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The paper discusses sustainable land management (SLM) practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing the need for improved water management, soil fertility, and productivity to combat the challenges of resource degradation and poverty. It presents various SLM technologies and approaches, backed by expert input and specific case studies, aiming to provide a comprehensive guide for best practices in the region.
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2020
The problem of shortage of water to crops can be resolved by increasing total water supply available to plants, increasing water use relative to other losses and efficient management of scarce water. Biophysically, solutions to many of the problems will require the improvement of soil, water, and crop management at the field, plot, and farm level: first, to increase the capture and retention of incoming (rain) water; and second, to maximize the proportion of that water productively transpired by the crop. Dry land agriculture under rain fed conditions is found mainly in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. In the harsh environments of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and West Asia and North Africa (WANA), water is the principal factor limiting crop yield. A review has been carried out on soil and crop management research that can increase the water use efficiency. The WANA production systems are dominated by cereals, primarily wheat in the wetter and barley in the drier areas, in rotation with mainly food legumes such as chickpea, lentil and forage legumes. The SSA production systems are generally characterized by cereal/legume mixed-cropping dominated by maize, millet, sorghum, and wheat. The major constraints in both regions to crop production are low soil fertility, insecure rainfall, and low-productive genotypes, low adoption of improved soil and crop management practices, and lack of appropriate institutional support. Different cropping systems and accompanying technologies are discussed. Results indicate that there is an advantage to apply these technologies but being function of socio-economic and bio-physical conditions. It is recommended that future research focuses on integrated technology development while taking into account also different levels of scale such as field, village, and watershed.
2017
Sustainable intensification for smallholder farming systems in sub-humid and semi-arid zones of West Africa critically hinges not only on agronomy and crop varieties but also the management of on-farm water in rain-fed and dry seasons to enhance crop and livestock productivities. Long-term dry spell analysis was carried out using INSTAT+ v3.37 while CROPWAT v8.0 model was used to estimate supplementary irrigation for wet season crops and irrigation requirement for dry season irrigated high value crops. The results showed that although average annual rainfall amounts across the northern regions exceeds 1,000 mm/year, there is a 60-80% chance of a dry spell exceeding seven days and 30-40% chance of a dry spell exceeding 10 days. On the other hand, longer dry spells of 14 and 21 days do occur but are much less frequent. Dry spells ultimately result in yield decrease unless water management strategies are practiced to increase infiltration. Shorter dry spells (7-10 days) can be overcome by infield water harvesting and increasing water holding capacity of the soils; however, supplementary irrigation is to be considered for longer dry spells (14-21 days). In addition, dry season irrigation-of between 50-75% required by crops-results in best productivity (kg yield m-3 water applied), attaining 70-90% of potential yield if wellscheduled, especially for high value crops such as tomato, onion, and pepper. To maximize incomes per unit water in dry season irrigation, farmers needs good scheduling advice and devices. This also benefits sustainable intensification. Hence, we recommend assisting farmers to improve water management to fully meet objectives of sustainable intensification.
Chilean journal of agricultural research, 2009
Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 2014
In the twenty-first century, the shortage of freshwater is one of the most important environmental concerns facing several regions of the world because of the growing demand of increasing population, agricultural intensification, and economic growth. Global climate change will contribute to exacerbate the problem, generating new drought-prone areas and increasing those already characterized by severe aridity. Worldwide it is estimated that, on average, agriculture accounts for 70% of the total water consumption, compared with 10% for domestic consume and the remaining used by industry. Moreover, according to FAO estimates, by 2050 agricultural production has to increase by 60% to satisfy the demands for food and feed (FAO 2013). Within this context, it is necessary to think back and make effective policies and actions for enhancing rational land use planning and agricultural inputs for a better exploitation of the existing technologies, even to rise the farmers' awareness on the consequences of water scarcity. Sustainable agriculture must therefore be prescribed as a policy approach to maximize production while maintaining environmental quality in a fragile and quite stressed environment (Provenzano et al. 2013; Cammalleri et al. 2013b). It requires the conversion of current agricultural practices toward systems more productive and resilient to climate variability, in which land, water, and other inputs would be more efficiently used, and crops yield would be less variable. Heading forward to achieve these goals, short-and long-term strategies across different and integrated pathways are required. These would have to keep in mind issues such as food security and agricultural development, and take into account the existing environmental constrains. According to FAO (2013), climate-smart agriculture (CSA) would be an integrated approach to achieve the goals of a sustainable development. It addresses the food security and climate challenges issues within the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Considering that in irrigated agriculture, water resources (both quantity and quality) are one of the major environmental constrains, which will intensify in the future, there is a priority for water management agents and stakeholders to consider its use sustainable. Thus, it is required and no longer postponed to improve technologies and approaches to optimize water use at different scales (farm, field, district, and higher).
