1. Does the combination of conservation agriculture and fertilizer microdosing improve soil chemical properties in semi-arid Zimbabwe in the short term?

Crop yields in the fragile semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe have been declining over time due to decline in soil fertility resulting mainly from droughts and lack of fertilizers. However, conservation agriculture (CA) and fertilizer micro-dosing (MD) have the potential to sustainably improve crop yields. A field experiment was set-up to assess the effects of integrating CA and MD on soil quality. It was hypothesized that the two practices improve soil chemical properties (soil organic carbon (SOC),... A. Shumba