Jane Muthoni

Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), National Potato Research Centre, Tigoni, Kenya
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 25   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2016.06.0025
Received: 22 Sep., 2016    Accepted: 23 Nov., 2016    Published: 14 Dec., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Muthoni J., 2016, Soil fertility situation in potato producing kenyan highlands—case of KALRO-tigoni, International Journal of Horticulture, 6(25): 1-11 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2016.06.0025)

Low soil fertility is an important factor limiting potato production in the Kenyan highlands; the situation is no better at Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) station at Tigoni, which is the national potato research centre. In addition to inherent low soil fertility, fertilizer use in potato production in the country is below the recommended rates. The situation is compounded by the low soil pH which in most cases result Soil fertility; Soil pH; Potato Production in nutrient imbalances. Though soils in most potato growing areas in the country have low pH due to acidic parent rock, the commonly used fertilizer for potato production di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) (18:46:0) has been lowering the soil pH even further over time. In order to alleviate the situation, there is need to change the fertilizers used in potato production in Kenya.

Soil fertility; Soil pH; Potato Production