Effects of Maize-Forage Legumes Intercropping on ACTIVE Carbon Dynamics and Maize YIELD in Southern Malawi.

. Conservation agriculture (CA) as promoted by the Malawi government to improve sustainable agriculture productivity isolates livestock sector, hence, creating a trade-off between crop and livestock production systems, especially dairying. There is competition on the use of crop residues for CA versus livestock dry season feeding. Integration of forage legumes in maize cropping systems has been suggested as one of the solutions to synergize CA and livestock by providing quality feed to livestock leaving the maize residues as mulching materials. This research was conducted to assess the effect of locally available forage legumes on soil active carbon (C (A)) dynamics and their compatibility with maize crop under no till systems in southern Malawi. 3 locally available forage legumes (Mucuna pruriens, Lablab purpurius and Centrocema pubescence) were intercropped with maize at different planting dates in a trial laid out in RCBD. The results shows that C (A) levels trend during the growing period were decreasing but the decrease was not significant at all sampling periods except at 8WAP sampling period where the forage legumes*maize intercropping had a significance effect on C (A) (p=0.004) . Among the intercrops, maize-L.purpereus system (planteed after 4 wks), had significantly highest levels of C (A) (412mg/kg; p<0.05) at 4WAP sampling period. Same trend was observed on 8WAP where maize-M.pruriens had significantly higher C (A) levels (258mg/kg; p<0.05) in the soil than the sole cropped maize but not significantly different with C (A) levels in sole cropped legumes. On maize grain yield, no significant treatment effect (P= 0.268) was observed. The results show that the forage legumes used in the study are compatible with the maize crop and have a potential of improving health status of soils if used in cropping systems for a long time. This adds to existing options for maize and daily farming integration.