Organic Management Impacts on Micro-environment in Cassava

Summary

Alternative soil management practices like organicfarming assume special significance in the context ofglobal climate change for sustainable and safe foodproduction, protection of environment and humanhealth. Organic farming provides a clean environmentby promoting soil quality and sequestering soil organicC. Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an importanttropical tuber crop that plays a significant role in thefood and nutritional security. Cassava is the third largestsource of food carbohydrates in the tropics, after riceand maize. It is grown for its starchy roots, which servesas a staple food and also a raw material for starch, sagoand animal feed industries. It has the potential to producemaximum dry matter and has the ability to adapt to awide range of climate and soil. The favourable impact oforganic farming on growth, yield and soil properties oftuberous vegetables viz., elephant foot yam, tannia andyams has been documented (Suja et al., 2009; 2010;2012a; 2012b; Suja, 2013; Suja and Sreekumar, 2014).However, there is limited information on the effect of alternative management practices like organic farmingon the soil micro-climate (Montanaro et al., 2012). Hence the objective of this study was to investigate theeffect of organic farming on the soil micro-environmentchanges and microbial count under cassava.