Cassava and soil fertility in intensifying smallholder farming systems of East Africa

Cassava is an important crop in Africa. This thesis focuses on cassava production in the mid altitude zone of East Africa, an area characterized by high population densities, bimodal rainfall patterns and relatively poor soils. The overall aim was to better understand the roles and production constraints of cassava in order to explore opportunities to improve the productivity and sustainability of intensifying cassava- based smallholder farming systems in East Africa. Increasing land pressure has changed agricultural landscapes from traditional millet-, cotton-, sugarcane- or banana-based systems with an important fallow component to continuously, cultivated cassava-based systems...