sepium
What is this Action Sheet about?
This Action Sheet ) in agroforestry. Gliricidia sepium is a South
American nitrogen-fis about how to plant and use Gliricidia sepium (Mother
of cocoa or quickstickixing tree with many uses on the farm.
What can Gliricidia sepium be used for?
Food: Flowers can be fried and eaten.
Fodder: Leaves are rich in protein and highly digestible for ruminants like
goat and cattle, as they are low in fibre and tannin. There is evidence of
improved animal production (both milk and meat) in large and small
ruminants when Gliricidia is used as a supplement to fodder. However,
non-ruminants fed on Gliricidia sepium have shown clear signs
of poisoning.
Apiculture: The flowers attract honeybees (Apis spp.), hence it is an
important species for honey production.
Fuel: Good for firewood and charcoal production. The wood burns slowly
without sparking and with little smoke.
Timber: Very durable and termite resistant; used for railway sleepers, farm
implements, furniture, house construction and as mother posts in live-fence
establishment.
Poison: The leaves, seeds or powdered bark are poisonous to humans
when mixed with cooked rice or maize and fermented. It has been used as
a poison for pests like rats and mice.
Medicine: A traditional remedy for hair loss, boils, bruises, burns, colds,
cough, debility, eruptions, erysipelas, fever, fractures, gangrene, headache, itch, prickly heat,
rheumatism, skin tumours, ulcers, urticaria and wounds.
Erosion control: Hedgerows in alley cropping control soil erosion.
Shade and shelter: Often grown as shade for tea, coffee and cocoa. It is also used as a nurse tree
for shade-loving species. Its fine, feathery foliage gives a light shade.
Reclamation: Can be planted to reclaim denuded land or land infested with Imperata cylindrica
(Cogon grass)
Soil improver: Capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen, and can be used to improve soil fertility. Used
as a green manure, G. sepium increases soil organic matter and helps to recycle soil nutrients
because it produces much leaf litter. It also improves soil aeration and reduces soil temperature. It is
a drought-resistant and valuable water-conserving species, because in the dry season it sheds most
of its leaves, hence reducing water loss through transpiration.
Boundary/barrier/support: Can be used for live fencing around cattle pastures and for delineating
boundaries. Its fast growth, ease of propagation, nitrogen fixing ability and light canopy makes it
ideal as live support for black pepper, vanilla and yam.
Alley-cropping: Hedgerows in alley cropping slow weed growth and have been shown to reduce the
incidence of disease in groundnut crops.
1 Forests
Where does it grow Africa and is it a safe exotic species?
Countries in Africa where Gliricidia is naturalized or grown on farms: Benin, Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,
Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Martinique, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania,
Uganda, Zambia.
When species are introduced from another continent, they often start to grow in the wild, and may
compete with native vegetation. In West Africa, the Global Invasive Species Programme lists
Gliricidia sepium as invasive alien species, as it has become wild in many areas. However, due to
its many uses, it is not so far considered a pest.
Where will it grow?
Gliricidia sepium grows between 0-1200m, and can survive where the mean annual temperature is
between 15-30°C with no frost. It needs a mean annual rainfall of between 600-3500 mm. It can
therefore grow from the semi-arid subtropics to the wet tropics. It can be grown on a wide range of
soils from pure sand to deep lake-bed deposits. If you are obtaining seed, it is worth seeking seed
from plants that have been tested and shown to grow well on the soil in your area (See Action Sheet
56: Where to get tree seeds). In areas where Gliricidia seeds well, you can collect pods when they
begin to turn yellow/brown, and then dry in the sun to extract the seeds.
How do you plant Gliricidia seeds?
G. sepium can be planted directly in the field or grown in a nursery before transplanting to the field
after 6 to 8 weeks. Direct sowing of seeds requires good land preparation and regular weeding. It is
not necessary to treat fresh seeds before planting. However, when seeds are not fresh, they need to
be soaked overnight in hot water and planted immediately. Nearly all the seeds will germinate within
a week.
Seed or seedling inoculation with suitable strains of rhizobium is necessary where G. sepium is not
naturalized (See Action Sheet 36: Planting Nitrogen-Fixing Trees). In countries where Gliricidia is
native or naturalized, local bacteria will already live in association with the roots of Gliricidia. In this
case, using local soils in the nursery will automatically provide the right bacteria.
In the nursery, almost any type of seedling container can be used, although an open-ended
container allowing regular root pruning will help avoid spiral growth of the seedling root as it
becomes rootbound in the container. A rich soil mixture is recommended for the nursery, with added
organic matter to enrich poor soils.
Transplanting Guide
Transplant on a rainy day, or when there is enough moisture in the soil
2 Forests
Uproot seedlings with soil lumps on the roots and put in well-ventilated containers
Carry to the field where you plan to plant out. Carry carefully to avoid exposure
of the roots and any damage to the plants
Can Gliricidia be grown from cuttings?
G. sepium is commonly grown from cuttings, although for establishment in poor soils, growing from
seed will lead to better root development. Cut pieces with 2-6cm diameter and 30-100cm length and
make wounds with a knife on the first 20cm of the stake. Plant with at least 20cm below the ground
as soon as possible after harvesting, and do not allow to dry out. The cutting will need to be watered
regularly until they are well-established.
The use of stump cuttings from nursery grown plants can also be successful. Grow seedlings to at
least a 1cm diameter stem, then cut the root at 15cm, the shoot at 25cm, and roll in mud, or
otherwise keep wet, until they are planted out to the field.
3 Forests
How do you manage Gliricidia in the field?
That depends what you plan to use it for. If you are growing for firewood, then you can coppice it –
cut it close to the base so it resprouts new growth. If you are growing for fodder or green manure,
pruning at 0.3 – 1.5 m will make more leaves grow.
These pictures show how Gliricidia can be used to fertilize maize fields in an improved fallows
system, using green manure for biomass transfer from the gliricidia trees to the soil. The months
given are relevant for Southern Africa. It is always worthwhile talking to farmers and extension
workers with experience of a technique you are interested in applying on your farm for the first time.
Plant 6-8 week-old seedlings from the
nursery at a spacing of 1m x 1m, in
between rwhere you plan to plant rows of
maize.
Weed all unwanted plants which might interrupt
the growth of the young Gliricidia plants.
Free the plants from all materials that might catch
fire and create a firebreak around the field
After 18 – 24 months of growth, the field of
Gliricidia is often ready for cutting.
In early September, cut the trees when they
reach 30cm in height. Leave the cuttings in the
field for 2 weeks until they drop leaves. Two
weeks after cutting, the Gliricidia biomass is
ready to be mixed into the soil.
4 Forests
In late September, collect up the dry poles and
sticks for firewood or other uses. The leaves will
have dropped off.
In early October, make ridges or dig in the
Gliricidia leaves and soft twigs.
In October, plant maize at normal planting
spacing
By December, you see the maize growing
between the coppiced Gliricidia trees.
In January, coppices are cut back again and
the leaves and soft twigs are applied between
the maize plants as a top dressing or mulch.
5 Forests
In late February, it is time to cut the Gliricidia
coppices again and apply between the maize
plants as a top dressing or mulch.
In April and May, the maize will be ready for
harvesting. Leave the Gliricidia to grow as a
fallows from May to September. In September
you can prune to 30cm, leave for 2 weeks, dig
the twigs and soft leaves in, and plant again on
naturally fertilized soil.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This Action Sheet was compiled by Nancy Gladstone, based on the following sources:

