Author(s)

Robert Muzira¹, Matthius Wakulira², Charles Lagu³, Steven Natuha¹

¹National Agricultural Research Organization, Mbarara, Uganda.
²Uganda Land Care Network, Kampala, Uganda.
³National Animal Genetic Resources Center and Data Bank, Wakiso, Uganda.

In Uganda, banana (Musa spp.) is an important crop supporting different stakeholders along its value chain. However, the increase in banana production under smallholder farming system is a result of the increased area of land under its cultivation. This has escalated land degradation in the form of soil nutrient exhaustion in the banana farming systems. Although, declining trends for banana productivity, has been widely reported, there is limited formidable information on the level of soil fertility decline in the banana-grown fields in relation to annual crop-grown fields, which also support livelihoods of smallholder farmers. Therefore, detailed comparison farm studies were conducted on banana and annual crop grown-fields on lixic ferralsols to gain insights on soil organic matter and chemical parameters of selected fields. While there were no significant differences in soil chemical properties (p < 0.05) between banana and annual crop-grown fields, soil organic matter, pH, extractable P and exchangeable K were more skewed to lower values in banana-grown fields compared to annual crop grown-fields. This was an indicator of higher soil nutrient depletion in the banana-grown fields, which could lead to lack of banana production sustainability. Hence, to maintain banana production sustainability, there is a need to intensify soil fertility management practices to offset soil nutrient losses in the banana-grown fields.

Soil Fertility, Banana, Annual Crops, Land Degradation

Muzira, R. , Wakulira, M. , Lagu, C. and Natuha, S. (2019) Gaining Insights in Soil Fertility on Lixic Ferralsols: Linking Banana Productivity to Soil Nutrient Dynamics in Smallholder Farming Systems in South-Western Uganda. Open Access Library Journal, 6, 1-8. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1105841.