In tropical areas, where crop production is limited by low soil quality, the development of techniques improving soil fertility without damage to the environment is a priority. In French Guiana, we used subsistance farmer plots on poor acidic soils to test the effect of different organic amendments, bitter manioc peel (M), sawdust (Sw) and charcoal (Ch), on soil nutrient content, earthworm abundance and yard-long bean (Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis) production. The peregrine Pontoscolex corethrurus was the only earthworm species found. Pod production and plant growth were lowest in unamended soil. The application of a mixture of manioc peel and charcoal (M+Ch) improved legume production as compared with other organic mixtures. It combined favourable effects of manioc peel and charcoal. Manioc peel improved soil fertility through its low C:N ratio and its high P content, while charcoal decreased soil acidity and exchangeable Al and increased Ca and Mg availability, thus alleviating possible toxic effects of Al on plant growth. The M+Ch treatment was favourable to P. corethrurus, the juvenile population of which reaching a size comparable to that of the nearby uncultivated soil. The application of a mixture of manioc peel and charcoal, by improving crop production and soil fertility and enhancing earthworm activity, could be a potentially efficient organic manure for legume production in tropical areas where manioc is cultivated under slash-and-burn shifting agriculture.
It is now attested that a large part of the Amazonian rain forest has been cultivated during Pre-Colombian times, using charcoal as an amendment. The incorporation of charcoal to the soil is a starting point for the formation of fertile Amazonian Dark Earths, still selected by Indian people for shifting cultivation. We showed that finely separated charcoal was commonly incorporated in the topsoil by Pontoscolex corethrurus, a tropical earthworm which thrives after burning and clearing of the rain forest, and that this natural process could be used to improve tropical soil fertility. Our paper is a contribution to the present debate about (i) the origin of black carbon in fertile Dark Earths, (ii) the detrimental vs favourable role of Pontoscolex corethrurus in tropical agriculture, (iii) natural processes which might be used to increase tropical soil fertility
A biofertilisation assay was conducted in Maripasoula (French Guiana), testing the effects of three different organic amendments (manioc peels, sawdust and wood charcoal) and the inoculation of the endogeic earthworm Pontoscolex corethrurus on pod production of Vigna unguiculata sesquipedalis and on soil chemical 2 properties (pH, C, N, total and exchangeable P and K). Pod production was highest with manioc peels as available P increased in the soil. Wood charcoal also had a beneficial effect on pod production as it decreased acidity and increased the C:N ratio in the soil. In sawdust-amended soil, pod production did not differ from that in unamended soil. Inoculation of earthworms at a density of 80 sub-adults m-2 did not significantly affect either pod production or soil nutrient content directly, although it increased the positive effect of manioc peels on pod production. Soil nutrient content, pod production and earthworm density at the end of the experiment were negatively correlated with soil moisture and positively with each other. Despite the strong effect of moisture, this assay demonstrated an interaction between the earthworm P. corethrurus and the legume V. unguiculata sesquipedalis mediated by soil nutrient content and organic matter inputs. We conclude that manioc peels improved soil P availability and were an interesting amendment for legume crops. We discuss also the effect of earthworm inoculation.
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