1. Multipurpose legumes in integrated crop-livestock systems in east Africa: farmers preference, decision making and legume productivity Tarirai Muoni, Alan Duncan, Ingrid Oborn

2. Introduction Continued soil degradation, climate change effects and limited access to adequate resources has worsened food insecurity status within smallholder farming. In east Africa, most farmers have small land holdings in high terrain areas where soil erosion problems are high. All these constraints continue to worsen food insecurity problems, unless improved sustainable farming practices are implemented within the farmers circumstances.

3. Objectives To evaluate multipurpose legumes within smallholder farming systems in east Africa: legume functions, classification and introducing the legumeCHOICE tool. To assess the functions of multipurpose legumes in integrated crop-livestock systems in smallholder farming sector in east Africa. To determine the farmer decision making and adoption of legumes: potential and challenges of multipurpose legumes in smallholder farming in Ethiopia and Kenya To assess the suitability of different multipurpose legumes in integrated crop-livestock farming system under smallholder farmer conditions in east Africa: legumeCHOICE tool validation.

4. Materials and methods Generally, the research is part of an ongoing work and will involve:  Intensive literature search using Scopus® and google scholar for legume classification and functions (mainly focusing on east Africa).  Focus group discussions and on-farm surveys that will address farmers preferences and decision making in east Africa.  Field experiments that address legume productivity questions in east Africa (current onfarm and controlled experiments).

5. Data needs Food Grain yield (income) Crude protein content Stover yield Soil fertility Soil pH, total nitrogen, soil organic matter content, plant available nitrogen, and earthworms’ population Feed crude protein, acid detergent fibre nutrient detergent fibre stover yield (Fuel) Erosion control Water runoff Soil erosion

6. Current stage of the study Multipurpose legumes within smallholder farming systems in east Africa: legume functions, classification and introducing the LegumeCHOICE tool. Botanically, legumes belong to the plantae kingdom, leguminosae (fabaceae) family which is a group of flowering plants (Mabberley, 1997). The leguminosae family is subdivided into papilionoidae, caesalpinioideae and mimosoideae sub-families. Most of the edible legumes belong to the papilionoidae subfamily such as soybean (Glycine max L), chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) (Allaire and Brady, undated). However, classification can be based on types of the legume plant such as trees, food, forage and cover crops legumes.

7. Tree legumes Tree species Biomass produced (kg/ha) Nitrogen fixed (kg/ha/year) Period before harvesting or N measurementsStudy areaSource Leucaena leucocephala141052.2Machakos, KenyaMathuva et al., 1998 Gliricidia sepium29000 (Tanzania)3360 monthsMachakos, Kenya Rao and Mathuva, 2000 Calliandra calothyrsus Leucaena Diversifolia Morus alba Leucaena Pallida Sesbania sesban170008424 monthsZimbabweChikowo et al., 2004 Chamaecytisus prolifer Leucaena trichandra Acacia anguistissima41 50021824 months Domboshawa, Zimbabwe Mafongoya and Dzowela 1999 Acacia minisii21000 (wet leaves)20012 monthsSri LankaHaque, 1994/ICRAF

8. Suggested way forward Continue literature search, on contribution of different legumes in east Africa (nitrogen fixation, stover yield, grain yield, erosion control in relation to legumeCHOICE tool) Establishment of a controlled experiment (asap) at one on-farm site per country where all measurements can be collected and be used to validate the experiment. Especially on a high terrain area where runoff plots can be easily constructed). The experiment to include all the legumes already tested at all implementation sites.

9. Design a questionnaire for on-farm surveys that will address research questions in third and fourth objectives (consult for time to do the survey and focus group discussions).

10. Thank you very much for your attention!