Influence of soil incorporation of common food legume stover on the yield of maize in sandy soils of moist savanna woodland of Nigeria

摘要

Two separate field experiments were conducted between 2006 and 2008 to evaluate the influence of soil incorporation of common food legumes on the yield and yield related parameters of maize grown on sandy soil environment of Odoba-Otukpa in the Moist Savanna Woodland of Nigeria. Five most commonly planted traditional food legume crops[groundnut (Arachis hypogea var. ' Camerun'),bambaranut (Vigna subterranean var'.Ikpeyiole'),cowpea (Vigna unguiculata var.'adoka white'),pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan var.'igbongbo') and soybean (Glycine max var.Samsoy 2) were incorporated as green manure after 12 weeks of field growth and also as stover after harvest into the soil in two separate experiments.NPK:15:15:15 applied at 45 kg/ha (NPK 45) and natural fallow were included as checks. The experiments were laid out in Completely Randomized Block Design. The results indicated that particle size distribution of soil in the experimental site was altered, levels of organic carbon, organic matter, total nitrogen, phosphorus and the exchangeable bases (except Na+) also increased with the addition of both the food legume and the natural fallow materials. The incorporated food legume treatments had 56-76% (when incorporated at 12 weeks of field growth) and 42.5-61.49%( when incorporated as stover) of the total grain yield of maize produced by the inorganic fertilizer treatment, but gave significantly higher grain yield of maize than the natural fallow check. Soil incorporation of food legume plant parts also produced significant effects on hundred-seed weight and nitrogen yield of maize and soil nitrogen after harvest of maize. Although NPK 45 treatment plots gave higher grain yield and other yield related parameters than the food legume treated plots, the net benefits values were higher for most of the legumes as compared to NPK 45, indicating higher profitability of food legume incorporation than the inorganic fertilizer option.