Research shows legume trees can fertilize and stabilize maize fields, generate higher yields

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/bc-rsl101112.php

[font face=Serif]Public release date: 14-Oct-2012
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Michelle Geis
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Burness Communications

Wambui Kamiru
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CGIAR

[font size=5]Research shows legume trees can fertilize and stabilize maize fields, generate higher yields[/font]

[font size=4]Africa's first long-term study finds legume trees planted alongside maize, combined with less fertilizer, is best solution for Africa's most important food crop[/font]

[font size=3]NAIROBI, KENYA (15 October 2012)—Inserting rows of "fertilizer trees" into maize fields, known as agroforestry, can help farmers across sub-Saharan Africa cope with the impacts of drought and degraded soils, according to a 12-year-long study by researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

The study, Can Integration of Legume Trees Increase Yield Stability in Rainfed Maize Cropping Systems in Southern Africa?, by Gudeta Sileshi, Legesse Kassa Debusho and Festus Akinnifesi, was published in this month's issue of Agronomy Journal of the Soil Science Society of America.

Three coordinated experiments, begun in 1991 in Malawi and Zambia, found that farms that mix nitrogen-fixing trees and maize have consistent and relatively high yields year after year. In Malawi, the highest average maize yield was found in fields that combined both fertilizer trees and inorganic fertilizers, but applied at just half the standard recommended amounts.

Maize mono-crops grown with inorganic fertilizers may have higher yield in some years but the yield is less reliable in the long run. Mono-cropping without replenishing soil nutrients in any way—the de facto practice of resource-poor maize farmers—was the least productive and most unpredictable of all.

…[/font][/font]

http://dx.doi.org/10.2134/agronj2012.0063

[occupymybrain]

1. Legumes are awesome...

On the root of legumes there is a small fungus that is called mycorrhizae This small fungus breaks down organic material to feed to the roots of the plant next to it It also can pull nitrogen out of the air , soil, and water.. Very good idea to cut out the bad salt based fertilizers. Water is also important in Africa so I think some sort of supper mulch to prevent water loss might help as well.

[lalalu]

2. This is true.

Even for home gardeners they add nutrients to the soil. Many oldtimers have known this for years and I learned it from them.

[mopinko]

3. old timers like native americans who planted the 3 sisters.

seems like something that would help in africa, also. i am sure they have crops from the same families.

[lalalu]

5. I learned it from my father who was a gardener.

My grandparents also used the method on their farm we use to visit on vacation. Having assorted ancestry including Native ancestry (verified through genetic testing) I am not sure where this method was passed down from. I do know that as a child on my grandparents farm we spent many summer days shelling peas and sorting beans. Their motto was if you eat it then you need to help in the work. It taught us city kids a few lessons.

[Speck Tater]

11. When I read the title of the O.P. The Three Sisters was the first thing I thought of.

There are better ways than mechanized monoculture.

[AlecBGreen]

18. yes and no

"On the root of legumes there is a small fungus that is called mycorrhizae This small fungus breaks down organic material to feed to the roots of the plant next to it" YES, kind of. Mycorrhizae are present in most plants. They drastically increase the surface area available to plants. They aid water & mineral uptake, not food. In turn they get 'fed' carbohydrates by the plant. In the picture below, you can see the fungi (thin threads) growing out of the plant root.



"It also can pull nitrogen out of the air , soil, and water.." NO, atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by certain species of bacteria. They live in little nodules on the plant root. They are not fungi. In this picture, you can see the nodules of nitrogen-fixing bacteria (Rhizobium) on the roots of a soybean plant.

[PufPuf23]

19. Nice correction of the difference between nitrogen fixation and mycorrhizae. nt

[kestrel91316]

4. Wow. Nitrogen fixing companion crops. What a novel concept.

Next: An announcement that WHEELED carts are a better tool than carrying everything on one's head.

[lalalu]

6. I am amazed this is being announced like some new discovery.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. I believe you missed why it is newsworthy

“Africa's first long-term study finds legume trees planted alongside maize, combined with less fertilizer, is best solution for Africa's most important food crop”

That’s 2 things:

1. This is, “Africa's first long-term study”
2. The finding is that “… legume trees planted alongside maize, combined with less fertilizer, is best solution …”

[lalalu]

8. I am missing why decades and billions of dollars

later this is considered newsworthy. I know a few old farmers and gardeners who could have told them the same for a lot less money and time. Just throwing down fertilizer has never been the answer. When, where, and how much fertilizer to use is part of basic gardening and farming.

I am glad they made this "discovery" if it will help but it is similar to Columbus claiming he "discovered" America when it was there all along and inhabited.

Still thanks for the update and I do hope it helps them.

[OKIsItJustMe]

9. True, the use of legumes is not new

My Grandfather used legumes in crop rotation decades ago, as well as “3 sisters.”


