Abstract:
Poor crop productivity, high cost of inorganic
fertilizers and low crop response to inorganic fertilizers are
major problems that affect sustainability of crop production
in Kenya. Application of inorganic fertilizers at rates much
below the recommendation, which is mainly due to the
limited economic capacity of smallholder farmers, has
become the underlying cause of poor crop productivity
along with the worsening soil acidity. Hence, the present
study was carried out to find out the effect of integrated soil
fertility management on the productivity of tea Timbilil tea
estate. Kericho, Kenya. The trial was set up in a
Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three
replicates. Forty-two composite soil samples were collected
randomly from each of the experimental plots. The data
collection process included soil sampling during the short
rain season in 2017 and annual tea yield sampling. The
samples were analyzed for total organic matter, nitrogen
content, bulk density, porosity, soil pΗ, porosity, particle
density and soil moisture content. The data obtained were
subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using MSTAT-C
programme package. SPSS version17.0 was used to analyse
Pearson correlation and all the data presented in tables
and figures. The tea yields determined showed a weak
positive correlation between SOM and yields.The tea yields
determined showed a weak positive correlation between
SOM and yields. Results showed that fertilizer types
significantly (p≤0.05) affected SOM with enriched sheep
manure giving the highest values. Fertilizer rates had no
significant (p≤0.05) difference on SOM. Fertilizer
application at the highest rate of 240 kg N/ha had the
lowest SOM content, which means high fertilizer
application, causes more harm than good.From the results
obtained it can be concluded that enriched manures tend to
increase SOM content in soil which improve productivity
and is recommended especially in the tea industry
