Modeling soil organic carbon and yam yield under different agronomic management across spatial scales in Ghana
Item
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Title
Modeling soil organic carbon and yam yield under different agronomic management across spatial scales in Ghana
Field Crops Research
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Subject
Agricultural management
Legumes
Pigeonpea
Soil organic carbon
West Africa
Yam yield
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doi
10.1016/j.fcr.2020.108018
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Abstract
Yam, a major food crop for West Africa, has not been managed to reach its potential productivity. The current practice of planting yam continuously for years after clear-cutting a field is not sustainable and has led to deforestation and nutrient depletion. By examining the effect of improved management on yam cultivation in Ghana, this study aimed to solve the tradeoff between improving yam yield and sustaining soil organic carbon (SOC). We used a calibrated and validated process-based crop simulation model, Systems Approach to Land Use Sustainability, to assess the impact of four management treatments: continuous unfertilized rainfed yam (control), pigeonpea-yam rotation, yam with 3 Mg/ha pigeonpea residue incorporated and yam with 23−23 N-P2O5 kg/ha fertilizer added. We modeled 10 years of yam yield and SOC across cropland in Ghana with varying levels of soil carbon, rainfall amount, and precipitation pattern. On average, simulated yam tuber yield was the highest with a pigeonpea residue incorporation treatment (4.1–11.9 Mg/ha, average of 7.5 Mg/ha). The rotation (average yield of 6.4 Mg/ha) and fertilizer (average of 7.0 Mg/ha) treatments produced comparable increases in yam yield over the control treatment (1.9–9.2 Mg/ha, average of 4.9 Mg/ha). The low yam yield of the control treatment was mostly attributed to nutrient deficiency (nitrogen and phosphorus). Drought also limited yam growth, particularly in northern Ghana. The three improved management treatments increased soil nutrient availability and thus improved yield. SOC declined under all four tested treatments over the simulated 10 years, but declined least with residue incorporation (average rate -0.3 Mg/ha/year), followed by fertilizer addition (-0.43 Mg/ha/year), rotation (-0.42 Mg/ha/year), and the control (-0.51 Mg/ha/year) management. Our work provides a benchmark for yam yield response to alternative management across Ghana, and highlights pigeonpea’s contribution to sustainable intensification of yam. Further research is needed to untangle the interacting effects of land use and agronomic management on SOC.
