Abstract
Smallholder farmers influenced from the challenges of production constraints to afford farm family with surplus food. To improve this problem the present study was designed to evaluate legume shrubs hedgerow intercropping with maize. In the present study, the growth performance of Sesbania sesban and Cajanus cajan was evaluated to determine their potential in hedgerow intercropping. The result revealed that Sesbania sesban performs better than Cajanus cajan in terms of biomass provision in the successive pruning, mean height, branching, diameter at breast height and root collar diameter. Biomass produced from Sesbania sesban was significantly higher than Cajanus cajan, this plays great role in soil nutrient improvement and maize yield also increased. There was an increasing trend in soil properties in terms of organic C, total N, in legume treatments especially in Sesbania sesban hedgerow to the initial and control soils. Maize grain yield higher under Sesbania sesban hedgerow plot than Cajanus cajan, maize with fertilizer and control. This should be intensively demonstrated to sustain the agricultural production as an organic farming through integration of easily adapting, less competing with the companion crop, deep rooted and fast growing legume tree/shrub species. Further research is important in areas of determining decomposing rate of different parts, pruned biomass and potential species should be identified.
 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(1): 60-68, June 2021
Highlights
In many parts of the tropics and predominantly in tropical Africa, nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient to crop production
The treatments assigned for experimentation were maize grown between alley widths of Cajanus cajan (T1), maize grown between alley widths Sesbania sesban (T2), maize grown with inorganic fertilizer (T3) and maize grown without any addition of inorganic fertilizer or organic amendments (T4)
The mean height, root collar diameter, DBH and number branches of Sesbania sesban was significantly higher than that Cajanus cajan used in the current study
Summary
In many parts of the tropics and predominantly in tropical Africa, nitrogen (N) is the most limiting nutrient to crop production. Of balanced nutrients to the soil is essential to get desired crop yield. Costs of inorganic fertilizers limit their use in adequate quantities by most smallholder farmers. This has led to increased interest in development of integrated soil fertility management systems that incorporate woody species into crop production systems where leafy biomass provides N to the annual crop (Kang et al, 1990). Much of the decline in soil quality is linked to human population growth and organic matter loss due to intensive cultivation. Loss of soil quality is explained through increased bulk density, reduced inorganic matter content and availability of soil nutrients. Maintenance of soil quality is considered essential for ensuring sustainable land use; and land resource management must aim at soil conservation (Parysow et al, 2001)
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