Vol. 9, Issue 5, Part K (2024)

Soil ecosystem properties and processes which simultaneously maintain native fertility and sustain plant yields are of principal interest in sustainable agriculture. Availability of soil nutrients are predominantly influenced by the crop under cultivation which are annual or perennial in nature. In this experiment, before taking up cultivation of fodder crops, initial soil samples were collected for analysis of organic carbon, major and minor nutrients. The fodder crops cultivated were perennial grass fodder (Cumbu Napier hybrid grass Co (CN 4), multi cut cereal fodder sorghum (Co (FS) 29) and annual fodder crops in rotation with maize (African Tall), Cowpea (Co-8) and annual sorghum (Co-4) separately. After a year of experimentation, the final soil samples were taken and analysed for soil nutrients. The results showed that the availability of nutrients were higher for soil samples when following annual cropping system compared to perennial cereal and grass fodders.