2025/08/21 by Gebrekiros Gebremedhin, Emiru Birhane, Amanuel Zenebe +1 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Agroforestry and silvopastoral systems #Forest ecology and management #Plant Ecology and Soil Science
paper · doi:10.1080/13416979.2025.2548713
openalex publication_date 2025/08/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
In agroforestry practice, soil fertility beneath the canopy of Faidherbia albida (F. albida) trees potentially improves the productivity of crops. A similar amount of fertilizer is applied beneath and outside the canopy, regardless of the fertilizing effect of the trees. A field experiment was conducted to quantify and optimize the fertilizer requirement of teff grown beneath the canopy of F. albida trees. Fertilizer rates were applied beneath and outside the canopy as treatments. The experiment was conducted for two cropping seasons, replicated across 12 F. albida trees. The required soil data, yield, and yield components of teff were collected from beneath and outside the canopy of the F. albida trees. Apart from the soil texture and pH, the other soil physicochemical properties were significantly higher beneath than outside the canopy of the trees. The biomass and grain yield of sole teff increased with increasing fertilizer, but reached a limit beneath the canopy. Accordingly, plots beneath the canopy that received 16 kg of phosphorus and 11.5 kg of nitrogen ha−1 (T1) had the highest viable economic return compared to the other treatments. On top of this, the benefit-cost ratio analysis revealed higher profitability of the F. albida plus teff (agroforestry) than the sole teff production. The fertilizer amount saved due to the integration of F. albida trees was 48 kg of phosphorus and 34.5 kg of nitrogen ha−1, which could be used to fertilize three hectares of additional land beneath or 0.75hectares outside the canopy.