The cover crops Mucuna pruriens var. utilis and Pueraria phaseoloides were introduced to African farmers to improve crop production on degraded soils, yet they appear not to be adopted at scale. In the humid forest zone of West and Central Africa, the dominant Acrisols and Nitisols are inherently poor even when not degraded through agriculture. In this zone, sole maize cropping and vegetable production systems are gaining importance, yet both suffer from nutrient deficiencies. Cover crops were often introduced along with a system change, requiring biomass retention, mainly for nutrient retention reasons. Farmers in the zone commonly use slash and burn systems due to added weed control and ease of operations on clean fields. This study evaluated mucuna and pueraria with and without burning the fallow biomass in an annual sole maize crop relay system against the burned and retained natural fallow. Over 14 consecutive years, biomass burning did not cause lower maize grain yields in any of the fallow types, on the contrary, the economically important marketable cob yields were higher when biomass was burned (mulched 2.10 cobs m−2 vs. 2.26 cobs m−2 when burned, p < 0.07). After cover crop fallow, maize grain yields were significantly higher than after natural fallow (1.92 Mg ha−1) over the 14 years, with maize yields in the pueraria treatment (2.63 Mg ha−1) out yielding those in the mucuna treatment (2.28 Mg ha−1). Maize produced 1.92 cobs m−2 in natural fallow, significantly less than in the mucuna (2.23 m−2, p < 0.013) and the pueraria (2.39 m−2, p < 0.001) fallow. Introducing mucuna or pueraria cover crops into slash and burn systems appears as a suitable measure to increase yields without changing the land preparation approach.

中文翻译：

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燃烧和覆盖的黧豆粉变种连续 14 年的玉米谷物和稻草产量。utilis 和 Pueraria phaseoloides 接力种植系统

覆盖作物黧豆变种。功利和葛根被引入非洲农民以改善退化土壤上的作物生产，但它们似乎没有被大规模采用。在西非和中非潮湿的森林地带，占优势的 Acrisols 和 Nitisols 本身就很贫瘠，即使没有通过农业退化。在该地区，单一玉米种植和蔬菜生产系统变得越来越重要，但两者都存在营养不足的问题。覆盖作物通常随着系统变化而引入，需要生物量保留，主要是出于养分保留的原因。该区域的农民通常使用刀耕火种系统，因为增加了杂草控制和在清洁田地上的操作方便。这项研究评估了在一年生单一玉米作物接力系统中燃烧和不燃烧休耕生物量与燃烧和保留的自然休耕的粘液和葛根。-2与 2.26 玉米芯米-2燃烧时，p< 0.07)。覆盖作物休耕后，玉米产量显着高于自然休耕后（1.92 Mg ha-1) 14 年来，葛根处理的玉米产量（2.63 Mg ha-1）产生的那些在 mucuna 处理（2.28 Mg ha-1）。玉米产量 1.92 米-2在自然休耕中，明显少于在 mucuna (2.23 m-2,p< 0.013) 和葛根 (2.39 m-2,p< 0.001) 休耕。在刀耕火种系统中引入粘豆或葛根覆盖作物似乎是在不改变土地整地方法的情况下增加产量的合适措施。