Download Multipurpose legumes in integrated crop-livestock - legume

Multipurpose legumes in
integrated crop-livestock
systems in east Africa: farmers
preference, decision making
and legume productivity
Tarirai Muoni, Alan Duncan, Ingrid
Oborn
Introduction
• Continued soil degradation, climate change
effects and limited access to adequate resources
has worsened food insecurity status within
smallholder farming.
• In east Africa, most farmers have small land
holdings in high terrain areas where soil erosion
problems are high.
• All these constraints continue to worsen food
insecurity problems, unless improved sustainable
farming practices are implemented within the
farmers circumstances.
Objectives
• To evaluate multipurpose legumes within smallholder
farming systems in east Africa: legume functions,
classification and introducing the legumeCHOICE tool.
• To assess the functions of multipurpose legumes in
integrated crop-livestock systems in smallholder
farming sector in east Africa.
• To determine the farmer decision making and adoption
of legumes: potential and challenges of multipurpose
legumes in smallholder farming in Ethiopia and Kenya
• To assess the suitability of different multipurpose
legumes in integrated crop-livestock farming system
under smallholder farmer conditions in east Africa:
legumeCHOICE tool validation.
Materials and methods
• Generally, the research is part of an ongoing work
and will involve:
 Intensive literature search using Scopus® and
google scholar for legume classification and
functions (mainly focusing on east Africa).
 Focus group discussions and on-farm surveys that
will address farmers preferences and decision
making in east Africa.
 Field experiments that address legume
productivity questions in east Africa (current
onfarm and controlled experiments).
Data needs
Food
Grain yield (income)
Crude protein content
Stover yield
Food
Soil fertility
Soil fertility
Soil pH, total
nitrogen, soil
organic matter
content, plant
available
nitrogen, and
earthworms’
population
1.6
1.4
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Fuel
Feed
crude protein,
acid detergent fibre
nutrient detergent fibre
stover yield (Fuel)
Feed
Income
Erosion
control
Erosion control
Water runoff
Soil erosion
Current stage of the study
• Multipurpose legumes within smallholder farming systems in
east Africa: legume functions, classification and introducing
the LegumeCHOICE tool.
• Botanically, legumes belong to the plantae kingdom,
leguminosae (fabaceae) family which is a group of flowering
plants (Mabberley, 1997). The leguminosae family is
subdivided into papilionoidae, caesalpinioideae and
mimosoideae sub-families.
• Most of the edible legumes belong to the papilionoidae
subfamily such as soybean (Glycine max L), chickpea (Cicer
arietinum) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (Allaire
and Brady, undated).
• However, classification can be based on types of the legume
plant such as trees, food, forage and cover crops legumes.
Tree legumes
Tree species
Leucaena
leucocephala
Gliricidia sepium
Biomass produced
(kg/ha)
1410
Nitrogen fixed
(kg/ha/year)
Period before
harvesting or N
measurements
52.2
Study area
Source
Machakos, Kenya
Mathuva et al., 1998
29000 (Tanzania)
33
60 months
Machakos, Kenya
Rao and Mathuva,
2000
17000
84
24 months
Zimbabwe
Chikowo et al., 2004
Mafongoya and
Dzowela 1999
Haque, 1994/ICRAF
Calliandra
calothyrsus
Leucaena Diversifolia
Morus alba
Leucaena Pallida
Sesbania sesban
Chamaecytisus
prolifer
Leucaena trichandra
Acacia anguistissima
Acacia minisii
41 500
218
24 months
Domboshawa,
Zimbabwe
21000 (wet leaves)
200
12 months
Sri Lanka
Suggested way forward
• Continue literature search, on contribution of
different legumes in east Africa (nitrogen fixation,
stover yield, grain yield, erosion control in
relation to legumeCHOICE tool)
• Establishment of a controlled experiment (asap) at
one on-farm site per country where all
measurements can be collected and be used to
validate the experiment. Especially on a high
terrain area where runoff plots can be easily
constructed). The experiment to include all the
legumes already tested at all implementation sites.
• Design a questionnaire for on-farm surveys
that will address research questions in third
and fourth objectives (consult for time to do
the survey and focus group discussions).
Thank you very much for your
attention!