Effect of Pre-Crop on Growth and Yield of Potato in Kenya
- Publication Type
- Contribution to conference
- Authors
- Ooro, P.A., Birech, R., Maling'a, J., Germer, J., Asch, F., Freyer, B., Taiy, R.
- Year of publication
- 2015
- Published in
- Management of land use systems for enhanced food security: conflicts, controversies and resolutions
- Pubisher
- Cuvillier Verlag , Göttingen
- Page (from - to)
- 301
- Conference name
- Tropentag 2015
- Conference location
- Berlin
The pre-crop is a crucial component of competitiveness of grain legumes and yieldbenefits to subsequent crops depending on fertilisation and the type of pre-crop. Afield experiment was conducted between 2013 and 2014 at KALRO, Njoro, in Kenya,to evaluate the benefits of legumes in crop rotation on potato yields. The site lieswithin the semi-humid, lower highland zone three (LH3) also classified as wheat/maize/barleyzone (AEZ LH3) with a bi-modal rainfall pattern of 275mm in the short rains and 425mm in the long rains (total 960 mm) with mean maximum/minimum temperatures of24°C/8°C, respectively. The soils are well drained, deep to very deep, dark reddishbrown, friable and smeary, silt clay, with humic topsoil classified as mollic Andosols.The experiment was laid out in a split split-split plot-design with four factors includingwater harvesting (two levels), crop rotation (four levels) and soil fertility management(SFM) (four levels). Water harvesting (wh) was assigned as the main treatment, croprotation as the sub-plot while soil fertility management as the sub-sub plot and sub-sub-sub plot was inter-crop (IC). It was evident that potato grown in the long rains(lr) after the legume (Lablab purpureus(L.) Sweet) in the short rains (sr) attained thebudding stage, 2 days, significantly (P<0.05) earlier, took longer to reach physio-logical maturity (4 days) and produced a higher tuber yield (24%) than when grownafter wheat (Triticum aestivumL.). Legume as a pre-crop had a profound effect onphysiological traits which resulted in increased period between crop emergence andbudding. Similarly, the period between emergence and physiological maturity alsoincreased significantly, subsequently resulting in increased tuber yields. This there-fore agrees with the fact that legume as a pre-crop contributes more positively to yieldcomponents and tuber yield of potato than when cereals are planted as pre-crops.