Crop-livestock interaction effect on soil quality and maize yield in Northern Ghana

2019

English

Keeping livestock overnight on fallow arable lands (Corral-ling) is a traditional method of soil fertility amendment in West Africa. However, there is limited quantitative data on the interaction eects of stocking density of sheep and goats corral-ling (SDSG), maize plant density (MPD) and nitrogen fertilizer rate (NFR) on soil quality and yield of maize. A 2-yr study was conducted to determine the interaction eects of three SDSG (0, 70, and 140 head ha–1), three MPD (66,667, 100,000, and 133,333 plants ha–1) and three NFR (0, 60, and 90 kg ha–1 N) on soil quality index (SQI) and maize yield in northern Ghana. e study was conducted using a split-split plot experiment rep-licated on eight farms. An adult sheep or goat was corralled in an area of 4 m2 and 1 m2 for the 70 and 140 head ha–1 SDSG respectively for ve nights during the dry seasons of 2014 and 2015 cropping seasons. Principal component and correlation matrix analysis were used to select minimum data set for SQI. e SQI for sheep and goats corralling increased by 51% com-pared with the control. e SDSG×MPD, SDSG×NFR and MPD×NFR interactions were signicant on maize grain and biomass yields. e results suggest that, small-scale maize-live-stock farmers could use either SDSG of 70 head ha–1 with 90kg ha–1 NFR or SDSG of 140 head ha–1 with 60 kg ha–1 NFR and MPD at 133,333 plants h

Rahman, N. A.; Larbi, A.; Opoku, A.; Tetteh, F. M.; Hoeschle-Zeledon, I.