SEED PRODUCTION POTENTIAL AND PARTICIPATORY VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION OF ARACHIS PINTOI IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS IN NORTHERN THAILAND

Arachis pintoi is a perennial, stoloniferous legume that forms an excellent ground cover for erosion and weed control, contributes to soil improvement, and is a high quality feed for livestock, withstanding heavy grazing or cutting. This paper investigates the potential of Arachis pintoi for seed production at three different altitudes in northern Thailand on 2-year old plots. Seed yield and 100-seed weight were particularly low at low altitude; germination of fresh seed was high at the high-altitude site. Seed yields of up to 470 g m -2 were measured at medium altitude. Seed production data is complemented by a study on participatory, farmer-led vegetative propagation of Arachis pintoi in Mae Sa Mai, an ethnic minority community in Chiang Mai province. Farmers had been introduced to the new cover crop during a field day organized on the experimental plots (medium-altitude site) where they received vegetative material for testing. In establishing their own experiments with Arachis pintoi in their hillside orchards, farmers were surprisingly creative. They received field books for continuous monitoring and evaluation of the experiments. Results suggest that involving farmers in early stages of the development process of new soil conservation technologies is crucial for identifying farmers’ constraints, particularly as regards labour demand.