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Assessment of Maize Productivity under Conservation Agriculture with Tephrosia. Njoloma J. 1 , Sosola B.G. 1 , Sileshi G.W. 1 , Kumwenda W. 2 , Phiri S. 2 1 World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, Lilongwe, Malawi; 2 NASFAM, Lilongwe, Malawi. www.worldagroforestry.org.
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Assessment of Maize Productivity under Conservation Agriculture with Tephrosia Njoloma J. 1, Sosola B.G. 1, Sileshi G.W. 1, Kumwenda W. 2, Phiri S. 2 1World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, Lilongwe, Malawi; 2NASFAM, Lilongwe, Malawi www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Introduction • Material and methods • Results and discussion • Conclusion • Acknowledgement www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Introduction • Malawi’s current cropping systems • continuous monoculture of the staple crop, maize, • annual tillage practices • Sustainable agricultural systems • conservation agriculture • agroforestry. www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Introduction The question at hand remains whether integration of CA and agroforestry technologies offer opportunities to improve crop productivity or not. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of integration of Tephrosia with conservation agriculture in a maize production system. www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Materials and Methods www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
17 farmers mounted CAWT trials in Kasungu and Lilongwe • 9 treatments and 3 replicates in RCBD • Agronomic data were collected for three years (2010-2013) • Dunnett’smethod of pre-planned mean comparison was applied to compare all treatments with the control “CF”. • CVs were calculated to determine yield stability over time and across sites for various treatments www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Treatment combinations • A total number of 9 treatments • Main treatments are namely • Basin planting (BP) • Old ridges and (Or) • Conventional tillage (Ct) • Sub treated - soil fertilility technologies • Fertilizer application (F) • Tephrosia under sowing (T) leaf fall application • (F+T ). www.worldagroforestry.org
Results and Discussion www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Table 1. Average maize grain yields (kg/ha) over a three year period (2011 - 2013) *, ** and *** represent significant difference between treatments and control according to Dunnett’s test of planned comparison at 5%, 1% and 0.1%, respectively.
Figure 1. Maize grain yield (kg/ha) at different sites in Kasungu and Lilongwe Districts over time www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
CONCLUSION • The integration of Tephrosia vogelii undersowing with conventional tillage combined with fertilizer application gives stable and high yields. • Basin planting and undersowing of Tephrosia alone may not achieve yields comparable to conventional practice www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT • AGRA for the financial support • Participating institutions and Farmers www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
THANK YOU www.worldagroforestry.org IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.