Research Article Dry Matter Production, Nutrient Cycled and Removed, and Soil Fertility Changes in Yam-Based Cropping Systems with Herbaceous Legumes in the Guinea-Sudan Zone of Benin Raphiou Maliki, 1 Brice Sinsin, 2 Anne Floquet, 3 Denis Cornet, 4 Eric Malezieux, 5 and Philippe Vernier 4 1 Institut National des Recherches Agricoles du B´ enin (INRAB), P.O. Box 2128, Calavi, Benin 2 Facult´ e des Sciences Agronomiques de l’Universit´ e d’Abomey-Calavi (FSA/UAC), P.O. Box 01-526, Cotonou, Benin 3 Centre B´ eninois pour l’Environnement et le D´ eveloppement Economique et Social (CEBEDES), P.O. Box 02-331, Cotonou, Benin 4 Centre de Coop´ eration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le D´ eveloppement (CIRAD), 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France 5 Centre de Coop´ eration Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le D´ eveloppement (CIRAD), UPR Hortsys, 34398 Montpellier Cedex 5, France Correspondence should be addressed to Raphiou Maliki; malikird@yahoo.fr Received 13 December 2015; Accepted 22 May 2016 Academic Editor: Zeng-Yei Hseu Copyright © 2016 Raphiou Maliki et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Traditional yam-based cropping systems (shifing cultivation, slash-and-burn, and short fallow) ofen result in deforestation and soil nutrient depletion. Te objective of this study was to determine the impact of yam-based systems with herbaceous legumes on dry matter (DM) production (tubers, shoots), nutrients removed and recycled, and the soil fertility changes. We compared smallholders’ traditional systems (1-year fallow of Andropogon gayanus-yam rotation, maize-yam rotation) with yam-based systems integrated herbaceous legumes (Aeschynomene histrix/maize intercropping-yam rotation, Mucuna pruriens/maize intercropping- yam rotation). Te experiment was conducted during the 2002 and 2004 cropping seasons with 32 farmers, eight in each site. For each of them, a randomized complete block design with four treatments and four replicates was carried out using a partial nested model with fve factors: Year, Replicate, Farmer, Site, and Treatment. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) using the general linear model (GLM) procedure was applied to the dry matter (DM) production (tubers, shoots), nutrient contribution to the systems, and soil properties at depths 0–10 and 10–20 cm. DM removed and recycled, total N, P, and K recycled or removed, and soil chemical properties (SOM, N, P, K, and pH water) were signifcantly improved on yam-based systems with legumes in comparison with traditional systems. 1. Introduction One of the most serious problems of farming system is the excessive reductions of agricultural productivity resulting from major degradation of soil fertility. In 1990 Edouard Saouma wrote that the most serious problem of African countries in the future can be that of land degradation [1]. To understand how and why lands become degraded, one needs some knowledge of the physical environment, population, cultivation history, and farming systems [2, 3]. Current yam-based cropping systems, which involve shifing cultivation, slash-and-burn, or short fallow, ofen result in deforestation and soil nutrient depletion [4]. As long as population pressure was low, the cropping phase was short compared to the fallow period. Tree or four years of cultivation followed by ten years or more of fallow, for exam- ple, allows the accumulation of easily degradable organic matter to regenerate soil fertility [5, 6]. Where population increases, available land per inhabitant is reduced and fallow periods shorten. Traditional long-fallow shifing cultivation Hindawi Publishing Corporation Scientifica Volume 2016, Article ID 5212563, 12 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5212563