Nutrients are essential in crop production. Despite nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers being applied, crop yields remain low in most African countries, including Zambia. This may be due to limited availability of other essential nutrients, such as zinc and boron. The aim of this thesis is to improve the understanding of crop yield response to the addition of both major and minor nutrients. First, changes in water limited crop yield, which is the basis for assessing nutrient requirements, are predicted under two climate change scenarios. Then, results of innovative multi-nutrient omission, addition and interaction experiments for maize are presented. Maize yield responses to nutrient additions are evaluated as a function of soil nutrient availability, focusing on single nutrient impacts and nutrient interactions with a focus on P, Zn and B. Implications of the results for fertilizer recommendation systems for maize in Zambia are finally presented.