Abstract
Two field experiments were conducted at Ellembelle and Jomoro districts in the Western region of Ghana where rubber cultivation is a predominant farming activity. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of rubber and plantain intercropping systems on selected soil properties. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 3 replications. The treatments were the sole crop rubber (R), sole crop plantain (P) and three intercrop systems comprising an additive series of plantain: one row of plantain to one row of rubber (PR), two rows of plantain to one row of rubber (PPR) and three rows of plantain to one row of rubber (PPPR). Generally, agroforestry systems improved the soil hydraulic properties considerably, with the highest cumulative infiltration rates of 5.16 and 8.68 cm/min observed under the PPPR systems at the Ellembelle and Jomoro sites, respectively. Microbial biomass C (Cmic), N (Nmic) and P (Pmic) was significantly improved (P < 0.05) under the agroforestry than the monocrop systems. The Cmic, Nmic and Pmic values were highest under the PPPR system at both Ellembelle (Cmic, = 139.9 mg/kg; Nmic = 36.26 mg/kg and Pmic = 87.6 mg/kg) and Jomoro (Cmic = 78.7 mg/kg; Nmic = 80.3 mg/kg and Pmic = 3.45 mg/kg) sites.
Highlights
Natural rubber production in Africa is about 5% of the world’s production, with Cote d’lvoire being the lead producer (300,000 tonnes per annum), followed by Liberia
The results revealed that cropping systems had no significant effect on bulk density for the different sampling depths, high bulk density values were observed under the PPPR and R systems in the 0–15 and 15–30 cm depths at Jomoro, and PPPR in both 0–15 and 15–30 cm depths at Ellembelle (Table 2)
High levels of microbial biomass C and N were observed in the high plantain density plots
Summary
Natural rubber production in Africa is about 5% of the world’s production, with Cote d’lvoire being the lead producer (300,000 tonnes per annum), followed by Liberia. Farmers resort to intercropping rubber with short duration annual and perennial crops to offset the six years of income gap between the time of establishment and latex production. This practice is an evidence of studies which have reported that rubber agroforestry reduces the cost of the management of the plantation by ensuring early generation of revenue to the farmer in the immaturity period of the rubber [3,4,5]. Few studies have suggested that rubber agroforestry systems improve soil properties [8], and rate of growth of rubber [9]
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