O.C. Spaargaren¹ and S.B. Sokotela²
1. Soil Survey Unit, Mount Makulu Central Research Station, P/bag 7, Chilanga, Zambia2. Soil Survey Unit, Misamfu Regional Research Station, PO Box 410055, Kasama, Zambia
Research during the past 20 years in Zambia has shown that, with adequate management, Vertisols can be made as productive as other soils. With early planting, irrigation, ridging and fertilization, the crop yields obtained were comparable with, and sometimes even higher than, those from experimental plots on upland soils.
The dominant use of Vertisols in tsetse-free areas is for livestock production, primarily for cattle rearing. Adequate disease control, controlled grazing and early burning to produce fresh grass growth are necessary technical measures to keep the grassland productive.
It appears that high-input agriculture has more scope to achieve economically satisfactory returns from Zambian Vertisols. Because of the emphasis put by the government on the development of the small-scale farming sector, the current utilisation of the Zambian Vertisols is likely to persist. This assumption is also supported by the fact that a relatively low human population pressure does not force traditional farming on these soils.
