ACR Vol. 08 - Anthofer, Jürgen: The potential of Mucuna fallow for maize-based cropping systems in the Forest-Savannah Transitional Zone of Ghana

Increasing pressure on land has destabilized the prevailing bush-fallow systems in West Africa, leading to soil degradation and nutrient depletion. Despite the generation of numerous technical options to improve the sustainability of such systems, they have been hardly adopted by farmers. The book describes adapted research activities to assess the potential of Mucuna fallows to improve prevalent food cropping systems in the Forest-Savannah Transitional Zone of Ghana. It comprises on-station experiments as well as farmer- and researcher-managed on-farm trials supported by descriptive and explorative surveys. Investigations covered aspects of agronomy and plant nutrition, weed science, farm household economy, cropping systems and farmers’ perception. Furthermore, the book describes the processes of technology development in which the Mucuna systems were stepwise adapted and fine-tuned to the local farming systems. In a synthesis, it was concluded that Mucuna systems on their own are not the solution to reverse soil degradation and to increase productivity. However, their potential for integration into specific farming situations is stressed.