Question

reason for planting yam and black pepper with leucaena leucocephala

Answer 1

Both Yam and blackpepper are the plants which grow well in nitrogen rich soils and develop deficiency symptoms when grown in nitrogen deficient soils. e.g. whole black pepper plant will turn yellowish if it experiences nitrogen deficiency. Planting the above plants together with Leucaena leucophala (a small fast growing leguminous plant) will provide nitrogen as symbiotic rhizobia are present inside the root nodules which fix atmospheric nitrogen. The co-cultivation of these plants with Leucaena can make it possible to grow these plants even in nitrogen deficient soils.