK in the forest, derived savanna, guinea
savanna and sudan savanna respectively with specific composition for each
cropping season. Nevertheless, declining yield in continuous cropping was
characterizing upland agrosystems indifferently to ecology and fertilizer
composition.
Keywords Rice yield declining • Soil nutrient deficiency • Rice mineral nutrition •
Agro-ecology
B. Kone ´(*) • K.F. Konan • N.R. Kouame ´
Soil Sciences Department, Felix Houphouet Boigny University, Abidjan, Cocody,
22 Bp 582 Abidjan 22, Abidjan, Co ˆte d’Ivoire
e-mail: kbrahima@hotmail.com
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
A. Bationo et al. (eds.), Improving the Profitability, Sustainability and Efficiency
of Nutrients Through Site Specific Fertilizer Recommendations in West Africa Agro-
Ecosystems, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-58789-9_6
81