A research paper by Dr. Seheno Rinasoa of the University of Antananarivo, Dr. Tomohiro Nishigaki, and Dr. Yasuhiro Tsujimoto (Principal Investigator), who are participating in the Fy Vary Project Output 3 “Development of fertilizer management techniques using genetic resources for nutrien-efficient rice production”, has been published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, an international online journal in the areas of soil science, plant nutrition, agriculture and environmental science.

Organic materials with high P and low C:P ratio improve P availability for lowland rice in highly weathered soils: Pot and incubation experiments
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jpln.202100266

In rice cultivation in Sub-Saharan Africa, soil phosphorus deficiency is one of the major causes of stunted rice growth. To overcome this, the application of any available organic resources as fertilizer is recommended. However, the farmyard manure or compost usually used by farmers vary widely in nutrient composition. In this study, an incubation experiment and rice cultivation experiments in pots in a glasshouse were conducted to determine which organic materials in livestock manure compost are most effective for rice growth. The results showed that among livestock manure composts, the application of compost with particularly high phosphorus content and low C:P ratio was most effective in increasing rice biomass and phosphorus absorption, which were two and three times higher, respectively, than when no manure was applied. It was also found that the effect of livestock manure application was more effective when soil phosphorus saturation (acid oxalate extraction P:Fe ratio) was lower. The results of this study are expected to provide useful knowledge for farmers to efficiently use locally available organic materials to improve rice productivity in phosphorus-deficient soils, and to serve as guideline for the preparation of farmyard manure or compost as an effective fertilizer in the future.