Litter Decomposition of Indigenous Agroforestry Tree Species, Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia

At the Jimma town’s Boye nursery site in southwest Ethiopia, three selected indigenous agroforestry tree species were the subject of a study to determine how their foliage litter materials broke down over time. Using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, the study used a single exponential model to calculate the rate at which decomposing litter materials decayed and the litter chemical quality indices that were investigated. C. macrostachus had a rate constant of 0.0400 day-1, which was substantially faster than that of F. vata and E. abyssinica. It took 17.3 and 29.7 days, respectively, for F. vata and E. abyssinica to lose 50% of the initial dry matter. While nitrogen and phosphorus were found to be facilitators, the parameters of the chemical quality of the litter were found to be impeding biochemical parameters. The species with the fastest rate of nitrogen return in a short amount of time was found to be E. abyssinica, followed by C. macrostachus and F. vasta. C. macrostachus decomposes quickly, which may limit its ability to improve soil fertility over an extended period of time. It is important to take into account F. vasta and primarily E. abyssinica for the long-term accumulation of soil organic carbon.