Abstract
Striga hermonthica and S. gesnerioides pose serious threats to cereal and cowpea production, endangering peoples' livelihoods on the Abomey plateau, Benin. A 2-year joint experiment was undertaken with farmers in two hamlets to investigate the potential of managing sowing dates of cowpea, sorghum transplanting, and trap cropping as ways of increasing agricultural production and reducing Striga damage. Early sowing of cowpea failed due to dry spells. Late sowing reduced cowpea yield due to water deficiency at the end of the growing season. Transplanting sorghum seedlings raised in fertilised or Striga-free nurseries doubled or tripled cereal yield and substantially reduced S. hermonthica infestation compared to direct early-sown sorghum. Transplanting sorghum from plant hills to fill gaps was unsuccessful. Trap crops such as cowpea and groundnut increased subsequent maize yield. Trap cropping had only a small effect on S. hermonthica infestation. The very poor soils in Somè central were a major constraint upon yield improvement to acceptable levels even after the introduction of the new crop (and Striga) management methods.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Early sowing of cowpea failed due to dry spells.
- Taxon
- cowpea
Vigna unguiculatae2 - Treatment
- Early sowing of cowpeae2
- Outcome
- failede2
- Qualifier
- due to dry spellse2
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“Early sowing of cowpea failed due to dry spells”
Claim · model-written summary
Late sowing reduced cowpea yield due to water deficiency at the end of the growing season.
- Taxon
- cowpeaVigna unguiculatae3
- Treatment
- Late sowinge3
- Outcome
- cowpea yielde3
- Direction
- reducede3
- Qualifier
- due to water deficiency at the end of the growing seasone3
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“Late sowing reduced cowpea yield due to water deficiency at the end of the growing season”
Claim · model-written summary
Transplanting sorghum seedlings doubled or tripled cereal yield compared with direct early-sown sorghum.
- Treatment
- Transplanting sorghum seedlings raised in fertilised or Striga-free nurseriese4
- Outcome
- cereal yielde4
- Direction
- doubled or triplede4
- Comparator
- direct early-sown sorghume4
SorghumOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e4“Transplanting sorghum seedlings raised in fertilised or Striga-free nurseries doubled or tripled cereal yield and substantially reduced S. hermonthica infestation compared to direct early-sown sorghum”
Claim · model-written summary
Transplanting sorghum seedlings substantially reduced S. hermonthica infestation compared with direct early-sown sorghum.
- Treatment
- Transplanting sorghum seedlings raised in fertilised or Striga-free nurseriese4
- Interactor
- S. hermonthica
Striga hermonthicae4parasite - Outcome
- S. hermonthica infestatione4
- Direction
- substantially reducede4
- Comparator
- direct early-sown sorghume4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e4“Transplanting sorghum seedlings raised in fertilised or Striga-free nurseries doubled or tripled cereal yield and substantially reduced S. hermonthica infestation compared to direct early-sown sorghum”
Claim · model-written summary
Transplanting sorghum from plant hills to fill gaps was unsuccessful.
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e5“Transplanting sorghum from plant hills to fill gaps was unsuccessful”
Claim · model-written summary
Trap crops such as cowpea and groundnut increased subsequent maize yield.
- Treatment
- Trap crops such as cowpea and groundnute6
- Outcome
- subsequent maize yielde6
- Direction
- increasede6
Zea maysNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e6“Trap crops such as cowpea and groundnut increased subsequent maize yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Trap cropping had only a small effect on S. hermonthica infestation.
- Taxon
- cereale1
- Treatment
- Trap croppinge7
- Interactor
- S. hermonthicaStriga hermonthicae7parasite
- Outcome
- S. hermonthica infestatione7
- Qualifier
- only a small effecte7
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Striga hermonthica and S. gesnerioides pose serious threats to cereal and cowpea production, endangering peoples' livelihoods on the Abomey plateau, Benin”
e7“Trap cropping had only a small effect on S. hermonthica infestation”
Claim · model-written summary
Very poor soils in Somè central were a major constraint on cereal yield improvement.
Not reportedDirection
Verbatim
e1“Striga hermonthica and S. gesnerioides pose serious threats to cereal and cowpea production, endangering peoples' livelihoods on the Abomey plateau, Benin”
e2“The very poor soils in Somè central were a major constraint upon yield improvement to acceptable levels”
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