In the tropics, plantation crops are established on newly cleared forest lands with a wide spacing between rows and within rows. For example, cacao (Theobroma cacao) on newly cleared forest lands is being planted with wide spacing of 1.2 × 1.2 m to 5.0 × 5.0 m (Wilson, 1999). Under such a planting pattern, the soil is unprotected during early plantation growth, and is subject to erosion and nutrient leaching. Planting a fast-growing cover crop in early stages of plantation crop establishment might help to reduce soil erosion and increase soil organic matter content, leading to restoration of soil fertility and productivity (Cunningham and Smith, 1961; Wood and Lass, 2001). In addition, cover crops are known to improve soil water-holding capacity, increase biological activities, suppress weed growth, and decrease effects of diseases and insects (Maesen and Somaatmadja, 1989; Blevins and Frye, 1993; Wessel and Maesen, 1997; Teasdale, 1998).
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Baligar, V.C. et al. (2008). Light Intensity Effects on Growth and Nutrient-use Efficiency of Tropical Legume Cover Crops. In: Jose, S., Gordon, A.M. (eds) Toward Agroforestry Design. Advances in Agroforestry, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6572-9_5
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