The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa

Grain legumes play an important role in cropping systems in Africa by virtue of their short duration, drought tolerance, ability to fix nitrogen from atmospheric air, and ability to grow in depleted soils and in association with cereals and root crops. In addition, grain legumes are important source...

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Autor principal: Nangju, D.
Formato: Conference Proceedings
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: 1975
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174823
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author Nangju, D.
author_browse Nangju, D.
author_facet Nangju, D.
author_sort Nangju, D.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Grain legumes play an important role in cropping systems in Africa by virtue of their short duration, drought tolerance, ability to fix nitrogen from atmospheric air, and ability to grow in depleted soils and in association with cereals and root crops. In addition, grain legumes are important sources of vegetable proteins, vitamin B and calcium particularly for vegetarian diets during the hungry season. Different species of grain legumeg are grown in various forms of cropping systems. Their performance under mixed cropp ins system and their contribution to soil fertility are reviewed. It is concluded that under the present management practices in Africa, grain legumes probably contribute very little toward maintaining or enhancing soil fertility, and that higher yields obtained under mixed cropping may be attributed mainly to greater utilization of environmental resources, and lower incidence of diseases and insects. Research is urgently required to improve the contribution of grain legumes to nitrogen requirements of companion crops or the following crops in view of the high cost of nitrogen fertilizers.
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spelling CGSpace1748232025-05-24T01:07:10Z The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa Nangju, D. grain legumes cropping systems africa mixed cropping soil Grain legumes play an important role in cropping systems in Africa by virtue of their short duration, drought tolerance, ability to fix nitrogen from atmospheric air, and ability to grow in depleted soils and in association with cereals and root crops. In addition, grain legumes are important sources of vegetable proteins, vitamin B and calcium particularly for vegetarian diets during the hungry season. Different species of grain legumeg are grown in various forms of cropping systems. Their performance under mixed cropp ins system and their contribution to soil fertility are reviewed. It is concluded that under the present management practices in Africa, grain legumes probably contribute very little toward maintaining or enhancing soil fertility, and that higher yields obtained under mixed cropping may be attributed mainly to greater utilization of environmental resources, and lower incidence of diseases and insects. Research is urgently required to improve the contribution of grain legumes to nitrogen requirements of companion crops or the following crops in view of the high cost of nitrogen fertilizers. 1975 2025-05-23T09:26:44Z 2025-05-23T09:26:44Z Conference Proceedings https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174823 en Open Access application/pdf Nangju, D. (1975). The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa. In Proceedings of the Symposium on Cropping Systems in Africa 1975, Morogoro, Tanzania: IITA, (p. 63-71).
spellingShingle grain legumes
cropping systems
africa
mixed cropping
soil
Nangju, D.
The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title_full The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title_fullStr The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title_full_unstemmed The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title_short The importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in Africa
title_sort importance of grain legumes in cropping systems in africa
topic grain legumes
cropping systems
africa
mixed cropping
soil
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/174823
work_keys_str_mv AT nangjud theimportanceofgrainlegumesincroppingsystemsinafrica
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