Alfred Hartemink is a soil scientist at ISRIC in Wageningen. Prior to his current position he was lecturer in soil science at the University of Technology in Papua New Guinea. He holds an MSc in soil science from Wageningen Agricultural University, and has worked as a soil surveyor and soil fertility specialist in Tanzania, Zaire, Indonesia, and for ICRAF in Kenya. Dr Mike Bourke is an Adjunct ...

In this study, we selected four different color fleshed sweet potatoes, purple(Jizi 01), red(Xinong 431), yellow(Beijing 553) and white(Shangshu 19) fleshed cultivars as test materials, analyzed nutrient composition, dietary fiber content, anthocyanins quantification, and total phenolics content, and also measured their total antioxidant activity in four different types of sweet potato. In view...

Sloping agricultural land technology (SALT), a form of hedgerow intercropping (HI) system, has been accepted as an appropriate land management practice to overcome some soil related constraints faced by farmers in marginal lands in the wet zone of Sri Lanka. Despite its effectiveness in soil conservation and soil fertility improvement, farmers are reluctant to adopt this practice due to the lac...

Farmers in resource-poor areas of the Guinea Savanna zone Ghana often face declining soil fertility due to continuous removal nutrient-rich harvested produce from their fields. This study focuses on Lawra Municipality Ghana, where low fertility, specifically, limits phosphorus (P) bioavailability and hinders crop production. The objective this research is formulate P-enhanced biochar-compost ma...

Seaweeds have been introduced as an important sources of food and pharmaceutical active agents since last century. In this study, the chemical composition and functional characteristics of (common names) Nizamuddinia zanardinii and Iyengaria stellata, were investigated. The total carbohydrate and ash contents were the two most abundant components in these seaweeds but their crude lipid and fibe...

Wood contains the majority of the nutrients in tropical trees, yet controls over wood nutrient concentrations and their function are poorly understood. We measured wood nutrient concentrations in 106 tree species in 10 forest plots spanning a regional fertility gradient in Panama. For a subset of species, we quantified foliar nutrients and wood density to test whether wood nutrients scale with ...

Unraveling nutrient imbalances in contemporary agriculture is a research priority to improve whenever possible yield and nutrient use efficiency in sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) systems while minimizing the costs of cultivation (e.g., use of fertilizers) and environmental concerns. The main goal of this study was therefore to investigate biomass and nutrient [nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and pota...