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Soil carbon dynamics as influenced by tillage and crop residue management in loamy sand and sandy loam soils under smallholder farmers’ conditions in Malawi

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Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) characterised by minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil surface cover by dead or living plants and crop rotations is one way of achieving higher soil organic carbon (C) in agricultural fields. Sandy loam and loamy soil samples from zero tillage (ZT) and conventional tillage (CT) plots were taken from farmers’ fields during the dry season in August 2006. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic nitrogen (SON), microbial biomass carbon (MB-C) and microbial biomass nitrogen (MB-N), C mineralization and SOC distribution in particle size fractions in 0–20 cm layer were evaluated. Forty eight farmers’ fields were randomly sampled at four different locations in Central and Northern Malawi, representing ZT plots maintained for a different number of years, and ten fields under CT with similar soil type and crop grown were selected. SOC and SON in ZT fields were 44 and 41 % (4 years ZT) and 75 and 77 % (5 years ZT) higher, respectively, than CT plots. MB-C and MB-N in ZT fields were 16 and 44 % (4 years ZT) and 20 and 38 % (5 years ZT) higher, respectively, than CT plots. However, MB-C and MB-N in ZT fields were 27 and 25 % (2 years ZT) and 17 and 9 % (3 years ZT) lower than in CT plots. The proportion of the total organic C as microbial biomass C was relatively higher under CT than ZT treatments. The higher SOC and MB-C content in the ZT fields resulted in 10, 62, 57 % higher C mineralization rate in ZT plots of 3, 4 and 5 years of loamy sand soils and 35 % higher C mineralization rate in ZT plot of 2 years than CT of sandy loam soils in undisturbed soils in the laboratory. Simulating plough from the undisturbed soils that were used for C mineralization experiment resulted in linear curves indicating that all organic C was already depleted during the first incubation period. The relative distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) in silt and clay size fractions was strongly correlated (r = 0.907 and P ≤ 0.01) with silt percentages. Easily degradable carbon pool (CA,f) was correlated (r = 0.867 and P ≤ 0.05) with organic carbon in sand size fraction. In developing viable conservation agriculture practices to optimize SOC content and long-term sustainability of maize production systems, priority should be given to the maintenance of C inputs, crop rotations and associations and also to reduced soil disturbance by tillage.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the farmers, Chitedze Research Maize Agronomy staff for helping me in field data collection and soil. We would like to thank Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) and Belgian State Secretary for development cooperation for fully supporting the project through a scholarship and South Initiative (ZEIN2008ZOR78). Steven Sleutel is recipient of a post-doctoral research fellowship of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO).

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  1. Chitedze Agricultural Research Station, P.O. Box 158, Lilongwe, Malawi

    Amos Ngwira

  2. Department of Soil Management, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Amos Ngwira, Steven Sleutel & Stefaan De Neve

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  1. Amos Ngwira
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  2. Steven Sleutel
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  3. Stefaan De Neve
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Correspondence to Amos Ngwira.

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Ngwira, A., Sleutel, S. & De Neve, S. Soil carbon dynamics as influenced by tillage and crop residue management in loamy sand and sandy loam soils under smallholder farmers’ conditions in Malawi. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 92, 315–328 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-012-9492-2

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