Pigeon pea response to phosphorus fertilizer, Temperature and soil moisture regimes during the Growing season at katumani and kampi ya mawe in Machakos and makueni districts of Kenya

Abstract

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) is an important grain legume grown in the semi arid areas of the tropics used for food, feed and as cash crop. Food insecurity is a persistent problem, especially in the marginal regions where the rapidly rising population cannot be supported by the rain-fed agriculture, especially in highly variable, erratic and changing climate as well as declining soil fertility. A sound strategy in the alleviation of these challenges is the expansion of production of crops that are suited to marginal environments such as pigeonpea. The broad objectives in this research were to establish the response of pigeonpea to basal phosphorus fertilizer application. The specific objectives were to characterize the soil fertility factors at the experimental site, to determine the variations of soil moisture over the growing season of pigeon pea, to assess the response of pigeonpea to basal fertilizer application and to test the suitability of the Agricultural Production System (APSIM) software as a monitoring and forecasting tool in the pigeonpea production. Two field rain-fed experiments were conducted between November 2006 and September 2007 at Kenya Agricultural Research Institute sites at Katumani and Kampi ya Mawe (in Machakos and Makueni districts respectively). The experimental design was randomized complete block design laid as split-plot and replicated four times. The whole plot treatment was fertilizer application and the sub-plot treatment, five pigeonpea varieties which included one a local cultivar, Kionza as a local check. At the beginning of the experiment, soils were sampled for physical and chemical analyses. After every fortnight, crop