Journal of Environment and Earth Science, 2015
Unsustainable land management and poor adaptation to climate change limits agricultural production in different districts in Kilimanjaro Region. The aim of this study was to train farmers on different aspects of Sustainable Land Management (SLM), improve water use efficiency (WUE) through rehabilitation of traditionally managed irrigation schemes and installation of precision irrigation systems in order to compare their performance without such systems and to assess the impact of the interventions on crop yield and water use productivity. Data were collected during land survey and farmers training in selected areas in Kilimanjaro Region using land survey and farmers training techniques. The data showed increased area under irrigation, improved crop yield, farmer income, water use efficiency and production and productivity in drip irrigation system demonstrated plots compared with furrow or gravity irrigation methods. Improved intake and main canal in Ngalachu irrigation scheme had overall all measured parameters but less compared with drip irrigation. Water saved by drip irrigation was greater by between 33 % and 50 % compared with furrow irrigation methods. The data also showed that crop yields and total revenue in drip irrigation were greater by between 25 % and 60 % and 167 % and 400 % respectively compared with the furrow irrigation methods. These results suggest that farmers using drip irrigation systems were able to realize skills and knowledge, less water loss and greater WUE, higher crop yields, higher incomes compared with places without drip irrigation systems or furrow irrigation methods. However, more time is needed to test these technologies in the field so as to have more meaningful results. It is recommended that the technologies as well as rehabilitation of traditional irrigation schemes be up scaled to a larger area and assess their impact to farmers. Targeted agronomic practices such as the choice of appropriate crop/cultivar (i.e. high value crops) for a specific environment as well as planting and harvesting times, adequate plant nutrition, soil management, and weed control should be observed by both farmers and extension staff since such agricultural practices can significantly contribute to improve WUE and farmers income through increased gross margins.
Integrated Watershed Management in Rainfed Agriculture, 2011
Managing water and agroecosystems for food security, 2013
Agriculture is by far the largest user of water. Increasing the use efficiency of water is essential to sustainably provide food for humans and water for maintaining natural ecosystems. The production ecological approach presented in this chapter allows us to identify constraining factors in crop production that depress use efficiency of water and to determine intervention measures. Much of the additional water needed for world food production in 2050 can be obtained by improving agronomic practices, though expansion of agricultural land to capture rainwater will be inevitable.
2011
It is the belief of many analysts that agrarian countries like Ethiopia that depend on rain-fed agriculture are significantly vulnerable to rainfall variability, the risk which tends to aggravate with global climate change. Consequently, it is believed that future increases in food supplies and economic prosperity depend heavily on effective agricultural water management. It is with this in mind that the use of low-cost technologies for rainwater and runoff control, storage, water lifting, conveyance and application have become more widespread in Ethiopia since the recent drought of 2002/2003. A range of technologies are currently used with varying levels of impacts. This paper outlines an inventory, characterization, suitability and upscaling aspects of Agricultural Water Management Technologies (AWMT) in Ethiopia. Particular characteristics of each of the technologies, their suitability for a given environment, and the necessary conditions for their successful adoption and scaling...
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