Abstract
Information on appropriate short-term management practices that best improves maize yield, physicochemical and biochemical properties of Alfisols in smallholder croplands across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is scarce. Hence, a short-term field study was conducted in southwest Nigeria to assess the impacts of four soil management practices on the physical, chemical and biochemical properties of an alfisol under maize cultivation. The study was conducted in two years following a fallow period of about five years. Soil management practices include slash only (SO), slash and burn (SB), slash and ridge (SR) and herbicide (glyphosate) application (HA) at the field recommended rate of 2 L ha−1. Results showed inconsistent trends of management practices on tested soil physical properties. However, SB significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved soil chemical properties such as pH, available P, exchangeable K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ when compared with their initial values after two years of study. Furthermore, SB significantly (P ≤ 0.05) enhanced soil biochemical properties such as urease, L-asparaginase, L-glutaminase, dehydrogenase, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities. In addition, SB significantly increased maize yield and yield components after two years of study. Therefore, findings from our study have shown that SB soil management practice was more beneficial in the short term for soil fertility improvement and maize yield increase across smallholder croplands in southwest Nigeria. Keywords: Soil management practices, Maize cultivation, Enzymes activity, Soil physicochemical properties, Alfisols
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Soil management practices showed inconsistent trends on the tested soil physical properties.
Zea maysNot reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Results showed inconsistent trends of management practices on tested soil physical properties”
t0“maize cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Slash and burn (SB) significantly improved soil pH and available P compared with initial values after two years.
- Treatment
- SBe0
- Outcome
- soil chemical properties such as pH, available Pe0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- their initial valuese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved soil chemical properties such as pH, available P, exchangeable K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ when compared with their initial values after two years of study”
t0“maize cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Slash and burn (SB) significantly improved exchangeable K, Ca and Mg compared with initial values after two years.
- Treatment
- SBe0
- Outcome
- exchangeable K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+e0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- their initial valuese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB significantly (p ≤ 0.05) improved soil chemical properties such as pH, available P, exchangeable K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ when compared with their initial values after two years of study”
t0“maize cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Slash and burn (SB) significantly enhanced soil urease, L-asparaginase and L-glutaminase activities.
- Treatment
- SBe0
- Outcome
- soil biochemical properties such as urease, L-asparaginase, L-glutaminasee0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB significantly (P ≤ 0.05) enhanced soil biochemical properties such as urease, L-asparaginase, L-glutaminase, dehydrogenase, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities”
t0“maize cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Slash and burn (SB) significantly enhanced soil dehydrogenase and acid and alkaline phosphatase activities.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB significantly (P ≤ 0.05) enhanced soil biochemical properties such as urease, L-asparaginase, L-glutaminase, dehydrogenase, acid and alkaline phosphatase activities”
t0“maize cultivation”
Claim · model-written summary
Slash and burn (SB) significantly increased maize yield and yield components after two years.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB significantly increased maize yield and yield components after two years of study”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that SB was more beneficial in the short term for soil fertility improvement and maize yield increase across smallholder croplands in southwest Nigeria.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“SB soil management practice was more beneficial in the short term for soil fertility improvement and maize yield increase across smallholder croplands in southwest Nigeria”
The same questions in other papers
fire · yield · Zea mays (maize)Results differ
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- no effect
- no effect
- negative
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See all 20 papers →fire · soil: chemistry · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
2 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.