Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T05:02:41.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IMPLEMENTATION OF PERMANENT RAISED BEDS CONTRIBUTES TO INCREASED CROP YIELD AND PROFITABILITY IN THE NORTHEASTERN TIGRAY REGION, ETHIOPIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2018

AMANUEL A. GEBRU ,
TESFAY ARAYA ,
TSEGAY WOLDE-GEORGIS ,
JAN NYSSEN ,
FRÉDÉRIC BAUDRON ,
NELE VERHULST ,
ALICIA B. SPERATTI  and
BRAM GOVAERTS
AMANUEL A. GEBRU*
Affiliation:
Ethiopian Catholic Church–Adigrat Diocesan Catholic Secretariat Social and Development Coordinating office of Adigrat, P. O. box 163, Adigrat, Tigray, Ethiopia Institute of Climate and Society, Mekelle University, Ethiopia, P.O. Box 231, Endayesus Campus, Mekelle, Ethiopia
TESFAY ARAYA
Affiliation:
Department of Agronomy, University of Fort Hare, PBX 1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
TSEGAY WOLDE-GEORGIS
Affiliation:
INSTAAR/Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB) – Climate Affairs, University of Colorado in Boulder, 1560 30th St. Boulder, CO 80309, USA
JAN NYSSEN
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S8), Ghent B-9000, Belgium
FRÉDÉRIC BAUDRON
Affiliation:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), 12.5 km Peg Mazowe Road, Harare, Zimbabwe
NELE VERHULST
Affiliation:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Km. 45, Carretera México-Veracruz, El Batán, Texcoco CP 56237, Edo. de México, Mexico
ALICIA B. SPERATTI
Affiliation:
Independent consultant for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Km. 45, Carretera México-Veracruz, El Batán, Texcoco CP 56237, Edo. de México, Mexico
BRAM GOVAERTS
Affiliation:
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Km. 45, Carretera México-Veracruz, El Batán, Texcoco CP 56237, Edo. de México, Mexico
*
†††Corresponding author. Email: amanuelgbr@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

A major problem faced by small-scale farmers in northern Ethiopia is reduced crop yield due to increasing soil degradation resulting from repeated tillage and inadequate agronomic management practices. These practices have left soils and rainfed crops susceptible to hazardous climatic events such as droughts. Sustainable farm practices such as minimum tillage and surface residue retention have been shown to improve soil health and crop productivity. The objectives of this field study were thus to evaluate the impacts of conservation agriculture (CA) practices on crop yield and economic productivity over 6 years in the eastern Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. Using a barley–wheat rotation from 2010 to 2016, the applied treatments were (i) permanent raised beds (PRB); (2) semi-permanent raised beds (SPB) and (3) conventional tillage (CT). Average barley and wheat biomass and grain yields in PRB and SPB treatments were consistently greater than yields under CT each year. In addition, the highest marginal rate of return was obtained in PRB and SPB compared to CT in all years (2010–2016). These results suggest that the CA practices of PRB and SPB can improve crop yield and profit compared to CT practices in the Tigray region.

