Abstract:
The knowledge and understanding of African leafy vegetables has diminished over time, but in the recent past year there is
more interest in their research for their nutritive and medicinal values. Of value are those that have the potential to ameliorate soil
nutrient levels. This is with the background that despite inorganic fertilizers (IF) have a dramatic impact on agriculture in the world,
the economic situation in Sub-Saharan African calls for alternative methods to reduce soil fertility degradation. The use of
leguminous vegetables may be a solution. The study looks at the potential contribution of a leguminous traditional vegetable—
Crotalaria brevidens to soil nitrogen under various treatments. During the study which was conducted over two seasons, C.
brevidens was grown under two treatments of IF and organic fertilizer (OF) with a control in which there was no fertilizer (NF)
applied. A non-leguminous vegetable—Amaranthus dubious (Amaranth) was grown under the same treatments for comparison
purposes. Soil analysis was done before and after planting in the treatment subplots. Growth parameters were measured every
fortnight and these included leaf number, shoot length, dry weight and nodule number for Crotalaria. Results indicated that the
leguminous vegetable was not affected by external inputs and there were no significant differences between treatments and control.
The non-leguminous vegetables responded well to both IF and OF treatments in all the measured parameters. This underlines the
potential for improving soil nitrogen levels using leguminous vegetables, especially as intercrops with the non-leguminous types.
