This report describes standardized data for “Options available for the management of drought-tolerant maize varieties and conservation agriculture practices in Malawi”. These data were standardized on 2023-06-21 by Mitchelle Njukuya with this R script. The original data have a CIMMYT license. Because of the restrictions of this license, you need to run the script yourself to get the standardized data.

This is the full citation of the data set:

Thierfelder, Christian (2016). Options available for the management of drought-tolerant maize varieties and conservation agriculture practices in Malawi. CIMMYT Research Data & Software Repository Network. Version 1.1. hdl:11529/10829

The dataset has 3952 records and 27 variables for 5 crops (cowpea, groundnut, maize, pigeon pea, soybean) in Malawi.


These are the first 25 records:

records
trial_id planting_date harvest_date on_farm is_survey treatment rep crop intercrops dmy_total fwy_residue yield_part yield yield_moisture N_fertilizer P_fertilizer K_fertilizer irrigated plant_density country adm1 location longitude latitude geo_from_source
167 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize 2 maize NA 1772.4290 grain 3100.1962 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
171 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize 2 maize NA 1959.3142 grain 2545.4768 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
153 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize 2 maize NA 1187.6097 grain 1802.4741 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
171 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 1532.4632 grain 1692.6432 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
414 NA 2013 TRUE FALSE CA_groundnuts 3 groundnut 29660.569 NA grain 3128.6008 NA NA NA NA NA 96204.19 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
153 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_soybean 3 maize soybean NA 1347.9374 grain 2639.2733 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
62 NA 2007 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 2514.8148 grain 2598.5185 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
167 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 1779.6536 grain 2709.2998 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
55 NA 2007 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_pigeonpea 3 maize pigeon pea NA 7092.1986 grain 5348.7188 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
158 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_soybean 3 maize soybean NA 2547.6997 grain 3124.6939 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
450 NA 2014 TRUE FALSE CA1_legume 2 groundnut 8640.553 NA grain 2623.1822 NA NA NA NA NA 46098.34 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
146 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_soybean 3 maize soybean NA 2096.6400 grain 3120.8689 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
450 NA 2014 TRUE FALSE CA2_legume 3 groundnut 6710.838 NA grain 2462.4827 NA NA NA NA NA 45215.31 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
473 NA 2014 TRUE FALSE check_legume 1 groundnut 6709.658 NA grain 2098.6498 NA NA NA NA NA 48601.86 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
167 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_soybean 3 maize soybean NA 1924.7686 grain 3209.1183 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
158 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 2811.7704 grain 2785.1885 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
174 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 412.3026 grain 822.4366 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
174 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize 2 maize NA 1845.6452 grain 2184.1157 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
408 NA 2013 TRUE FALSE legume_intercrop NA pigeon pea 4451.429 NA grain 431.7246 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
153 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE conventional_control 1 maize NA 1211.6788 grain 1579.2478 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
390 NA 2013 TRUE FALSE check 1 groundnut 7028.817 NA grain 827.9749 NA NA NA NA NA 43314.08 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
390 NA 2013 TRUE FALSE CA_groundnuts 2 groundnut 10161.732 NA grain 1426.6575 NA NA NA NA NA 67050.69 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
62 NA 2007 TRUE FALSE CA_maize_pigeonpea 3 maize pigeon pea NA 3827.7512 grain 4371.7293 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
442 NA 2014 TRUE FALSE check_legume 1 groundnut 6013.190 NA grain 961.7370 NA NA NA NA NA 48307.57 Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE
158 NA 2009 TRUE FALSE CA_maize 2 maize NA 2031.9531 grain 2640.5844 NA NA NA NA NA NA Malawi Balaka Balaka 34.956 -14.979 FALSE


The observations were made at 14 locations. We have coordinates for 14 of these locations.


The standardization script emits the following non-compliance warnings.

type message
all NA treatment_vars
metadata treatment cannot be NA

The overall quality of the dataset, given the completeness of required variables was 3.8 on a scale of 10. See the table below

variable completeness (%)
planting_date 0
harvest_date 100
crop 100
variety 0
N_fertilizer 0
P_fertilizer 0
K_fertilizer 0
irrigated 0
latitude 0
longitude 0
location 100
adm 100
yield 100


The data are further summarized in the table below.

