Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia

Abstract Declining soil fertility and negative impacts of climate effects threaten the food security of millions in Africa. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a promising strategy to address these challenges. However, lack of viable economic entry points and short-term benefits for smallholders limit...

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Autores principales:	Mulundu Mwila, Blessing Mhlanga, Christian Thierfelder
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3879ec823b4e446d94aab8c6dee100bb
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3879ec823b4e446d94aab8c6dee100bb2021-12-02T14:26:19ZIntensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia10.1038/s41598-021-87594-02045-2322https://doaj.org/article/3879ec823b4e446d94aab8c6dee100bb2021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-87594-0https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Declining soil fertility and negative impacts of climate effects threaten the food security of millions in Africa. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a promising strategy to address these challenges. However, lack of viable economic entry points and short-term benefits for smallholders limit its adoption. Legume intensification can possibly increase the output per unit area, thus making the system more attractive. Rotations of maize with intensified legume systems were tested for three consecutive years under ridge and furrow (RF) tillage and CA to investigate: (a) increases in productivity of legumes and the subsequent maize crop; (b) changes in land equivalent ratios (LERs) and; (c) improved total system productivity. Results showed an increase in legume yields when growing two legumes simultaneously, leading to greater LERs (ranging between 1.13 and 1.29). However, there was only a significant season and not a main treatment effect as CA did not outperform RF in both phases of the rotation. Full populations of companion legumes improved overall system productivity, yielding 76.8 GJ ha−1 in a more conducive season while sole cropping of pigeonpea yielded only 4.4 GJ ha−1. We conclude that the doubled-up legumes systems have great potential to improve household food security when integrated into current smallholder farming.Mulundu MwilaBlessing MhlangaChristian ThierfelderNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Mulundu Mwila Blessing Mhlanga Christian Thierfelder Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
description	Abstract Declining soil fertility and negative impacts of climate effects threaten the food security of millions in Africa. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a promising strategy to address these challenges. However, lack of viable economic entry points and short-term benefits for smallholders limit its adoption. Legume intensification can possibly increase the output per unit area, thus making the system more attractive. Rotations of maize with intensified legume systems were tested for three consecutive years under ridge and furrow (RF) tillage and CA to investigate: (a) increases in productivity of legumes and the subsequent maize crop; (b) changes in land equivalent ratios (LERs) and; (c) improved total system productivity. Results showed an increase in legume yields when growing two legumes simultaneously, leading to greater LERs (ranging between 1.13 and 1.29). However, there was only a significant season and not a main treatment effect as CA did not outperform RF in both phases of the rotation. Full populations of companion legumes improved overall system productivity, yielding 76.8 GJ ha−1 in a more conducive season while sole cropping of pigeonpea yielded only 4.4 GJ ha−1. We conclude that the doubled-up legumes systems have great potential to improve household food security when integrated into current smallholder farming.
format	article
author	Mulundu Mwila Blessing Mhlanga Christian Thierfelder
author_facet	Mulundu Mwila Blessing Mhlanga Christian Thierfelder
author_sort	Mulundu Mwila
title	Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
title_short	Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
title_full	Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
title_fullStr	Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
title_full_unstemmed	Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia
title_sort	intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in eastern zambia
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3879ec823b4e446d94aab8c6dee100bb
work_keys_str_mv	AT mulundumwila intensifyingcroppingsystemsthroughdoubleduplegumesineasternzambia AT blessingmhlanga intensifyingcroppingsystemsthroughdoubleduplegumesineasternzambia AT christianthierfelder intensifyingcroppingsystemsthroughdoubleduplegumesineasternzambia
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Intensifying cropping systems through doubled-up legumes in Eastern Zambia

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