Role of Calliandra Calothyrsus Alley Cropping for Soil Fertility and Maize Production at Bako, Western Oromia

Alley cropping is a production system that combines the elements of agriculture with that of trees/shrubs, and offers many potential benefits for Africa’s small-scale farmers. The objectives of this study were to test the impact of alley cropping of Calliandra calothyrsus when integrated with inorganic fertilizers within maize production and to evaluate the effect of Calliandra calothyrsus alley cropping on soil fertility. The study was conducted at Bako Agricultural Research Center for four consecutive years from 2016 to 2019. A total of 6 treatments were used by RCBD arrangement with 3 replications. Grain yield and yield component parameters of maize BH-661 were collected and analyzed. Composite soil samples from 0-15cm depth before sowing and after harvesting each year were collected and analyzed. The maize grain yield results showed a slight variation across the year, which might be due to the effects of Calliandra calothyrsus alley cropping which can directly contribute to improving soil fertility. LA and LAI had significant effects on the sole maize treatment with recommended fertilizer where the mean of trend showed the highest grain yield in quintals per hectare. According to the results of soil samples analysis the soil pH in the study site belonged to strongly acidic whereas, after the implementation of the experiment the availability of OC and OM slightly increased, across the treatments. The results of exchangeable bases (Ca and Mg) also showed some variations among the treatments throughout the implementation period. Finally, we recommend that, Calliandra calothyrsus alley cropping with maize production can be considered as part of conservation agriculture so that mono-cropping will be substituted with diversified and multipurpose farming systems