mwfertiliserpilot: Data from maize fertiliser survey in Ntonda EPA, Southern Malawi

People involved

• Colin Walder 0009-0006-0969-1954 author, creator
• Cyrus Llyod contributor
• Davis Banda contributor
• Hildah Bonongwe contributor
• Kondwani Nantchito 0009-0008-5773-129Х contributor
• Mayamiko Mbedza 0009-0005-3787-7492 contributor
• Phalyce George contributor
• Elizabeth Tilley 0000-0002-2095-9724 contributor

Maize plays a central role in Malawi, yet best practices regarding its cultivation are rarely followed. Often, too much or too little fertilizer is used per planting station, spacing between and across planting stations varies widely and the appropriate seeds are rarely used.

This dataset contains fertilizer management data from 129 farmers in the Ntonda Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Blantyre District in southern Malawi. Over a period of one week, farmers in different sections of the EPA were interviewed about their practices regarding maize cultivation. In addition, samples of both basal (NPK) and topdressing (urea) fertilizer were taken (basal_fertilizer_grams and topdressing_fertilizer_grams) to better understand how much fertilizer is used per planting station.

Installation

You can install the development version of mwfertiliserpilot from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("openwashdata/mwfertiliserpilot")

Alternatively, you can download the individual datasets as a CSV or XLSX file from the table below.

dataset	CSV	XLSX
mwfertiliserpilot	Download CSV	Download XLSX

Data

library(mwfertiliserpilot)

mwfertiliserpilot

The dataset mwfertiliserpilot contains data from 129 farmers regarding their maize fertilizer management in Ntonda EPA, Blantyre District, Malawi.

For an overview of the variable names, see the following table.

