Abstract
With slash-and-burn agriculture, changes in soil properties occur, which could influence crop production and future soil fertility recommendations. The objectives of this study were to: Identify dynamic soil properties that could be used to monitor soil quality; evaluate residual effects of slash-and-burn; and establish P and K fertilizer equivalence values of ash from slash-and-burn. Each experimental site was divided into 3 blocks within which treatments were randomly allocated. Broadcast burning and pile burning were carried out as practiced by local farmers. Soil samples were collected before burning (control), immediately after burning (burned) and one year after burning and cropping (burned-cropped), hereafter referred to as treatments. Soil samples were analyzed following standard analytical methods. P and K fertilizer equivalence values of the soil tests immediately before burning and after one year cropping of burned land were established and compared. The most sensitive soil properties to slash-and-burn were coarse silt, fine silt, pH, organic carbon (OC), total N (totN), P, Ca, Mg, K, Na, exchange acidity, effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) and base saturation (BS). Between 47 and 87% of increases in content of exchangeable bases and available P resulting from burning of forest vegetation cover is lost after one year of cropping positive. Benefits in soil P and K attributed to slash and burn agriculture after one year cropping in terms of fertilizer equivalence was between 1 to 18 kg P2O5 and 22 to 76 K2O. P and K fertilizer recommendations for targeted crop yields based on the initial soil fertility status of the secondary forest in the humid forest zone of Cameroon should be 9 kg P2O5 and 49 kg K2O less in the second year of cropping. Key words: Slash-and-burn, soil properties, humid forest zone, shifting cultivation, Southern-Cameroon.
Highlights
Slash and burn agriculture is practiced by many rural farmers in the humid forest region of Cameroon
P and K fertilizer recommendations for targeted crop yields based on the initial soil fertility status of the secondary forest in the humid forest zone of Cameroon should be 9 kg P2O5 and 49 kg K2O less in the second year of cropping
Burning takes place in two steps: Broadcast burn followed by pile and burn (Ketterings et al, 1999), after which a mixture of annual and perennial food crops are established without widespread soil tillage, for one to four cropping cycles
Summary
The reasons for using fire as a land clearing method are that fire is a very cheap means to increase accessibility and management of new farms, addition of wood ash (nutrients), improvement of the soil structure, reduction in weed and tree re-growth and decreased occurrence of pests and diseases (Ketterings et al, 1999).Both negative and positive effects have been reported on burning activities on soils and crop production. Some studies have shown that burning activities increase availability of plant nutrients (Nigussie and Kissi, 2011), burning of biomass for conventional land preparation methods have a net negative impact on soil properties as well as on the environment (Pantami et al, 2010, Nigussie and Kissi, 2011). These drawbacks called for the introduction of alternatives to slash-and-burn
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