Three years performance of a tolerant and a susceptible maize cultivar on non-amended and amended acid soil

A long term agronomic experiment was conducted from 1996 to 2000 at Ebolowa, Cameroon. On the acid soil with high Al supply maize grain yield of the soil acidity-tolerant cultivar ATR-SR-Y was 61% higher compared to the sensitive cultivar Tuxpeno sequia. The annual application of 60 kg P ha-1 for three consecutive years did not significantly increase the grain yield of the soil acidity-tolerant cultivar. Except in the first year lime addition resulted in a significant increase of grain yield of the tolerant (82%) and particularly the susceptible cultivar (208%). This corresponded to a significant decrease in exchangeable Al and to a significant increase in pH and exchangeable Ca and Mg contents of the soil. The application of chicken manure or green manure (#Cassia septabilis# leaves) significantly increased maize grain yield. These increases in yield were partly attributed to an increase of exchangeable Ca and available P of the soil with chicken manure and to a decrease of exchangeable Al with the application of #Cassia septabilis# leaves. (Résumé d'auteur