variable_name	variable_type	description
start	double	Survey start
end	double	Survey end
today	double	Survey date
consent	character	Do you give consent to proceed with this survey?
village_name	character	Please enter the name of the village.
gvh_name	character	Please enter the name of the group village head (GVH).
ta_name	character	Please enter the name of the traditional authority (TA).
farmer_gender	character	Please enter the farmer’s gender.
farmer_age	double	Please enter the farmer’s age.
farmer_hoh	character	Are you the head of the household?
hoh_education	character	What is your highest level of education?
n_years_farming	character	How many years have you been farming?
own_livestock	character	Do you own any livestock (cows, chickens, pigs, etc.)?
own_livestock_animals	character	Do you own…?
own_livestock_animals.cows	integer	NA
own_livestock_animals.chickens	integer	NA
own_livestock_animals.pigs	integer	NA
own_livestock_animals.goats	integer	NA
own_livestock_animals.sheep	integer	NA
own_livestock_animals.other	integer	NA
farming_main_income	character	Is farming your household’s main source of income?
household_main_income	character	What is your household’s main source of income?
n_acres_farm	double	How large is your farm (in acres)?
n_acres_maize	double	How much area is dedicated to maize farming (in acres)?
source_water_farm	character	Is this area rain-fed or part of an irrigation scheme?
chem_fertilizer	character	Did you apply chemical fertilizer this year?
chem_fertilizer_type	character	What chemical fertilizer do you use?
n_bags_npk	double	How many bags of NPK did you apply THIS YEAR?
n_bags_npk_subsidized	double	How many of those were subsidised?
price_bags_npk_nonsubsidized	double	How much did you pay for a full-priced bag of NPK?
price_bags_npk_subsidized	double	How much did you pay for a subsidised bag of NPK?
enough_bags_npk	character	Was this enough NPK to meet your needs?
n_bags_npk_desired	double	How many bags of NPK would you have liked?
n_bags_npk_buying_next_year	double	How many bags of NPK will you try to buy for the coming year?
n_bags_urea	double	How many bags of urea did you apply THIS YEAR?
n_bags_urea_subsidized	double	How many of those were subsidised?
price_bags_urea_nonsubsidized	double	How much did you pay for a full-priced bag of urea?
price_bags_urea_subsidized	double	How much did you pay for a subsidised bag of urea?
enough_bags_urea	character	Was this enough urea to meet your needs?
n_bags_urea_desired	double	How many bags of urea would you have liked?
n_bags_urea_buying_next_year	double	How many bags of urea will you try to buy for the coming year?
able_buy_bags_past	character	Were you able to buy all the fertilizer you require 5 years ago?
n_bags_maize_t1_season	double	How many bags of maize did you harvest in the last growing season?
n_bags_maize_t2_season	double	How many bags of maize did you harvest two growing seasons ago?
n_bags_maize_t3_season	double	How many bags of maize did you harvest three growing seasons ago?
fertilizer_comparison_5years	character	Do you need more, less or the same amount of chemical fertilizer to grow the same amount of maize now as you did 5 years ago?
same_tool_for_fertilizer	character	Do you use the same tool to apply NPK (basal) and urea (topdressing)?
single_tool_fertilizer	character	What tool do you use to apply them?
single_tool_fertilizer_other	character	Please specify.
tool_basal_fertilizer	character	What tool do you use to apply NPK (basal fertilizer) in your field?
tool_basal_fertilizer_other	character	Please specify.
tool_topdressing_fertilizer	character	What tool do you use to apply urea (topdressing fertilizer) in your field?
tool_topdressing_fertilizer_other	character	Please specify.
timing_fertilizer	character	Do you apply NPK and urea at different times or the same time?
timing_fertilizer_mix_ntimes	character	Do you apply the mix once or twice?
timing_fertilizer_mix	character	When do you apply them?
timing_fertilizer_mix_other	character	Please specify.
place_fertilizer_mix	character	Where do you apply them?
place_fertilizer_mix_other	logical	Please specify.
ratio_fertilizer_mix_npk	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio? Enter the number for NPK:
ratio_fertilizer_mix_urea	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio? Enter the number for urea:
timing_fertilizer_mix_t1	character	When do you apply them for the first application?
timing_fertilizer_mix_t1_other	logical	Please specify.
place_fertilizer_mix_t1	character	Where do you apply them for the first application?
place_fertilizer_mix_t1_other	logical	Please specify.
ratio_fertilizer_mix_t1_npk	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio for the first application? Enter the number for NPK:
ratio_fertilizer_mix_t1_urea	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio for the first application? Enter the number for urea:
timing_fertilizer_mix_t2	character	When do you apply them for the second application?
timing_fertilizer_mix_t2_other	character	Please specify.
place_fertilizer_mix_t2	character	Where do you apply them for the second application?
place_fertilizer_mix_t2_other	logical	Please specify.
ratio_fertilizer_mix_t2_npk	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio for the second application? Enter the number for NPK:
ratio_fertilizer_mix_t2_urea	double	What’s the NPK to urea ratio for the second application? Enter the number for urea:
timing_basal_fertilizer	character	When do you apply NPK (basal fertilizer)?
timing_basal_fertilizer_other	logical	Please specify.
place_basal_fertilizer	character	Where do you apply NPK (basal fertilizer)?
place_basal_fertilizer_other	logical	Please specify.
timing_topdressing	character	When do you apply urea (topdressing fertilizers)?
timing_topdressing_other	character	Please specify.
place_topdressing	character	Where do you apply urea (topdressing fertilizers)?
place_topdressing_other	logical	Please specify.
basal_fertilizer_grams	double	NA
topdressing_fertilizer_grams	double	NA
know_recommended_tools	character	Do you know the recommended cups (cups #5 or #8) for maize?
reason_no_use_scoop	character	Why are you not using them?
reason_no_use_scoop_other	character	Please elaborate.
would_use_scoop_if_given	character	Would you use the fertilizer scoops if they were given to you?
would_use_scoop_if_available	character	Would you buy the fertilizer scoops if available?
wtp_scoop	double	How much would you be willing to pay for the fertilizer scoops?
selling_points_scoop	character	Do you know where the scoops are sold?
selling_points_scoop_location	character	Can you state where?
know_price_scoop	character	Do you know how much it costs in the shop?
price_scoop	logical	How much?
type_seed	character	What type of seed do you use?
n_seeds	character	How many seeds do you plant per planting station?
planting_distance	double	Measure how far the planting stations are away from each other.
ridges_distance	double	Measure how far the ridges are away from each other.
several_plants_emerging	character	If multiple plants emerge from the same planting station, select “Yes”.
intercropping	character	Do you practice intercropping?
intercrop_type	character	What do you intercrop with?
intercrop_type_other	character	Please specify.
pesticide_use	character	Do you use pesticides?
fertilizer_subsidy_received	character	Were you a beneficiary of fertilizer subsidies this year?
concern_fertilizer_removed	character	How concerned are you about fertilizer subsidies being removed?
concern_fertilizer_removed_explain	character	Please explain.
fertilizer_programme_effective	character	Do you think the fertilizer subsidy programme reaches the people it is meant to?
fertilizer_programme_improvements	character	Do you think the fertilizer subsidy programme could be improved?
fertilizer_programme_improvements_explain	character	Please explain.
apply_org_fertilizer	character	Do you apply organic fertilizers to your fields?
origin_org_fertilizer	character	Where are you getting the organic fertilizer from?
how_apply_org_fertilizer	character	How do you apply it?
challenges_org_fertilizer	character	Do you have any challenges with organic fertilizers?
type_challenges_org_fertilizer	character	What challenges do you have?
type_challenges_org_fertilizer_other	character	Please elaborate.
sufficient_org_fertilizer	character	Do you think organic fertilizers would be sufficient for your fields without any chemical fertilizer?
subsidies_org_fertilizer	character	Should the government subsidise organic fertilizers?
health_soil_now	character	How healthy do you think your soils are?
health_soil_t10	character	How healthy do you think your soils were 10 years ago?
reasons_changes	character	Why do you think so?
suggestions_soil_improvement	character	What do you think should be done to restore/maintain/improve the soil health in your field?
final_comments	character	Do you have anything else you would like to tell us?
end_message	character	Thank you for your time. The survey is now finished. Thank the person for their availability, time and answers. Ask if they have any further questions. This space allows you to report anything that may have been unusual during the survey.
uuid	character	NA

