Call for contributions
No poverty
Restoring and sustaining agricultural landscapes: <BR>Iinsights for ecosystem services and rural livelihoods (Communication session)
EUROSOIL2020CONT-2186
RECOVERING DEGRADED LANDS FOR ECOSYSTEM SERVICES WITH AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS IN PERUVIAN AMAZON
Julio C. Alegre* 1, Ceila Lao2, Maria Moya1, Paula Quilcate3, Eddie Shrevens4
1Soil Science, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, 2Soils, National University La Selva , Tingo Maria, 3Agroforestry, Scientific University of South , Lima, Peru, 4Biosystems, Katholieke Universitie, Leuven, Belgium
Content: In the Peruvian Amazon there is a rate of deforestation of 150000 has per year due to shifting agriculture caused by slash and burn of the forest and due to cultivation of only one or two crops and their subsequent abandonment as fallow (secondary forest) . Besides, some farmers will continue with native pastures that are overgrazed and end up in more soil degradation. In the Amazon region, Peru has 10 million hectares of degraded soils (Cabrera et. al. 2015). Long term research in agroforestry systems (AFS) offer the best alternative to avoid and recover degraded lands. The main objective of this study is to evaluate with farmers some methods they can generate to develop ecosystem services indicators of soil quality indexes with AFS. The scenery was an overgrazed degraded pasture with Brachiaria brizantha grass in 3 farmers land and to land recover was fertilized and planting of a cover crop with Centrosema macrocarpum and after the full cover in three months the grass was eliminated. The SAF established in each of the three farms were: SAF 1 was a long term multistrata system with timber trees base in caoba (Swietenia macrophylla) Bolaina (Guazuma crinita) and Capirona (Calycophylum spruceanum) and Marupa Simarouba amara ) . SAF 2 was a timber and fruit multistrata system with pijuayo (Bactris gasipaes), guaba (Inga edulis) bolaina and tornillo (Cedrelinga catenifromis) . The third SAF was a silvopastoral system with fast growing tress of marupa, bolaina and capirona. The control was with marupa, capirona and tornillo without cover crop.
Methods tested with farmers complied with the methods stated on the handbook of Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) (Anderson and Ingram, 1993). The soil fertility analysis was mainly total soil organic carbon (OC) phosphorus and cation exchange capacity. For soil physical properties was bulk density, soil moisture porosity and mechanical resistance were evaluated. Soil biological properties evaluated were soil microbial biomass, macrofauna and mycorrhizas. Initial soil levels before treatments establishment was very acid and very low level of soil fertility 1 (Alegre et. al 2017). After three year of cover crop and trees establishment, the best soil indicators were: total soil organic carbon from 1.2 to 1.92%, the Al saturation was reduced for al farmer’s sites, and P levels was slightly increased. (Quilcate 2019). The number of total individuals of macrofauna in all SAFs was more than 6000 per m2 with 13 orders and the predominance of the Family of Lumbricidae of more than 4500 individual per m2 and for Formicidae with more than 2000 individual per m2. Soil microbial biomass was higher than 221.2 mg C kg-1, for all SAFs. The colonization of HMA was not more that 1% for the SAFs and for pasture was 39% and the average number of spores was between 16 to 42 /100 gr of soil for the SAFs and the pasture was very high with 520 spores/100 gr soil due to higher organic matter content on the topsoil and higher rooting density system. We concluded that all soil indicators evaluated were very variable and were most adequate for total soil organic carbon and soil macrofauna for the multistrata agroforestry systems (timber and fruit trees) with cover crop (Centrosema macrocarpum) and agroforestry improved fallows systems with fast growing tress (Inga edulis and cover crops.
Figure:
Disclosure of Interest: None Declared
Keywords: Biodiversity, Macrofauna, carbon sequestration, agroforestry