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| Articles
by
Oluyede C. Ajayi |
Total Records (
2 ) for
Oluyede C. Ajayi |
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Festus K. Akinnifesi
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Gudeta Sileshi
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Steven Franzel
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Oluyede C. Ajayi
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Rebbie Harawa
,
Wilkson Makumba
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Sesbastian Chakeredza
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Simon Mngomba
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Judith J. de Wolf
and
Jonas N. Chianu
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This study evaluated the performance of tree legumes and other soil fertility management innovations used by farmers. The objectives of the study were to: examine the extent that farm attributes, typology of farmers and field management practices have affected the adaptation and use of agroforestry technologies for soil fertility management and compare the agronomic performance and farmer assessment of agroforestry and other soil fertility management options, across a wide range of farmer types and field conditions, with a view to establishing the contribution of management variables to variations in yield estimation. Maize yield and farmer rating were assessed in Type II (researcher-designed, farmer-managed), Type III (farmer-designed and managed) trials and extension farmers. Results from 152 farmers show that agroforestry increased the yield of maize by 54-76% compared to unfertilized sole maize used as the control. When amended with fertilizer, the yield increase over the control was 73-76% across tree species. This indicates that farmers who had combined agroforestry with inorganic fertilizer experienced increase in maize yield attributable to the synergy between organic and inorganic fertilizer. In gliricidia-maize intercropping, higher maize yield was obtained by farmers who pruned twice. Combination of two prunings and fertilizer use gave the highest yield increase (148%) over the control and the third pruning was superfluous when fertilizer was applied. Without fertilizer, maize yield in agroforestry plots intercropped with pigeon pea was higher than those plots without pigeon pea. Planting date, fertilizer application, use of agroforestry and maize variety explained about 44% of the variation in maize yield on farmers’ fields. |
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Stephen Syampungani
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Paxie W. Chirwa
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Festus K. Akinnifesi
and
Oluyede C. Ajayi
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Some of the most profound and direct impacts of climate change in southern Africa over years have been droughts, fluctuations in annual rainfall, extreme temperatures and floods. These have resulted in low and unstable food production, especially maize which is the staple food in most Southern African countries. Furthermore, research suggests that 30% of threatened plant species will be critically endangered or extinct due to drought, thus further worsening food availability, accessibility and stability in the region. Drought is therefore is assumed to be the major obstacle to the achievement of food security in Southern Africa. Agroforestry is emerging as the promising option to sustain agricultural productivity and livelihoods of farmers. We discussed the need for further selection and releasing new tree germplasm with superior capacity to adapt to the changing climatic and ecological conditions in the region. Innovative mechanisms to further enhance the contribution of agroforestry to climate change mitigation and adaptation are examined. |
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