Example

library(mwfertiliserpilot)
library(tidyverse)

hist(mwfertiliserpilot$n_acres_maize,
     main = "Acres dedicated to maize farming",
     xlab = "Acres")

mwfertiliserpilot |> 
  ggplot(aes(x = n_acres_maize, y = n_bags_npk)) +
  geom_point() +
  geom_smooth(method = "lm") +
  labs(title = "Relationship between maize cultivation area and basal fertilizer used",
       x = "\nAcres",
       y = "Bags of NPK\n") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(panel.grid.minor = element_blank())

mwfertiliserpilot |> 
  group_by(chem_fertilizer) |> 
  count() |> 
  ungroup() |> 
  mutate(rel_freq = n/sum(n)) |> 
  ggplot(aes(x = chem_fertilizer, y = rel_freq)) +
  geom_col() +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::label_percent()) +
  labs(title = "Do you use chemical fertilizer?",
       x = "",
       y = "") +
  theme_minimal() +
  theme(panel.grid.major.x = element_blank())

boxplot(mwfertiliserpilot$topdressing_fertilizer_grams,
        ylab = "Grams",
        main = "Distribution of topdressing (urea) fertilizer applied per planting station")

License

Data are available as CC-BY.

Citation

Please cite this package using:

citation("mwfertiliserpilot")
#> To cite package 'mwfertiliserpilot' in publications use:
#> 
#>   Walder C (2024). _mwfertiliserpilot: Pilot survey data on maize
#>   cultivation in Ntonda EPA, Malawi_. R package version 0.0.0.9000.
#> 
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#> 
#>   @Manual{,
#>     title = {mwfertiliserpilot: Pilot survey data on maize cultivation in Ntonda EPA, Malawi},
#>     author = {Colin Walder},
#>     year = {2024},
#>     note = {R package version 0.0.0.9000},
#>   }