Abstract
<p><strong>Background.</strong> There is a need to understand multipurpose trees promotory or inhibitory allelopathic effects prior to selection of any crop to be cultivated in their vicinity. <strong>Objective.</strong> Present study was carried out during 2019 on Arba Minch University Research Farm with the specific objectives of to investigate the effect of leaf extract of some multipurpose trees and its concentrations on growth and production of Maize. <strong>Methodology.</strong> Leaf extracts of 3 species namely <em>Moringa stenopetala, Croton macrostachyus</em> and <em>Terminalia brownii</em> were tested at 5 concentration levels (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). The experiment was laid out with Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. The leaf extract was applied at biweekly interval right from its emergence. <strong>Results. </strong>The growth components which were significantly affected by the application of leaf extracts include leaf length, leaf area, stem thickness and days to tasseling of maize while effect of leaf extract on plant height, number of leaves plants<sup>-1</sup>, days to silking and days to maturity was found non significant. On the other hand with the exception of number of cobs plant<sup>-1</sup> all yield and yield components, like number of grains row<sup>-1</sup>, number of grains column<sup>-1</sup>, number of grains cobs<sup>-1</sup>, 1000-seed weight of cob, length of cob, diameter of cob, fresh and dry yield of maize were significantly varied with leaf extracts of the selected MPTs and their concentration levels. The application of leaf extract resulted in increase in yield from 6.95 T ha<sup>-1</sup> (control) to 8.95 T ha<sup>-1</sup>, 7.58 T ha<sup>-1</sup> and 7.40 T ha<sup>-1</sup> for <em>Croton macrostachyus</em>, <em>Moringa stenopetala</em> and <em>Terminalia brownii</em> respectively. <strong>Implications. </strong>The results of the present study contribute in knowing the positive or negative effect of leaf extract of three MPTs on Maize production.<strong> Conclusions. </strong>It can be concluded that introduction of these multipurpose trees in farmland under agroforestry system is safe and without any inhibitory allelopathy. Thus leaf extract application of these species are recommended for further improvement of maize yield. </p>
Highlights
Farmers are practicing agroforestry to sustain the productivity of farm’s land in humid tropic farming system including Ethiopia (Nair, 1993)
Maximum plant height (231.67 cm) and leaf length (97.55 cm) was recorded for Moringa stenopetala whereas, maximum leaf area (913.9 cm2), stem thickness (104 mm) and number of leaves plant-1 (9.20) was recorded for Croton macrostachyus while Terminalia brownii extract except height
The current study revealed the effect of leaf extracts were more pronounced with increases in its concentration
Summary
Farmers are practicing agroforestry to sustain the productivity of farm’s land in humid tropic farming system including Ethiopia (Nair, 1993). Its a source of security for rural community in many African countries by providing food, energy (Koffi et al, 2016) and source of income for the people (Garrity et al, 2010) These woody species having the capacity to sustain productivity of farmlands basically through enhancing soil fertility and reducing the erosion hazards. Farmers are keep on growing multipurpose trees (MPTs) on their farm for diversified products and services without knowing its shortcomings, such as allelopathic effect on crop growth and production These MPTs are either inter-cropped or cultivated as shelter belts with economically important crops (Chaudhry, 2003) which improves physical and chemical property of soil periodically and contributes to its organic matter contents by littering (Singh and Sharma, 2007). Litter fall from these trees upon decomposition may pose allelopathic stress upon crops growing in their vicinity
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