Variable Stats / Values Freqs (% of Valid) Graph Missing
trial_id [integer]
Mean (sd) : 383 (146.6)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
1 ≤ 439 ≤ 544
IQR (CV) : 187 (0.4)
 544 distinct values 0 (0.0%)
planting_date [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
harvest_date [integer]
Mean (sd) : 2012.8 (2.5)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
2005 ≤ 2014 ≤ 2015
IQR (CV) : 3 (0)
 11 distinct values 0 (0.0%)
on_farm [logical] 1. TRUE
3952(100.0%)
 0 (0.0%)
is_survey [logical] 1. FALSE
3952(100.0%)
 0 (0.0%)
treatment [character]
1. CA_maize
2. check
3. CA_maize_legume
4. conventional_control
5. CA_maize_cowpea
6. legume_intercrop
7. CA_maize_pigeonpea
8. CA1_legume
9. CA2_legume
10. check_legume
[ 46 others ]
1032(26.1%)
677(17.1%)
565(14.3%)
404(10.2%)
215(5.4%)
167(4.2%)
156(3.9%)
95(2.4%)
95(2.4%)
93(2.4%)
453(11.5%)
 0 (0.0%)
rep [integer]
Mean (sd) : 2 (0.8)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
1 ≤ 2 ≤ 4
IQR (CV) : 2 (0.4)
1:1254(33.1%)
2:1250(33.0%)
3:1252(33.1%)
4:29(0.8%)
 167 (4.2%)
crop [character]
1. cowpea
2. groundnut
3. maize
4. pigeon pea
5. soybean
72(1.8%)
374(9.5%)
3222(81.5%)
274(6.9%)
10(0.3%)
 0 (0.0%)
intercrops [character]
1. (Empty string)
2. cowpea
3. legume
4. maize
5. pigeon pea
6. soybean
7. velvet bean
2884(73.0%)
221(5.6%)
650(16.4%)
14(0.4%)
162(4.1%)
12(0.3%)
9(0.2%)
 0 (0.0%)
dmy_total [numeric]
Mean (sd) : 5685.6 (3801.3)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
394.2 ≤ 4784.3 ≤ 29660.6
IQR (CV) : 5067.1 (0.7)
 674 distinct values 3257 (82.4%)
fwy_residue [numeric]
Mean (sd) : 4367.8 (2451.4)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
0 ≤ 4100.3 ≤ 82032.4
IQR (CV) : 2578.8 (0.6)
 3153 distinct values 754 (19.1%)
yield_part [character] 1. grain
3952(100.0%)
 0 (0.0%)
yield [numeric]
Mean (sd) : 3414.5 (1971.9)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
0 ≤ 3223.2 ≤ 10145.8
IQR (CV) : 2988.9 (0.6)
 3888 distinct values 0 (0.0%)
yield_moisture [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
N_fertilizer [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
P_fertilizer [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
K_fertilizer [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
irrigated [logical]
All NA's
 3952 (100.0%)
plant_density [numeric]
Mean (sd) : 58176.4 (35426.9)
min ≤ med ≤ max:
9185 ≤ 52311.5 ≤ 207584.8
IQR (CV) : 60565.8 (0.6)
 640 distinct values 3288 (83.2%)
country [character] 1. Malawi
3952(100.0%)
 0 (0.0%)
adm1 [character]
1. Balaka
2. Dowa
3. Enyezini
4. Kasungu
5. Machinga
6. Mzimba
7. Nkhotakota
8. Salima
9. Zomba
1130(28.6%)
465(11.8%)
27(0.7%)
120(3.0%)
361(9.1%)
104(2.6%)
1133(28.7%)
330(8.4%)
282(7.1%)
 0 (0.0%)
location [character]
1. Malula
2. Mwansambo
3. Chipeni
4. Zidyana
5. Balaka
6. Machinga
7. Herbert
8. Linga
9. Chinguluwe
10. Songani
[ 4 others ]
414(10.5%)
404(10.2%)
393(9.9%)
393(9.9%)
374(9.5%)
361(9.1%)
342(8.7%)
336(8.5%)
330(8.4%)
282(7.1%)
323(8.2%)
 0 (0.0%)
geo_from_source [logical] 1. FALSE
3952(100.0%)
 0 (0.0%)