Cover crops knowledge and implementation willingness by producers of several crops
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15517/ma.v28i2.23403Keywords:
cover crops, legumes, green mulches.Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge on cover crops and native vegetation mulches and the willingness to implement them by papaya, oil palm, and banana producers in Costa Rica. An evaluation instrument with twenty eight questions to be answered as true or false was developed, and it was used to yield a knowledge indicator. Seven additional questions with responses on a scale from 0 to 5 were included to explore producers’ willingness to implement cover crops or native vegetation mulches on their farms. The evaluation was completed in 2014, and was filled out by 36 papaya producers, 30 oil palm producers, and 57 banana producers. Item analyses to determine reliability produced Cronbach’s alpha values above 90%. For this study a factors analysis was performed in order to determine the measurement of one single variable, knowledge on cover crops and native vegetation mulches. Global knowledge scores varied signi cantly between producer groups. Banana producers assessments yielded the highest mean with the lowest variability, whereas papaya producers had the lower mean and the highest variability. Likewise, answers to each of the questions differed importantly between producer groups. It was also determined that producers of these crops are willing to implement and get training on cover crops and native vegetation mulches.
Downloads
References
Araya, M., y A. Cheves. 1997. Poblaciones de los nematodos parásitos del banano (Musa AAA) en plantaciones asociadas con coberturas de Arachis pintoi y Geophilla macropoda. Agron. Costarricense 21(2):217-220.
Barberi, P., G. Burgio, G. Dinelli, A.C. Moonen, S. Otto, C. Vazzana, and G. Zanin. 2010. Functional biodiversity in the agricultural landscape: relationships between weeds and arthropod fauna. Weed Res. 50:388-401.
Buckles, D., B. Triomphe, y G. Sain. 1999. Los cultivos de cobertura en la agricultura de laderas: innovación de los agricultores con Mucuna. Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo, CAN.
Carbono-De-La-Hoz, E., y Z. Cruz. 2005. Identificación de coberturas promisorias para cultivo de banano en la zona de Santa Marta, Colombia. Intropica 2:7-22.
Carvalho, J.E.B.d., L.C. Lopes, A.M.d.A. Araújo, L.d.S. Souza, R.C.a. Caldas, C.A. Daltro Junior, L.L.d. Carvalho, A.A.R. Oliveira, e R.C.d. Santos. 2004. Leguminosas e seus efeitos sobre propiedades físicas do solo e produtividade do mamoeiro ‘Tainung 1’. Rev. Bras. Frut. 26:335-338.
Claudius-Cole, A.O., B. Fawole, R. Asiedu, and D.L. Coyne. 2014. Management of Meloidogyne incognita in yam-based cropping systems with cover crops. Crop Prot. 63:97-102.
Cruz, J.L., L. da-Silva-Souza, N.C.l. dos-Santos-de-Souza, and C.i.R. Pelacani. 2014. Effect of cover crops on the aggregation of a soil cultivated with papaya (Carica papaya L.). Sci. Hort. 172:82-85.
Douxchamps, S., I.M. Rao, M. Peters, R. van-der-Hoek, A. Schmidt, S. Martens, J. Polania, M. Mena, C.R. Binder, R. Scholl, M. Quintero, M. Kreuzer, E. Frossard, and A. Oberson. 2013. Farm-scale tradeoffs between legume use as forage vs. green manure: The case of Canavalia brasiliensis. Agroecol. Sust. Food 38:25-45.
Flores-Sanchez, D., A. Pastor, E.A. Lantinga, W.A.H. Rossing, and M.J. Kropff. 2013. Exploring maize-legume intercropping systems in southwest Mexico. Agroecol. Sust. Food 37:739-761.
Hartwig, N.L., and H.U. Ammon. 2002. Cover crops and living mulches. Weed Sci. 50:688-699.
Langyintuo, A.S., and W. Dogbe. 2005. Characterizing the constraints for the adoption of a Callopogonium mucunoides improved fallow in rice production systems in northern Ghana. Agric. Ecosyst. Environ. 110:78-90.
Leeuwis, C. 2004. Communication for rural innovation: rethinking agricultural extension. 3rd ed. Blackwell Publishing, Ede, HOL.
Mexzón, R. 1997. Algunas pautas de manejo de las malezas para incrementar las poblacions de insectos beneficos en el cultivo de palma aceitera (Elaeis guineensis Jacquin). Agron. Mesoam. 8(2):21-32.
Muñoz, D., C.A. Harvey, F.L. Sinclair, J. Mora, y M. Ibrahim. 2003. Conocimiento local de la cobertura arbórea en sistemas de producción ganadera de dos localidades de Costa Rica. Agroforestería en las Américas 10:39-40.
Sancho, F., y C. Cervantes. 1997. El uso de plantas de cobertura en sistemas de producción de cultivos perennes y anuales en Costa Rica. Agron. Costarricense 21(1):111-120.
Schutter, M.E. 2000. Determinants of microbial community structure and substrate utilization potential in soils of vegetable cropping systems. Oregon State University, OR, USA.
Swanton, C., and B. Booth. 2004. Management of weed seedbanks in the context of populations and communities. Weed Technol. 18:1496-1502.
Vargas-Castillo, M.d.P., y A. Abdelnour-Esquivel. 2010. Cultivo in vitro de Geophila macropoda (Ruiz & Pav. DC) a partir de embriones cigóticos. Agron. Mesoam. 21:73-83.
Wayman, S., C. Cogger, C. Benedict, D. Collins, I. Burke, and A. Bary. 2015. Cover crop effects on light, nitrogen, and weeds in organic reduced tillage. Agroecol. Sust. Food 39:647-665.
Wilson, R.S., N. Hooker, M. Tucker, J. LeJeune, and D. Doohan. 2009. Targeting the farmer decision making process: A pathway to increased adoption of integrated weed management. Crop Protec. 28:756-764.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
1. Proposed policy for open access journals
Authors who publish in this journal accept the following conditions:
a. Authors retain the copyright and assign to the journal the right to the first publication, with the work registered under the attribution, non-commercial and no-derivative license from Creative Commons, which allows third parties to use what has been published as long as they mention the authorship of the work and upon first publication in this journal, the work may not be used for commercial purposes and the publications may not be used to remix, transform or create another work.
b. Authors may enter into additional independent contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the article published in this journal (e.g., including it in an institutional repository or publishing it in a book) provided that they clearly indicate that the work was first published in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to publish their work on the Internet (e.g. on institutional or personal pages) before and during the review and publication process, as it may lead to productive exchanges and faster and wider dissemination of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).