You’re absolutely right, successful scientific research proving this is a better way to feed the peoples of Africa isn’t newsworthy at all…

https://www.agronomy.org/publications/aj/abstracts/104/5/1392

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Can Integration of Legume Trees Increase Yield Stability in Rainfed Maize Cropping Systems in Southern Africa?[/font]

…

[font size=4]Abstract[/font]

[font size=3]Growing maize (Zea mays L.) in association with legume trees in agroforestry arrangements has been shown to increase yields in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa; however, the stability of crop yields has not been critically analyzed in the various cropping systems that integrate leguminous trees. The objective of this analysis was to compare yield stability in improved cropping systems, namely maize–gliricidia |Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth| intercropping and fertilized monoculture maize, with the de facto practice of resource-poor farmers who grow maize continuously without any external input. Yield stability was determined for three long-term field trials (12–13 consecutive yr) conducted at Makoka Research Station in southern Malawi and Msekera Research Station in eastern Zambia. At Makoka, the most stable yield was recorded in maize–gliricidia intercrops. Average yield was highest for maize–gliricidia intercropping amended with 50% of the recommended N and P fertilizer, and this was comparable with the yield recorded in monoculture maize that received inorganic fertilizer. On the two sites at Msekera, the highest yield was recorded in fertilized monoculture maize, followed by maize–gliricidia intercrops. Yields were more stable, however, in maize–gliricidia intercropping than fertilized maize on both sites at Msekera. It was concluded that maize yields remain more stable in maize–gliricidia intercropping than in fertilized maize monoculture in the long term, although average yields may be higher with full fertilization.

…[/font][/font]

[lalalu]

10. It is about time they did something with all the billions

instead of maintaining the lifestyle of warlords and despots. Now they can work on dams and desalinating ocean water.

[Odin2005]

16. Me, too.

Since when is common sense news?

[Jane Austin]

12. Do we have legume trees

here in the Western hemisphere?

Thanks.

[NickB79]

14. Black locust grows wild in the eastern US

I don't know if they yield as heavily as tropical legumous trees, though.

[Odin2005]

17. Yup, we have a few honey locusts growing here in Fargo.

They are surprisingly cold-tolerant.

[happyslug]

22. Locust, a tree taken to Europe and is now viewed as a weed.

I have a problem, my Father never called a Locust tree a Locust tree, it was always a Locust post. I still have a tendency to call it a Locust post not a Locust Tree. Like a lot of small farmers, he liked locust as a Fence Post, once dried out and put into the ground it would last as a fence post for decades. In the 1700s German Immigrants into Pennsylvania found out about Locust Trees and Send some back to their relatives in Germany. The Germans in Germany embraced the tree, it is considered the best tree for use as a post. It has spread throughotu Europe and is viewed as an invasive plant, but it is still used as a post even in Europe.

Locust are hard to Split, thus my father never used them as rails. When he was young, in the 1930s, American Chestnut was the tree you made Rails out of. Chestnut, unlike Locust split easily. i.e. you could make many rails out of a Chestnut Tree within hours of starting to split the tree, You avoided even trying to split a Locust, just spliting it once could take all day.

Given how easy it was to split Chestnut, most of the Snake Fences you see in the rural areas of Pennsylvania are Chestnut. Yes the Chestnut blight killed off most of the Chestnuts in the 1930s, but if used as rails (i.e NOT buried into the Ground) Chestnut Rails would last for decades. Just like Locust, when used as a post could last for decades. Locust could be buried and NOT rot for decades, if you let it dry out before you planted it into the ground. When a Fence with Post and rails were needed, it was locust as the posts, and Chestnut as the Rails.

It is suprizing in hear of Locust in the Dakotas, that is generally a little to dry for Locust. Someone wanted them, to use as posts sometime in the future that is the main reason Locust are found outside of their native area, such as the Dakotas and Europe.

[PufPuf23]

20. There are other trees, shrubs, and herbacious plants that fix nitrogen that are not in the legume

family and "fix" atmospheric with specialized bacteria or actomycetes that form symbiotic nodules on root systems.

The phenomena is rather common in nature; especially after disturbance that depletes nitrogen like wildfire or clearcut logging.

Examples:

Tree: Alders (Alnus spp)

Shrubs: Ceanothus spp.

[happyslug]

21. The Tree, actually used in the tests, Gliricidia is used in the US

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliricidia_sepium

In fact it is native to Mexico and Central America:



http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Gliricidia_sepium.htm

It does NOT like wet soils, but does need rain. It does NOT like Cool Tempertures or Frost, thus it is rare north of Mexico. The US looks to be to cool for it, even in South Texas (Where it does it close to Frezzing ever couple of years).

Seems to want at least 1000mm of water per year, but less then 4000mm of Water per year i.e. wants rains, not cold weather, no frost, and not in a true rain forestL


http://www.r-hydronet.sr.unh.edu/grids/precipitation/ca.html

[NickB79]

13. This is news? I have a college ecology textbook from 2000 that says the same thing. nt

[Odin2005]

15. The Aztecs called, they are wondering why this is news.