Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1. CA that has been practiced in East Africa is composed of three principles
that have been applied simultaneously: minimum soil disturbance, perma-
nent soil cover, and complex rotations/crop associations with some land
management options, including application of FYM, green manure, com-
posting, mineral fertilizer, and
in situ
rainwater harvesting.
2. Positive trends in practicing CA have been noted in many areas of East
Africa where integration of both indigenous and scientific knowledge is
promoted.
3. CA in East Africa has been demonstrated as a strategy that can address
the complexities and peculiarities of soil quality on smallholder farms,
and help low resource endowed farmers mitigate problems of poverty, food
insecurity, income, and resilience of soil productive capacity in the context
of climate change.
4. CA technologies that include application of organic and inorganic fertiliz-
ers, crop stover combined with inorganic fertilizers, and crop rotations and
intercropping have resulted in yield gains over the farmers' practice in most
farming systems in the region.
5. Experiences show that although the CA technologies discussed in this
chapter have shown promising results, most of them were limited to partici-
pating farmers within the small project sites.
6. There is, therefore, a need for further research aimed at assessing and
improving the potential contribution of CA practices to sustainable small-
holder agriculture, particularly in semiarid areas of East Africa in the
context of climate change, soil restoration, gender equity, and agricultural
productivity.
7. It is apparent from this chapter that CA has increased the yield of most
crops particularly in the fragile ecosystems. It can be concluded that CA
for enhanced crop production is the best model that can be used to promote
small-scale farming on fragile ecosystems in East Africa.
There are some considerations of interest in this review.
In fact, many of the indigenous farming systems in East Africa are very close to what
“official CA” wants to see promoted, for example, the Kihamba farming system of the
Chagga tribe on slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the tied ridges systems
of the Makonde/Rondo plateau in southeast Tanzania. Alongside these indigenous CA,
there is good scope to promote CA as long as it is packaged in a proper way; that is, to
adjust the technology to some already preexisting indigenous practices. In Ethiopia, this
was done by adjusting the local
Maresha
plough to shape the land into permanent beds
and furrows. A big issue coming up after introducing CA on farmers' fields is a lowering
of the crop yields during the first 3-4 years. Afterward, as the soil and the system are
adjusting to the new situation of reduced till, the yields increase and a win-win situation
develops. Surprisingly, in Ethiopia, this yield dip after the introduction of CA was very
small if not nonexistent. This observation was not so much the case either in Tanzania.
This would be a very important thing to discuss and argue about.
A last thing that comes out from CA, from CIMMYT (International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Center) research and also some long-term trials at the
