Some organic materials have faster decomposition and mineralization rates that are comparable with the fast rate of nutrient release by mineral fertilizers. Such organic inputs can be associated with materials that have slow rate of nutrient release to produce an effective amendment that is comparable or better than mineral fertilizers. Apparently, Mucuna and Tithonia biomasses provided fast nutrient release that enabled better tomato performance than mineral fertilizer throughout the plants’ life cycle, leading togreater production. The higher tomato yields under combined organic biomass of Mucuna + Tithonia amendment that is comparable to the sole Tithonia biomass application supports our hypothesis of better performance with sustainable ISFM technologies comprising mainly a combination of different organic plant materials that advocates the use of mainly organic biomass in ISFM. Therefore, such fast nutrient release organic biomass materials can be integrated with other organic materials that release nutrients slowly, vertical hydroponic nft system so as to enable regular and enhanced nutrient supply during the entire crop cycle, leading to improved plant nutrition and greater crop yield.
About 65% of the total labor force is employed in the agriculture sector, which contributes about 32% of the continent’s gross domestic product . The sector has remained the backbone of Africa’s economic development for centuries without having taken on a real structural transformation. This lack of transformation perpetuates the characterization of Africa as a cheap and secure source of primary commodities required to feed the growing needs and changing demands of the traditionally established and newly emerging industrial super-economies. In line with both Abuja High Level Conference on Agribusiness and Agro industries and the Malabo Declarations, which respectively 1) urged the African Union AU member states not only to establish the requisite legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks to support agribusiness and agro-industry development, but also to put in place programs to accelerate the development of the value of strategic food commodities; and 2) committed to halving poverty by the year 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation.
As such the heads of state committed to ensure that the agricultural growth, to sustain annual agricultural GDP growth of at least 6%, to establish and/or strengthen inclusive public private partnerships for at least five priority agricultural commodity value chains with strong linkage to smallholder agriculture. It is with this background and within the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme new framework that the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, nft hydroponic system in collaboration with the African Union Commission , the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Economic Community of West African States , has launched an initiative for the development of strategic commodities regional value chains in Africa. As no agricultural development initiative should look away from climate change issues, UNECA decided to analyse the Greenhouse Gas emission along the value chains, which is a factor most often overlooked. Shifting cultivation or slash-and-burn agriculture is a global agricultural practice that affects an estimated arable land area of 1500 million ha .
It is the traditional method of upland rice cultivation in most parts of West Africa and in the humid and sub-humid tropics. This is a practice where a piece of forest is cleared and burnt for cultivation for a period of two to three years without fertilizer input and then leaving the land under natural fallow vegetation for a much longer period, usually greater than fifteen years, to restore soil fertility .At the onset of the cropping phase, when vegetation is burnt, almost all biomass carbon which is a potential source of soil organic carbon is lost as well as a significant amount of nutrients such as nitrogen and sulphur contained in the biomass.During the cropping phase, inappropriate soil management practices could lead to accelerated depletion of soil organic matter and nutrients resulting in rapid depletion of soil fertility.During the fallow, the accumulation of biomass on the soil surface and its gradualde composition does not only release nutrients but provide an energy source for the soil microbial populations and improvement of soil aggregate stability and structure, bulk density, infiltration capacity, cation exchange capacity, and soil organic matter.