Effect of some land clearing practices on nematode population in soils of farmed lands in the moist semi-deciduous rain forest zone of Ghana
1996
Opoku-Asiama, Yaw (University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast (Ghana). Dept. of Crop Science) | Marshall, C.K.A. | Lamptey, D.L. | Garson, A.G. (University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast (Ghana). Dept. of Agricultural Engineering)
The effect of some land clearing practices, that is traditional slash and burn, slashing without burning, and clearing with bulldozer in the first year followed by slashing without burning in subsequent years on nematode population, were studied. Three stages of sampling were superimposed on an original Randomized Block Design with three treatments and three replications thus making it a split-plot design. The crop rotation adopted consisted of maize-cassava intercrop, followed maize and cowpea. The nematodes were sampled at planting, pre-tasselling and stages of the maize using Barker's systematic pattern approach. An improvised Baerman's Tray Technique was used to extract nematodes. Data were collected on nematode counts nematode genera, soil moisture and soil pH. In addition, the survey was also carried out on an adjoining uncultivated plots which served as control and provided bench-mark data for comparison. Bulldozer clearing during the first year of cultivation supported the highest total population of nematodes followed by slash no burn; and the uncultivated land in a decreasing order. The most dominant genera in all plots were meloidogyne, pratylenchus and tylenchus
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