Evaluation of soil nutrient management practices of taro farmers in Taveuni, Fiji

Abstract

There is evidence that the soil health in Taveuni, Fiji is deteriorating over time threatening livelihoods of taro producers. The present study was conducted to understand the soil nutrient management practices followed by taro farmers in Taveuni. The study revealed that the farmers in Taveuni use various organic and chemical fertilizers and various other soil fertility management practices such as mulching, crop rotation with legumes, yagona and agroforestry. The quantity of nitrogen, phosphorous and potash (NPK) applied to taro crop on different types of soils was meager. The study further revealed that there was imbalanced and insufficient use of chemical fertilizers and organic sources of soil nutrients. The main cause of low use of fertilizers was that the farmers in Taveuni do not know the fertility status of their farms as no soil testing was ever done and majority of them are also not fully aware of various low-cost organic methods of maintaining soil fertility of farms.

Absorption spectrometric macronutrients review of soil health during taro crop production

“…The importance of fertile soil in maintaining high crop yield is well documented (8)(9)(10)(11). Our study has also shown that the taro production in Taveuni, has deteriorated over time due to continuous plantation and indiscriminate and imbalanced fertilizer use (7).…”

“…Before the cropping cycle of taro, Matei site showed high level of the soil K while Mua site showed sufficient level of the soil K. The soil K is easily lost from soils of fine texture such as clay and clay loam soils because of its availability in soluble and exchangeable forms. The soils in the four study sites are of clay to clay loam nature (7); hence K could have been easily leached through the soil, resulting in low and declining levels of soil K in the sites. The K contents in the present study for different soil samples are comparable to the literature values as mean topsoil K of taroexporting farms in Samoa as 234 mg kg À1 (34) and the mean soil K concentration between low-yielding orchards and between high-yielding orchards in Nagpur, India as 197.37 and 229.35 mg kg À1 , respectively (42) only for Matei site but much higher than in the soil samples from Mua, Vione and Delaivuna sites ( Table 5).…”

“…Taveuni, which is third largest island in Fiji is well-known for producing the largest quantity of grade one taro and supplies approximately 70-80% of taro production in the country and exports bringing in millions of dollars as revenue. However, in some of the taro producing areas on Taveuni, there have been visible impacts of deteriorating soil health causing unsustainable taro production (7). The importance of fertile soil in maintaining high crop yield is well documented (8)(9)(10)(11).…”