Thursday, 10 November 2005
306-5

This presentation is part of: Management Technologies for Sustainable Crop Production

Roles for Herbaceous and Grain Legumes, Kraal Manure and Inorganic Fertilizer for Soil Fertility Management in Eastern Uganda.

Kayuki C. Kaizzi, John Byalebeka, Charles S. Wortmann, and Martha Mamo.

Sorghum is an important food crop in the dry areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. Grain yield is often constrained by low soil fertility, even in semi-arid areas. Farmer participatory research was conducted in three drought prone areas of Uganda to validate and fine-tune alternative strategies for soil fertility management for sorghum production. The strategies included: planting of herbaceous and grain legumes in improved fallow and in rotation with sorghum; application of low rates of kraal manure in combination with inorganic-N; and application of low levels of N and P fertilizers. Mucuna pruriens on average produced 7 Mg ha-1 dry matter accumulating an average of 160 kg N ha-1 across the three sites. There was a significant increase in sorghum grain yield in response to the alternative strategies. Mean grain yield was increased by 0.9 Mg ha-1 above the farmer practice (0.8 Mg ha-1 grain) with application of 2.5 Mg ha-1 of kraal manure, and also with application of low levels of N and P. When of kraal manure was applied together with 30 kg N ha-1, grain yield was increased by 1.6 Mg ha-1. The increase in sorghum grain yield in response to preceding mucuna fallow and cowpea crop was 1.4 and 0.4 Mg ha-1, respectively. These results verify these soil fertility management strategies for increasing sorghum yield in these predominantly smallholder low-input cropping systems.

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