Soil Fertility Status of Kagera Region and the “Organic-by-Default” Coffee Paradigm: A Meta-Analysis of Existing Database

Maro G.P.^1, , Ng’homa N.M.², Mbwambo S.G.¹, Monyo H.E.¹ and Mosi E.J.¹

¹TaCRI Lyamungu Soil Fertility Laboratory, P.O. Box 3004 Moshi, TANZANIA

²TaCRI Maruku, Bukoba, TANZANIA

Cite this paper

Maro G.P., Ng’homa N.M., Mbwambo S.G., Monyo H.E. and Mosi E.J.. Soil Fertility Status of Kagera Region and the “Organic-by-Default” Coffee Paradigm: A Meta-Analysis of Existing Database. World Journal of Agricultural Research. 2024; 12(1):1-7. doi: 10.12691/WJAR-12-1-1

Abstract

Coffee farmers in Kagera Region do not believe in application of industrial fertilizers in their farms, calling their produce “organic by default”. They claim that their soils are too fertile to need industrial fertilizers. TaCRI undertook to verify this claim. Soil fertility data for the region were extracted from the national coffee soil database built in 2015. A total of 73 georeferenced sites had seven parameters (pH, Ca, Mg, K, CEC, OC and total N) rated from zero (poor) to 4 (good). The average ratings were computed and categorized as 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, 3-4 and 4-5 as poor, marginal, moderate, satisfactory and good fertility respectively. A subsample of 27 sites were additionally assessed for available P and particle size. Attributes of the 73 sites were loaded into ArcMap 10.7.1, whereby pH, CEC, BS, OC and C:N ratio were interpolated using the IDW algorithm and clipped on basis of the regional boundary shapefile extracted from the 2022 census polygon shapefile. The soils were marginally (34, 47%) to moderately (39, 53%) fertile where only seven parameters were assessed. With fewer sites and more parameters, the respective figures were 11 (41%) and 16 (59%). pH was increasing from northeast (Bukoba, Misenyi and Muleba) to southwest (Biharamulo, Ngara and Southern Karagwe). CEC was lower in Kyerwa, Karagwe and Muleba than Bukoba, Ngara and Biharamulo. The western half of Kagera had higher OC than its eastern counterpart. C:N ratios were generally less than 30, which is normal. This work has revealed that soils in Kagera are not as fertile as purported, thus disproving the “organic-by-default” paradigm. As such, farmers’ mind sets should be changed in favour of industrial fertilizers if we are ever to improve coffee productivity and approach the set national target of producing 300,000 metric tons of clean coffee annually by 2025/26.

Keywords

soil fertility, organic by default, meta-analysis, database, Kagera region

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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