15.03.2015 Views

Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in ... - cimmyt

Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in ... - cimmyt

Grain Legumes and Green Manures for Soil Fertility in ... - cimmyt

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

GREEN MANURE AND FOOD LEGUMES RESEARCH TO INCREASE SOIL<br />

FERTILITY AND MAIZE YIELDS IN MALAWI: A REVIEW<br />

Summary<br />

WEBSTER SAKALA1 <strong>and</strong> WEZI MHANG0 2<br />

1 Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, P. O. Box 158, Lilongwe,<br />

2 Bunda College of Agriculture, P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi<br />

This review was conducted <strong>in</strong> 2002 to document research on the soil fertility effects of green manures <strong>and</strong> food legumes<br />

on the dom<strong>in</strong>ant maize-based farm<strong>in</strong>g systems <strong>in</strong> Malawi. The f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>gs <strong>in</strong>dicated that green manures <strong>and</strong> gra<strong>in</strong> legume<br />

crops have great potential to <strong>in</strong>crease maize production <strong>and</strong> improve soil fertility. A great deal of work has been done.<br />

This can be grouped under the follow<strong>in</strong>g subhead<strong>in</strong>gs: the potential of green manures to improve soil fertility <strong>and</strong> the<br />

yield of maize; comb<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong>puts from organic <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong>organic (m<strong>in</strong>eral) sources; effect of time of residue <strong>in</strong>corporation on<br />

maize gra<strong>in</strong> yield; effect of cropp<strong>in</strong>g system (<strong>in</strong>tercropp<strong>in</strong>g or rotation) on maize yield; effect of method of residue application;<br />

<strong>and</strong> the role of apply<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>organic fertilizers on the per<strong>for</strong>mance ofgreen manures <strong>and</strong> gra<strong>in</strong> legumes <strong>in</strong> Malawi<br />

maize-based systems. Most of the work that we have found <strong>and</strong> reviewed lacks socio-economic studies <strong>and</strong> this needs far<br />

more attention <strong>in</strong> the future.<br />

Key words: <strong>Green</strong> manures, gra<strong>in</strong> legumes, maize, Malawi<br />

Introduction<br />

This paper reviews some of the soil fertility research<br />

activities conducted <strong>in</strong> Malawi on green manures<br />

<strong>and</strong> annual food legumes. The objective was to<br />

document what has been done <strong>in</strong> Malawi on these<br />

legumes <strong>for</strong> <strong>in</strong>creas<strong>in</strong>g soil fertility <strong>in</strong> maize-based<br />

cropp<strong>in</strong>g systems. In<strong>for</strong>mation was collected from<br />

the libraries <strong>and</strong> annual reports of the Department<br />

of Agricultural Research on·work carried out by scientists<br />

at research stations,<strong>and</strong> on farm.<br />

General Characteristi

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!