Assessment of maize productivity under conservation agriculture with tephrosia (2)

1. Assessment of Maize Productivity under
Conservation Agriculture with Tephrosia
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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Njoloma J. 1, Sosola B.G. 1, Sileshi G.W. 1, Kumwenda W. 2,
Phiri S. 2
1World Agroforestry Centre, ICRAF, Lilongwe, Malawi;
2NASFAM, Lilongwe, Malawi

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Introduction
Material and methods
Results and discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgement

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Introduction
o Malawi’s current cropping systems
o continuous monoculture of the staple crop,
maize,
o annual tillage practices
o Sustainable agricultural systems
o conservation agriculture
o agroforestry.

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Introduction
The question at hand remains whether integration
of CA and agroforestry technologies offer
opportunities to improve crop productivity or not.
The aim of the study was to assess the effect of
integration of Tephrosia with conservation
agriculture in a maize production system.

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Materials and Methods

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
 17 farmers mounted CAWT trials in Kasungu and
Lilongwe
 9 treatments and 3 replicates in RCBD
 Agronomic data were collected for three years
(2010-2013)
 Dunnett’s method of pre-planned mean comparison was
applied to compare all treatments with the control “CF”.
 CVs were calculated to determine yield stability over time
and across sites for various treatments

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Treatment combinations
• A total number of 9 treatments
• Main treatments are namely
1. Basin planting (BP)
2. Old ridges and (Or)
3. Conventional tillage (Ct)
• Sub treated - soil fertilility technologies
i. Fertilizer application (F)
ii. Tephrosia under sowing (T) leaf fall application
iii. (F+T ).

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Results and Discussion

9. Treatment description
Maize yield (kg/ha) 3 Years
average
CV (%)
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13
Conventional tillage +
fertilizer 5553.8 6378.6 5449.9 5801.0
59.5
Conventional tillage +
fertilizer + Tephrosia 5776.6 5581.4 4926.3 5484.8
29.9
Conventional tillage +
Tephrosia 4135.3 2862.2*** 2571.9*** 3294.0***
44.1
Old ridge + fertilizer 5252.4 5694.3 5311.1 5415.3 73.3
Old ridge + fertilizer +
Tephrosia 5631.6 5710.9 5641.1 5662.6
38.4
Old ridge + Tephrosia 3451.2* 1705.9*** 2177.2*** 2529.7*** 44.4
Basin planting + fertilizer 5572.7 5234.3 3792.2 4985.1 70.4
Basin planting + fertilizer +
Tephrosia 5363.4 5025.1 3630.1 4788.4
37.9
Basin planting basin +
Tephrosia 3181.4** 1977.4*** 1786.1*** 2408.0***
31.2
*, ** and *** represent significant difference between treatments and control
according to Dunnett’s test of planned comparison at 5%, 1% and 0.1%, respectively.
Table 1. Average maize grain yields (kg/ha) over a three year period (2011 - 2013)

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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
Figure 1. Maize grain yield (kg/ha) at different sites in Kasungu
and Lilongwe Districts over time

11. CONCLUSION
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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
 The integration of Tephrosia vogelii undersowing with
conventional tillage combined with fertilizer application
gives stable and high yields.
 Basin planting and undersowing of Tephrosia alone
may not achieve yields comparable to conventional
practice

12. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.
 AGRA for the financial support
 Participating institutions and Farmers

13. THANK YOU
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IACCA, Lusaka, ZAMBIA 18 – 21 March 2014.