Agricuture and Soils in Zaire

Research Project

Project/Area Number	63043066
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Overseas Scientific Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	Field Research
Research Institution	College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Nihon University
Principal Investigator	DR. DR.HIROSE Shohei Professor of Agronomy, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan, 農獣医学部, 教授 (00102517)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	MR.HANZAWA Kazuo Lecturer of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medici, 農獣医学部, 専任講師 (60147676) DR. DR.KOSAKI Takashi Instructor of Soils, Faculty of Animal Science, Obihiro University of Agricultur, 畜産学部, 助手 (00144345) DR. DR.MIZOTA Chitoshi Instructor of Soil Mineralogy, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuok, 農学部, 助手 (10089930) DR. DR.YAZAWA Susumu Associate Professor of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto Prefectural Unive, 農学部, 助教授 (90026550) DR. DR.KYUMA Kazutake Professor of Soils, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 農学部, 教授 (80027581)
Project Period (FY)	1984 – 1988
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1988)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000) Fiscal Year 1988: ¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Keywords	Great Rift Valley / Farming system / Permanent farming / Subsistence agriculture / Staggered cultivation / Ando soils / Clay mineralogy / 土壌肥沃度
Research Abstract	The reserarch was mainly conducted concerining two objects of the study, agriculture and soils, in the Lake Kivu areas of Zaire in 1987. Agronomy group conducted to understand the characteristics of the traditional farming ways indigenous to the areas, and soil scientist group carried out soil survey on the western rift of the Great African Rift Valley, to set a base for the agronomic survey, and to make comparisons with the previous studies on Kenya and Japanes volcanogenous soils. The following results were drawn; (1) The semipermanent farming system is common in the study area, and the breakdown of the shifting cultivation system with long fallow periods must be seen as the sympton of a troublesome problem. (2) The semipermanent farming was supported by the traditional techniques adapted to serious environmental conditions such as the scarcity of cropping lands and the deterioration of soil fertility, as shown in Figure. (3) The analytical results indicate that the seasonal drying of soil solution inhibits the development of active aluminum in the weathering of volcanic ashes, and favors the formation of authigenic halloysite and smectite. No such clear trend was observed for a soil sequence from massive basalts due to advanced stage of weathering. (4) Soils from arable land in the Lake Kivu areas were in general moderately to highly fertile, compared with the ones from the other part of Tropical Africa. Soils under banana field and/or kitchen gardens are well associated with the application of organic matter and house-made fertilizers so that they showed excellent fertility. While cultivated and fallow farm definitely showed lower fertility. Additionally. fallow farm gave no evidence of regeneration of soil fertility. (5) The above mentioned results suggested the need of active introduction of organic matter and mineral nutrients to the farm for sustained agriculture in the study areas.