Green manure: technology for crop agroecological management

Abstract

In order to find management alternatives for improving the fertility of soils cultivated by low-income farmers, agroecological technologies have been used such as green manures (GM) whose contributions to worldwide research seek to generate a theoretical base which explains the importance of its application and potentialities in the management of agroecosystems. Its use is based on the exploitation of solar energy to produce plant biomass of high nutritional quality, which then is added or incorporated into the soil with the purpose of increasing the organic matter content rapidly mineralizable, with positive effects on some physical, chemical, biological properties of soils and yields of the posterior crops. Legumes are used alone or mixed generally, which in symbiosis with rhizobia acquire the ability to fix atmospheric N₂, which is an element that circulates through the symbiont plant and then partially incorporates to the soil to be used by crops that are planted with commercial interests. This practice (GM) reduces significantly the use of fertilizers of industrial chemical synthesis. In this way, besides the direct benefits on the soil, there are others of an economic, social and environmental type which point towards a more sustainable agriculture. In Latin America and Colombia, some institutions, through research projects and international cooperation have contributed to generate information about this culture technology and the possibilities of incorporating it by farmers in their agricultural schedules. However, replication studies in different agro-ecological zones are required as well as the incorporation of methodological tools to validate the nature of the GM as multipurpose technology.