Integrated Fertiliser Management: The Way Forward for the Third World?

Keywords: Integrated fertiliser management, Systems research, Sustainable crop rotations, Disadvantaged environments.

The potential need for a change in research orientation towards a systems approach to soil fertility management for the more, disadvantaged environments of the developing world is discussed. Case studies of changing crop/livestock management in the dry areas of Syria and in the highland areas of Turkey resulting from the introduction of inorganic fertiliser technologies are reviewed. Examples of both productive and counter-productive effects of such technologies are cited. Recommendations for more effective integrated research for such complex systems are then highlighted trough these examples. Suggestions are made that integrated fertiliser management (IFM) could be used with a systems approach as an important vehicle for productive change in the developing world. However, in order to bring this about a further major international investment in research with an adequately long time perspective will be required.

Prof J D H Keatinge, Department of Agriculture, University of Reading, Reading, UK.

23 pages, 7 tables, 48 refs.