Nitrogen supply from rotational or spatially zoned inclusion of Leguminosae for sustainable maize production on an acid soil in Indonesia

On acid upland soils in the humid tropics, the combination of high leaching rates and shallow rooted crops may lead to low efficiencies of N use. Sustainability of crop production in this zone depends on either large amounts of external inputs, or on maximising efficiency of the use of local as well as small amounts of external resources. Additional sources of soil organic matter can be obtained by including leguminous cover crops in a rotational system or by spatially zoned systems, with a permanent presence of trees. In view of the high leaching rates, spatially zoned systems with deep-rooted trees may be more effective.Long term soil fertility experiments were started on an Ultisol in Lampung, Sumatera, Indonesia. Data are discussed here for cropping systems based on rotations of maize and leguminous cover crops and for hedgerow intercropping systems (spatially zoned). Maize production in rotations with leguminous cover crops was highest when Mucuna pruriens, Calopogonium mucunoides or C. caeruleum were used. Compared to a grass-weed fallow control, an additional grain yield of 0.5–1 t ha-1 could be obtained. The efficiency of using biomass N was about 0.8 times that of using urea in two split applications. The best results for hedgerow intercropping, a maize yield increase of 1t ha-1 over a control, were obtained with the local tree species Peltophorum dasyrachis

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