User:Jmedford/sandbox

=Alternative Crops= Suggested Crop: Gliricidia sepium


 * We want expand and alter the current uses section because it could be better

Uses


G. Sepium was spread from its native range throughout the tropics to shade plantation crops such as coffee. Today it is used for many other purposes including live fencing, fodder, firewood, green manure, intercropping, and rat poison. Its use expanded following the widespread defoliation of Leucaena by psyllid in the 1980s.

Fodder
G. Sepium is used as cut and carry forage for cattle, sheep, and goats. Its high protein content allows it to complement low-quality tropical forages. G. Sepium can tolerate repeated cutting, every 2 to 4 months depending on the climate. Cutting G. Sepium causes it to retain its leaves during the dry season when many forage crops have lost their leaves. In some cases it is the only source of feed during the dry season.

Agroforestry
Because G. Sepium fixes nitrogen in the soil and tolerates low soil fertility it can boosts crop yields significantly without the expense of chemical fertilizers. In addition, it tolerates being cut back to crop height year after year. When the trees are cut back they enter a temporary dormant state during which the root system is not competing for nutrients, and the crop is free to become established. These properties also enable G. Sepium to be used as green manure.

Soil Stabilization
G. sepium is a fast-growing ruderal species that takes advantage of slash and burn practices in its native range. Because it is easily propagated and grows quickly, it has also been suggested that this species may be planted to reduce topsoil erosion in the initial stages of reforesting denuded areas, as an intermediate step to be taken before introducing species that take longer to grow.

Other
G. sepium is also used for its medicinal and insect repellent properties. Farmers in Latin America often wash their livestock with a paste made of crushed G. sepium leaves to ward off torsalos. In the Philippines, the extract obtained from its leaves is used to remove external parasites.