A Combined Ridging and Cover Crop Tillage System for Sustainable Coffee Plantation in Kenya

The introduction of ridge tillage and beans as a cover crop was investigated means management for mitigating soil erosion increasing the physical functionalities soil. In completely randomized design, four treatments were applied to twelve plots, three with ridges introduced (T1), (T2), crops combined (T3), another controls without intervention (T4). Four properties monitored, i.e., moisture content, bulk density, infiltration rate, aggregate stability. Data collected from two seasons crop, each season lasting months. results showed that T3 resulted in highest content at 34.87 ± 6.78%, followed by T2 T1 34.20 0.65% 32.65 1.71%, respectively, while T4 had minimum value 28.28 5.30%. density found be lowest T3, both having 0.92 g cm−3 standard deviations ±0.03 ±0.11, respectively. This 0.98 0.05 1.17 0.13 cm−3. A similar trend observed basic rate stability, except that, terms latter, ranking second after 64.07% water stable aggregates greater than 0.25 mm diameter. interventions coffee plantations significant effects on rate; however, there no difference Further investigation is needed quantify environmental these interventions, e.g., greenhouse gas emissions yields.