Use of cowpea and mucuna as preliminaries to rain-fed lowland rice in the Guinea savanna zone of Ghana

摘要

An experiment was conducted during December 1996-December 1998, in Ghana to investigate the use of cowpea and mucuna (Mucuna sp.) as pre-rice legumes. Cropping systems included: fallow-rice; cowpea-rice; maize-rice; mucuna-rice; mucuna inoculated with rhizobia followed by rice; and fallow-fallow. Mucuna, particularly inoculated mucuna, fixed more N than cowpea. Rice yield was higher ( by about 400-700 kg/ha) when sown after legumes than after fallow or maize.