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Altitude and management affect soil fertility, leaf nutrient status and Xanthomonas wilt prevalence in enset gardens

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Title Altitude and management affect soil fertility, leaf nutrient status and Xanthomonas wilt prevalence in enset gardens
 
Creator Shara, Sabura
Swennen, Rony L.
Deckers, Jozef
Weldesenbet, Fantahun
Vercammen, Laura
Eshetu, Fassil
Woldeyes, Feleke
Blomme, Guy
Merckx, Roel
Vancampenhout, Karen
 
Subject soil fertility
crop wild relatives
food security
altitude
xanthomonas
ensete
fertilidad del suelo
especies silvestres afín a las plantas cultivadas
seguridad alimentaria
 
Description Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a productive, drought-tolerant and multipurpose food security crop grown in the densely populated Ethiopian highlands. It is a so-called orphan crop, and its production suffers from a lack of information on proper soil fertility management and its interaction with bacterial wilt disease caused by the pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum. The aim of this study was therefore to assess soil–plant nutrient variation within enset home gardens at three altitudes (ranging from 2000 to 3000m above sea level – a.s.l.) in the Gamo highlands and investigate whether this variation affects disease prevalence. Altitude in the rift valley covaries with soil leaching, and plant available P, Ca and Mg in soils significantly raised
with decreasing altitude. Soil carbon and most nutrients reached very high levels in the gardens, whereas the more distant outfields were severely nutrient deprived. Differences in management intensity within the garden caused soil pH, conductivity, total organic carbon, total N and available P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn and Fe levels to significantly decline with distance from the house; yet, this decrease in soil nutrients was not mirrored in a response of foliar nutrient content, except for N. Hence, over-fertilization is likely, and establishing evidencebased nutrient recommendations for enset would benefit soil quality and productivity both in the gardens and in the outfields. Disease prevalence was high in the study area, with one-third of the farms affected in the recent past.
Although more experimental work is needed to exclude confounding factors, our data indicate that the effects of altitude, P fertilization, micronutrients and K-Ca-Mg balance are promising avenues for further investigation into Xanthomonas wilt disease susceptibility.
 
Date 2021-01
2021-01-19T08:54:23Z
2021-01-19T08:54:23Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Shara, S.; Swennen, R.; Deckers, J.; Weldesenbet, F.; Vercammen, L.; Eshetu, F.; Woldeyes, F.; Blomme, G.; Merckx, R.; Vancampenhout, K. (2021) Altitude and management affect soil fertility, leaf nutrient status and Xanthomonas wilt prevalence in enset gardens. SOIL 7 14 p. ISSN: 2199-3971
2199-3971
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/110901
https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-7-1-2021
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Format p. 1-14
application/pdf
 
Publisher Copernicus GmbH
 
Source Soil