Smallholder Farmers' Practices and African Indigenous Vegetables Affect Soil Microbial Biodiversity and Enzyme Activities in Lake Naivasha Basin, Kenya.

ABSTRACT: Loss of soil biodiversity and fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) may put the food security of smallholder farmers in peril. Food systems in SSA are seeing the rise of African indigenous vegetables (AIVs) that are underexploited but locally consumed without being considered a primary source of food and income. Here we present a field study, a first of its kind, in which we investigated the effects of different cropping systems and inclusion of AIVs in the farming approach on bacterial and fungal biodiversity and community structures, enzymatic activity, and the alteration status of soils of the smallholder farmers in Kenya. When compared to mainstream farming approaches, the composition and biodiversity of bacteria and fungi under AIV cultivations was significantly different. Tillage had

SUBMITTER: Taskin E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7826984 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature