Water and nutrient conservation through the use of agroforestry mulches, and sorghum yield response

This study was conducted during 1992–1994 under semi-arid conditions in Burkina Faso. Our aim was to assess the influence of different mulch materials on soil variables affecting crop growth; i.e. water content, nutrient contents and temperature. The grain yield of Sorghum bicolor was used as a bioindicator, i.e. as an integrated measure of mulch effects.Six treatments were tested, two of which were leaf mulches of special interest for agroforestry. The treatments were chosen to represent mulch materials differing in nutrient content and decomposability (assumed to influence the duration of the impact on soil water content and temperature). The treatments were as follows: (1) control (no addition), (2) Azadirachta indica (neem) leaves, (3) neem leaves + aerobic compost of sorghum straw, (4) aerobic compost, (5) Acacia holocericea (acacia) phyllodes, and (6) wild grass. The mulching rate was 5 t dry matter ha⁻¹, and base mineral fertilizers were applied to all plots.It was shown that the neem leaves, neem leaves + compost, wild grass and acacia phyllodes treatments all significantly influenced the soil by conserving water and reducing temperatures compared with the control or the treatment with compost alone. Plots treated with either neem leaves, neem leaves + compost or compost alone gave higher yields than the three other treatments, generally poorer in nutrients, between which there was little difference. Neem leaves gave the numerically highest response: 1.54 × control, corresponding to a grain yield increase of 554 kg dry mass ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ when averaged over the three years of study.Thus, yields did not always increase in spite of increased soil moisture and decreased soil temperatures. It was concluded that nutrients were more limiting than water or high soil temperatures under the conditions studied. The highest yields were achieved with a mulch that combines high nutrient delivery with water conservation and temperature reduction, namely mulch from neem leaves.