Mulberry leaves found nutritious for livestock

Publication date: Tuesday, 23rd May, 2006

PROTEIN-RICH: Dairy cows and goats like the taste of mulberry leaves

By John Kasozi
MULBERRY (Morus alba), locally known as ‘nkenene,’ is a multi-purpose fodder shrub. It plays an important role in the nutritional security of both animals and people.
Its sweet fruits are highly valuable and eaten mainly by children, while its leaves provide high-quality feed for small ruminants.
Kenyan farmers have been feeding cows and goats on mulberry leaves since the 1990s. Ugandan farmers have also begun making use of it.
William Opio, a senior trainer with St Jude Family Projects in Masaka, says mulberry was previously planted for the silkworm industry and taken as a fruit by children.
“Now we give it to livestock. Although it is still little, we mix mulberry with fresh forages (grasses and legumes) to get a balanced diet,” he says.
Fresh grasses like Tanzania (kakira kambwa), elephant and guatemala are a source of carbohydrate and contribute 70% to the diet.
Fresh legumes like mulberry, calliandra (kalibwambuzi), sesbania (muzimbandegeya), leucaena, tephrosia (muluku), lablab, gliricidia (mutamesse) and ipomea temirostris (ekabowabowa) are protein-giving foods. They work as a dairy meal.
Opio says the cows and goats graze and browse every type of grass and shrub.
“We have saanen, torgenburg and boar goats,” he says.
“Among the legumes, it is mulberry and calliandra that are consumed first. Fresh forages are cut on a daily basis, chopped, mixed and fed to animals,” he says.
According to Paths to Prosperity Report, International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) 1998-99, a similar experiment was carried out in central Kenya in 1997-98 to determine the voluntary intake of tree-shrub fodder supplements by heifers.
Mulberry had the highest voluntary intake of the fodder used in this trial, compared to dairy meal.
The high voluntary intake and the fact that the bark was eaten are indications of mulberry’s high nutrition. Sweetness is an important factor in the voluntary intake of fodder.
With each type of fodder, cattle were able to select the more nutritious parts. And their selective feeding, together with the level of supplement intake, determined the amount of nutrients they consumed.
As a result, cattle produced more milk when given mulberry than when given calliandra or leucaena. The extent to which farmers used mulberry as fodder for dairy cattle was similar to the extent they used calliandra and leucaena.
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