Abstract
An experiment was established in 1986 to examine the contribution of Tephrosia candida and Cajanus cajan shrubs to improving the productivity of an acid soil. The main treatments were N levels (0 and 60 kg ha-1) with subplots of maize/natural bush, maize/Tephrosia candida, maize/Cajanus cajan, maize + cassava/natural bush, maize + cassava/Tephrosia candida, and maize + cassava/Cajanus cajan. In 1988, all plots were cleared and maize uniformly planted to study the residual effects of the treatments. No residual effects of N application were observed. Tephrosia candiada and Cajanus cajan increased surface soil organic carbon and total N levels over the natural bush. However, only Tephrosia candida plots produced improved maize grain and stover yield. Highly significant correlations were found between maize grain yield and earleaf N (r=0.73**), grain N (r=0.51**), and stover N (r=0.54**) contents. These results suggest that Tephrosia candida increased N availability in the soil. Therefore, the shrub has potential for improving the productivity of acid soils under traditional systems, where N is limiting due to the absence of N2-fixing legumes in the natural bush fallow.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aweto P M 1981 Secondary succession and soil fertility restoration in southwestern Nigeria. III. Soil and vegetation interrelationships. J. Ecology 69, 957–963.
Date R A 1973 Nitrogen, a major limitation in the productivity of natural communities, crops and pastures in the Pacific area. Soil Biol. Biochem. 5, 5–18.
Ewel J J 1976 Designing agricultural ecosystems for the humid tropics. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 17, 245–271.
Gichuru M P and Kang B T 1989 Calliandra calothyrsus (Meissn.) in an alley cropping system with sequentially cropped maize and cowpea in southwestern Nigeria. Agrof. Syst. 9, 191–203.
Jaiyebo E O and Moore A W 1964 Soil fertility and nutrient storage in different soil-vegetation systems in a tropical rainforest environment. Tropical Agric. (Trin.) 41, 130–138.
Juo A S R and Lal R 1977 The effect of fallow and continuous cultivation on the chemical and physical properties of an Alfisol in western Nigeria. Plant and Soil 47, 567–584.
Kang B T and Wilson G F 1987 The development of alley cropping as a promising agroforestry technology. In Agroforestry: A Decade of Development. Eds. H ASteppler and P K RNair. International Council for Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya.
MacDicken K G 1990 Agroforestry management in the humid tropics, In Agroforestry: Classification and Management. Eds. K GMacDicken and N TVergara. pp 98–149. Wiley, New York.
Nye P H 1958 The relative importance of fallow and soils in storing plant nutrients in Ghana. J. West Afri. Sci. Assoc. 4, 31–41.
Nye P H and Greenland D J 1960 Soils under Shifting Cultivation. Tech. Communication 51. Commonwealth Bureau of Soils, Farnham, UK.
Padwick G W 1983 Fifty years of experimental agriculture. II. The maintenance of soil fertility in tropical Africa: A review. Expl. Agric. 19, 293–310.
Raintree J B 1990 Theory and practice for agroforestry diagnosis and design. In Agroforestry: Classification and Management. Eds. K GMacDicken and N TVergara. pp 58–97. Wiley, New York.
SAS Institute Staff 1985 SAS Users' Guide, 1985 Ed. Statistical Analysis Systems Institute Inc., Cary, NC.
Tel D and Rao P 1982 Automated and semi-automated methods for soil and plant analysis. IITA Manual Series No. 7. Intern. Inst. Trop. Agric., Ibadan, Nigeria.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gichuru, M.P. Residual effects of natural bush, Cajanus cajan and Tephrosia candida on the productivity of an acid soil in southeastern Nigeria. Plant Soil 134, 31–36 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00010714
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00010714