Maize-legume rotations improve soil health and crop productivity
Idiomas disponibles:
Idiomas disponibles:
Fechado: julio 2019
Autor: Wezi Mhango
A summary of findings from the "Best Bets" research project undertaken in Malawi.
Excerpt:
To investigate how maize-based cropping systems in Malawi could function more sustainably, the CRRP commissioned a research project led by Bunda College of Agriculture. The ‘Best Bets’ project began in 2006 and is led by Professor George Kanyama- Phiri, who has been conducting research on agroecological issues for smallholder farmers in Malawi for over two decades.
The Best Bets project is now in a third phase and aims at sustainably enhancing the productivity of smallholder farming systems in different agroecological environments in Malawi. It also aims to improve nutritional diversity of farm families, particularly for children under five years of age and for pregnant women. The project seeks to achieve these aims through strengthening innovation based on farmer-led priorities and farmer evaluated technologies. “It aims at improving crop productivity and soil health through integration of grain legumes in maize based systems. The project is promoting sole and doubled-up legumes involving pigeonpea, groundnut, soybean and cowpea. Doubled-up legumes involves intercropping two legumes with complementary growth habits. These legumes are rotated with crops such as maize to take advantage of the fertility left behind by the legumes,” says Professor Kanyama- Phiri. “Since a lot of smallholder farmers are poor and unable to afford the high price of inorganic fertilizer, the project will help farmers to achieve multiple benefits of improved soil fertility, enhanced crop productivity, and better family nutrition,” he adds.
Note: This resource was added to this database as part of a migration of resources from the now defunct CCRP Sphaera platform, and is still awaiting a comprehensive review and quality check.
A continuación se enumeran los distintos elementos del conjunto de recursos. Haga clic en uno para descargar el archivo o vaya al URL externo. Alli podrá descargar el conjunto completo en formato zip.
Best-Bets_doubled-up-legs_CCRP.pdf
1 MB
Vídeo
Experiments with Farmers I - "Why?"
This video introduces the idea of Experiments with Farmers and explores five reasons to involve farmers in you...
Vídeo
Experiments with Farmers II - What happens to designs?
This video explores the details of the way in which experiments with farmers could be designed, using a variet...
Vídeo
Experiments with Farmers III - "From noise to information"
This video gives some examples of how to look at data from on-farm trials in a slightly different way, enablin...
Vídeo
Experiments with Farmers IV - "Farmers are not replicates!"
Replication is often a point of confusion for researchers. Often, researchers conducting on-farm trials will s...
Vídeo
Experiments with Farmers V - "Communicating the design"
Communication is vital when conducting experiments with farmers. This video discusses some of the issues of ho...
Webinario
Designing Right-N Trials with Farmers - Week 1: "The Objectives"
This webinar was given to a group of CCRP West Africa Grantees as part of the Research Methods Support Project...
Webinario
Designing Right-N Trials with Farmers - Week 2: "Design Details"
This webinar was given to a group of CCRP West Africa Grantees as part of the Research Methods Support Project...
Webinario
Designing Right-N Trials with Farmers - Week 3: "Measurements"
This webinar was given to a group of CCRP West Africa Grantees as part of the Research Methods Support Project...
Webinario
Designing Right-N Trials with Farmers - Week 4: "Implementation"
This webinar was given to a group of CCRP West Africa Grantees as part of the Research Methods Support Project...