The potential of sustainable maize production under regenerative agriculture through mulching practices at the model farm of Busogo campus in Rwanda
2025
Musanabaganwa, S. | Habimana, S. | Karangwa, A. | Fashaho, A. | Rwalinda, F. M. | Rwubatse, B. | Ndugutse, V. | Umuhoza, K. N. J. | Bugenimana, E. D. | Niyokuri, A. N. | Bapfakurera, E. N. | Hirwa, H.
The global agriculture sector is greatly at risk from climate change, which causes alteration of weather patterns, soil degradation, and substantial soil drought, leading to insufficient water for crop cultivation. This has contributed to reduced yield for major crops including maize, hence, increased food insecurity. Consequently, the present study aimed to investigate regenerative agricultural practices’ effects like mulching practices on yield and quality of maize as one of sustainable agriculture practices to impact climate change on maize yield. To achieve this, the field experiments were conducted in Busogo sites across two seasons 2022B and 2023A using Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) to assess the effects of different types of mulching materials (bean straw, Mucuna pruriens, Desmodium uncinatum, Lablab purpureus) on key growth parameters, yield components, and grain quality of maize. A significant difference in maize yield parameters such as cob height, number of grains per maize cob as well as maize grain yield per hectare had been observed also across the treatments. However, there was no significant difference observed in number of cobs per plant. It also revealed that there was no significant difference in the assessed maize grains quality parameters grown under various mulching materials. Overall, the findings of this study highlight that the living mulch Mucuna pruriens and Desmodium uncinatum should be considered for improving maize yield.
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