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 55 , Issue 5 , October 2019 , pp. 807 - 817
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Araya, T., Cornelis, W. M., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Bauer, H., Gebreegziabher, T., Oicha, T., Raes, D., Sayre, K. D., Haile, M. and Deckers, J. (2011). Effects of conservation agriculture on runoff, soil loss and crop yield under rainfed conditions in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. Soil Use and Management 27:404–414.Google Scholar
Araya, T., Cornelis, W. M., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Getnet, F., Bauer, H., Amare, K., Raes, D., Haile, M. and Deckers, J. (2012). Medium-term effects of conservation agriculture based cropping systems for sustainable soil and water management and crop productivity in the Ethiopian highlands. Field Crops Research 132:53–62. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2011.12.009Google Scholar
Araya, T., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Baudron, F., Carpentier, L., Bauer, H., Lanckriet, S., Deckers, J. and Cornelis, W. M. (2016a). Restoring cropland productivity and profitability in northern Ethiopian drylands after nine years of resource-conserving agriculture. Experimental Agriculture 52:165–187. http://doi.org/10.1017/S001447971400060XGoogle Scholar
Araya, T., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Deckers, J. and Cornelis, W. M. (2015). Impacts of conservation agriculture-based farming systems on optimizing seasonal rainfall partitioning and productivity on Vertisols in the Ethiopian drylands. Soil and Tillage Research 148:1–13. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2014.11.009Google Scholar
Araya, T., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Deckers, J., Sommer, R., Bauer, H., Gebrehiwot, K. and Cornelis, W. M. (2016b). Seven years resource-conserving agriculture effect on soil quality and crop productivity in the Ethiopian drylands. Soil and Tillage Research 163:99–109. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2016.05.011Google Scholar
FAO. (2015). What is conservation agriculture? Retrieved fromhttp://www.fao.org/ag/ca/1a.html.Google Scholar
Farooq, M., Flower, K. C., Jabran, K., Wahid, A. and Siddique, K. H. M. (2011). Crop yield and weed management in rainfed conservation agriculture. Soil and Tillage Research 117:172–183.Google Scholar
Gebreegziabher, T., Nyssen, J., Govaerts, B., Getnet, F., Behailu, M., Haile, M. and Deckers, J. (2009). Contour furrows for in situ soil and water conservation, Tigray, northern Ethiopia. Soil and Tillage Research 103:257–264.Google Scholar
Govaerts, B., Sayre, K. D. and Deckers, J. (2005). Stable high yields with zero tillage and permanent bed planting?. Field Crops Research 94:33–42. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2004.11.003Google Scholar
Kassam, A., Basch, G., Friedrich, T., Shaxson, F. and Goddard, T. (2013). Sustainable soil management is more than what and how crops are grown. In Principles of Sustainable Soil Management in Agroecosystems, Advances in Soil Science, 337–400 (Eds Lal, R. and Stewart, B. A.). USA: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Kettler, T. A., Doran, J. W. and Gilbert, T. L. (2001). Simplified method for soil particle-size determination to accompany soil-quality analyses. Soil Science Society of America Journal 65:849–852.Google Scholar
Meze-Hausken, E. (2004). Contrasting climate variability and meteorological drought with perceived drought and climate change in northern Ethiopia. Climate Research 27:19–31.Google Scholar
Ngwira, A. R., Aune, J. B. and Mkwinda, S. (2012). On-farm evaluation of yield and economic benefit of short term maize legume intercropping systems under conservation agriculture in Malawi. Field Crops Research 132:149–157. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2011.12.014Google Scholar
Ngwira, A. R., Thierfelder, C. and Lambert, D. M. (2013). Conservation agriculture systems for Malawian smallholder farmers: Long-term effects on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 28:350–363. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170512000257Google Scholar
NMA. (2013). National Meteorology Agency. Retrieved from http://www.ethiomet.gov.et/Google Scholar
Nyssen, J., Clymans, W., Descheemaeker, K., Poesen, J., Vandecasteele, I., Vanmaercke, M., Zenebe, A., Van Camp, M., Haile, M., Haregeweyn, N., Moeyersons, J., Martens, K., Gebreyohannes, T., Deckers, J. and Walraevens, K. (2010). Impact of soil and water conservation measures on catchment hydrological response-a case in north Ethiopia. Hydrological Processes 24:1880–1895. http://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7628Google Scholar
Nyssen, J., Frankl, A., Zenebe, A., Deckers, J. and Poesen, J. (2015). Land management in the Northern ethiopian highlands: Local and global perspectives; past, present and future. Land Degradation & Development 26:759–764. http://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2336Google Scholar
Nyssen, J., Naudts, J., De Geyndt, K., Haile, M., Poesen, J., Moeyersons, J. and Deckers, J. (2008). Soils and land use in the Tigray Highlands (Northern Ethiopia). Land Degradation & Development 19:257–274. http://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.840Google Scholar
Oicha, T., Cornelis, W. M., Verplancke, H., Nyssen, J., Deckers, J., Behailu, M. and Haile, M. (2010). Short-term effects of conservation agriculture on vertisols under tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] in the northern Ethiopian highlands. Soil and Tillage Research 106:294–302.Google Scholar
Sibhatu, K. T. and Qaim, M. (2017). Rural food security, subsistence agriculture, and seasonality. PLoS ONE 12:1–16. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0186406Google Scholar
Steward, P. R., Dougill, A. J., Thierfelder, C., Pittelkow, C. M., Stringer, L. C., Kudzala, M. and Shackelford, G. E. (2018). The adaptive capacity of maize-based conservation agriculture systems to climate stress in tropical and subtropical environments: A meta-regression of yields. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 251:194–202. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2017.09.019Google Scholar
Thierfelder, C., Chivenge, P., Mupangwa, W., Rosenstock, T. S., Lamanna, C. and Eyre, J. X. (2017). How climate-smart is conservation agriculture (CA)? – Its potential to deliver on adaptation, mitigation and productivity on smallholder farms in southern Africa. Food Security 9:537–560. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-017-0665-3Google Scholar
Tsegay, A., Vanuytrecht, E., Abrha, B., Deckers, J., Gebrehiwot, K. and Raes, D. (2015). Sowing and irrigation strategies for improving rainfed tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) production in the water scarce Tigray region, Ethiopia. Agricultural Water Management 150:81–91. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2014.11.014Google Scholar
Tsegaye, W., LaRovere, R., Mwabu, G. and Kassie, G. T. (2017). Adoption and farm-level impact of conservation agriculture in Central Ethiopia. Environment, Development and Sustainability 19:2517–2533. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9869-5Google Scholar
Upton, M. (1979). Farm Management in Africa: The Principle of Production and Planning. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Image

Gebru et al. supplementary material

Gebru et al. supplementary material 1

Download Gebru et al. supplementary material(Image)
Image 1.8 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Gebru et al. supplementary material

Gebru et al. supplementary material 2

Download Gebru et al. supplementary material(Image)
Image 4.7 MB
Supplementary material: Image

Gebru et al. supplementary material

Gebru et al. supplementary material 3

Download Gebru et al. supplementary material(Image)
Image 262.8 KB
Supplementary material: File

Gebru et al. supplementary material

Table S1

Download Gebru et al. supplementary material(File)
File 14.9 KB