Soil Fertility Management Practices by Smallholder Farmers in the Bamboutos Mountain Ecosystem

Njukeng Jetro Nkengafac^1, , Louis Nkembi², Tankou Christopher Mubeteneh³, Deh Nji Herman² and Ngulefack Ernest Forghab²

¹Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), Ekona Research Centre, PMB 25 Buea, SouthWest Region

²Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), Civil Society Building, Co-Cathedral Road Molyko Buea, South West Region

³Department of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Science, University of Dschang, Cameroon

Cite this paper

Njukeng Jetro Nkengafac, Louis Nkembi, Tankou Christopher Mubeteneh, Deh Nji Herman and Ngulefack Ernest Forghab. Soil Fertility Management Practices by Smallholder Farmers in the Bamboutos Mountain Ecosystem. World Journal of Agricultural Research. 2021; 9(2):58-64. doi: 10.12691/WJAR-9-2-3

Abstract

Low soil fertility is one of the major constraints faced by smallholder farmers in the Bamboutos Mountain ecosystem. A survey of 261 randomly selected smallholder farmers was conducted using a standard questionnaire to identify the major cropping systems used by smallholder farmers, the practices that smallholder farmers use to maintain or improve soil fertility, the types of manure or fertilizer used as well as the major crops grown in the area. An interview schedule was used to collect data and the descriptive statistics used for data analysis. Findings indicated the farmers practiced, inter cropping, crop rotation and agroforestry with intercropping being the most practiced cropping system. The farmers use both organic manures and inorganic fertilizers for crop production with the major organic manure being fowl dropping and the major inorganic fertilizer being N-P-K 20-10-10. To increase soil fertility, 73% of the farmers allow for fallow periods and the dominant vegetation during the fallow were: grasses, grasses +Tithonia and Grasses + shrubs. The major crops planted both organically and with inorganic fertilizers were Potato, cabbage, carrot, maize, beans, leeks and celery.

Keywords

soil fertility, management practices, crops, smallholder farmers

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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