Soil fertility is the overriding constraint to food production in the tropics, and yet in many developing countries fertilizers are unavailable or beyond the reach of subsistence farmers. The biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen is the only way that plants can manufacture their own fertilizer and is the main input of nitrogen in many tropical cropping systems. This book provides a review of the main nitrogen-fixing grain crops, fodder plants and trees in the tropics and how the inputs of nitrogen can be most efficiently utilized for sustainable agricultural production.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Wallingford
Großbritannien
Zielgruppe
Für höhere Schule und Studium
Für Beruf und Forschung
Maße
ISBN-13
978-0-85198-842-9 (9780851988429)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Part I Nitrogen fixation in the tropics: tropical environments - tropical soils; nitrogen-fixing organisms in the tropics; assessment of the role of nitrogen fixation; strategies for manipulating symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Part 2 Tropical crops and cropping systems: cereal crops and grasses - free living and root associated nitrogen-fixing bacteria; wetland rice - cyanobacteria, azolla and green manures; grain legumes - amounts fixed and the need for innoculation; pasture improvement - legume introduction; plantation crops - the use of understory legumes and shade trees; agroforestry - a role for nitrogen-fixing trees. Part 3 Integrated agricultural systems: crop rotations and intercrops; use of trees in integrated crop production. Part 4 Optimizing nitrogen fixation: past approaches - successes and failures; practical limitations to nitrogen-fixation - the environment, labour costs and adoption of improved technologies; research priorities - the role of molecular genetics; future benefits - an ecological approach to agriculture.
