Cotton as an entry point for soil fertility maintenance and food crop productivity in savannah agroecosystems-Evidence from a long-term experiment in southern Mali

Despite low level of soil organic matter, crops responded to organic or inorganic fertilization and crop productivity over time was mostly influenced by the interaction between fertilization and rainfall variability. Our results highlight the role of cotton in West African landscapes as an entry point of nutrients via fertilization, which impacts positively on the productivity of the other crops in the rotation. Credit schemes by the cotton company for farmers to purchase fertilizer to which they would otherwise not have access are thus crucial for sustained crop productivity.