ORIGINAL ARTICLE Assessment of maize yield gap and major determinant factors between smallholder farmers in the Dedza district of Malawi Lulseged Tamene . Powell Mponela . Gift Ndengu . Job Kihara Received: 1 November 2014 / Accepted: 2 April 2015 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015 Abstract This study explored the effect of soil nutrient status, agronomic practices and socio-eco- nomic factors on maize yield attained by smallholder farmers in the Dedza District of Malawi. Results show that maize yield ranged between 0.4 and 12 t ha -1 with a mean value of 4.1 t ha -1 . Observed high yields ( [ 8.0 t ha -1 ) were associated with households using improved varieties combined with improved manage- ment practices such as NPK, urea and animal manure. With regards to soil factors, boron (B) and nitrogen (N) which are critically deficient in the area were significantly (b = 21.1, p \ 0.01) associated with maize yield increase. From agronomic factors, weeds, seed spacing, plant density and fertilizer application played significant role in maize yield. Weed rating inversely impacted yield (b =-0.5; p \ 0.001) where fields with the lowest weed rating had the highest yield (4.6 t ha -1 ) than those with the highest rating (2.3 t ha -1 ). Socio-economic factors such as household wealth, household members with off-farm employment, number of years the household head has been involved in farming decision making, access to agricultural advice and group membership also influ- enced agronomic practices and resulted in yield gap. Household wealth and off-farm employment con- tributed to increased yield while household head experience in farming had negative impact. Extension service impacted yield negatively which can be attributed to the low extension worker to farmer ratio. The study demonstrated that closing yield gap in maize mixed farming systems requires integrated approach to addressing agronomic, biophysical and socio-economic constraints. Keywords Maize yield gap Á Farmers’ management practices Á Agronomic practices Á Household typology Á Dedza district Á Malawi Introduction Food insecurity is a serious challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) agricultural households, where the majority of production is below the expected potential (Lobell et al. 2009). Evidences show that yield for some of the most common crops such maize can be as low as 1.4 t ha -1 against potential yields for improved varieties of 4–13 t ha -1 (Saka et al. 2006; Mviha et al. 2011; Mueller et al. 2012). Crop yield also varies from place to place at global, regional and local scales (Lobell et al. 2009; Yengoh 2012). L. Tamene (&) Á P. Mponela Á G. Ndengu International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, P.O. Box 158, Lilongwe, Malawi e-mail: LT.Desta@CGIAR.ORG J. Kihara International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), ICIPE Duduville Campus, Kasarani, P.B. Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya 123 Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst DOI 10.1007/s10705-015-9692-7