ABSTRACT
Imbalanced fertilizer application is identified as one of the major reasons for low maize productivity in South Asia. Despite the proven economic, social and environmental benefits of balanced fertilization, its adoption at the farm level is low. The lack of appropriate tools and implementation mechanisms has been a major hindrance that restricted the wide-scale adoption of balanced fertilization. The International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and its partner organizations in South Asia have jointly developed a user-friendly dynamic nutrient management tool, Nutrient Expert® (NE), that can generate farm-specific fertilizer recommendation for maize. The tool is based on the site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) principles (Pampolino et al., 2012) and utilizes information of the growing environment to provide science-based balanced fertilizer recommendations for maize that are tailored to a particular location, cropping system and farmer resource availability.
