| Summary: | Implementation of a System of Sustainable Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Production in Tadila village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One consequence of the massive population growth in the rural areas of tropical regions is the land pressure on forest lands. In the system of slash-burn agriculture, fallow time is often shortened due to deforestation. The latter causes soil degradation along with fertility loss, which cause a decrease in agricultural production. This situation prevails in Tadila, a village in Bas-Congo. In such a case, a radical change of agricultural exploitation methods is necessary. For this purpose an attempt of settlement of cassava cultivation on improved fallow with Tithonia diversifolia was conducted in this village. This research-demonstration, which involved the local population, introduced the following innovations: Tithonia diversifolia as a fallow plant in order to improve soil fertility; the technique of alternating bands in order to stop erosion; the system of crop rotation with soybeans (Glycine max) in order to enrich the soil in nitrogen; the mulching technique with pruned branches of Chromolaena odorata in order to ensure soil coverage and to reduce precipitation impact as well as to improve soil fertility. The main treatment that has been experimented lies in the following crop succession: fallowing with Tithonia diversifolia - soybean cultivation - cassava cultivation combined with soybeans. The study has two variants which focused on the duration of the Tithonia diversifolia fallow and on the number (1 or 2) of soybean cultivations which preceded cassava cultivation. For each variant, two types of parcels were made, with or without mulch cover. The innovations introduced by this crop technique increased a sensible reduction of soil degradation by water erosion and the increase of cassava yield. In fact, the results in terms of T1 and T2 on the mulch-covered parcels of Chromolaena odorata, which were the two variants of the main treatment, were respectively 62 t/ha and 60 t/ha, against 33 t/ha in T0. The latter represents the traditional system of production.
|
|---|