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Variability in crop response and nutrient use efficiencies to fertilizer application is quite common under varying soil and climatic conditions. Understanding such variability is vital to develop farm-and area-specific soil nutrient management and fertilizer recommendations. Hence the objectives of this study were to assess maize grain yield response to nutrient applications for identifying yield-limiting nutrients and to understand the magnitude of nutrient use efficiencies under varying soil and rainfall conditions. A total of 150 on-farm nutrient omission trials (NOTs) were conducted on farmers’ field in high rainfall and moisture stress areas. The treatments were control, PK, NK, NP, NPK and NPK+ secondary and micronutrients. Maize grain yield, nutrient uptake, agronomic and recovery efficiencies of N and P differed between fertilizer treatments and between the contrasting agro-ecologies. The AE N ranged from 24.8 to …