Chapter II: Concepts of soil

fertility and productivity

2.1. Soil fertility and productivity
 Why knowledge of soil fertility is an issue
worldwide?

 Higher demand for food production

 Increasing consumption per capital
 Need for increased agricultural productivity and
sustainable production (without depleting natural
resource capital)
 Growing environmental concerns
 Soil Fertility
• Soil fertility: the quality of the soil or the
ability of the soil to provide essential
plant nutrients in optimum quantities
and proportions for plant growth without
toxic concentration
 Soil Fertility (cont…)
• Optimum supply of nutrients is defined by the
need of plants for the type and amount of
nutrients

• Emphasis is on supply of nutrients although

other growth factors such as water, air etc
affect the productivity of the soil
 Soil Fertility (cont..)
Relative amount of nutrients in a solution and relative
accumulation in plant
K Ca Mg Na
Solution concentration (%) 25 25 25 25

Maize (Zea mays) 70 11 16 2.9

Potato (Solanum) 44 27 25 4.1

Halophyte (Atriplex) 39 10 31 19.7

Source: Colander (1992) in Foth and Ellis (1997) Soil Fertility

 Soil Fertility (cont..)

• Relative to plant demand!!! Not an

absolute term!!!

• A fertile soil for cassava not fertile for

wheat (different soil pH demands)
– Cassava well adapted to acid soils whereas
wheat in neutral soils
 Soil Fertility (cont..)
• Specific requirements of individual
crop species different
So soil fertility is related to plant
species and their demand (type and
amount)
But, a nutrient rich soil is not
necessarily a productive one
 Soil Productivity
• Def. Soil Productivity: the capacity of a
soil for producing a specific quantity of
produce or sequence of plants under
specified system of management

Productivity emphasize the capacity of

the soil to produce crops and should be
expressed in terms of yield