Agroforestry systems and soil surface management of a tropical alfisol:

✍ Scribed by R. Lal

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 709 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-4366
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00123116

✦ Synopsis

Effects of three agroforestry systems were evaluated on changes in soil chemical properties over a period of 12 consecutive crops of maize-cowpea rotation grown on a tropical Alfisol in southwestern Nigeria. Measurements of soil chemical properties for 0-5 cm depths were made over a period of 5 consecutive years from 1982 through 1986. Six treatments studied were plow-till, no-till, Leucaena hedgerows established on the contour at 4-m and 2-m spacing and Gliricidia hedgerows established at 4-m and 2-m spacings.

Soil organic matter, total N, pH and exchangeable bases declined significantly in all treatments. In contrast, total acidity and exchangeable A1 +3 increased. Relative magnitude of changes in these properties, however, were different among treatments. Depletion of soil fertility was the most severe in plow-till and the least severe in Leucaena-based systems. There was an evidence of increase in soil pH and exchangeable bases in the soil during third and fourth years of hedgerow establishment.