Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia

Agricultural sustainability faces challenges in the changing climate, particularly for rain-fed systems like those in Ethiopia. This study examines the combined impacts of climate change and soil acidity on future crop potential, focusing on Ethiopia as a case study. The EcoCrop crop suitability mod...

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Autores principales: Jimma, Tamirat B., Chemura, Abel, Spillane, Charles, Teferi, Demissie, Abera, Wuletawu, Ture, Kassahun, Terefe, Tadesse, Solomon, Dawit, Gleixner, Stephanie
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: MDPI 2024
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141877
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author Jimma, Tamirat B.
Chemura, Abel
Spillane, Charles
Teferi, Demissie
Abera, Wuletawu
Ture, Kassahun
Terefe, Tadesse
Solomon, Dawit
Gleixner, Stephanie
author_browse Abera, Wuletawu
Chemura, Abel
Gleixner, Stephanie
Jimma, Tamirat B.
Solomon, Dawit
Spillane, Charles
Teferi, Demissie
Terefe, Tadesse
Ture, Kassahun
author_facet Jimma, Tamirat B.
Chemura, Abel
Spillane, Charles
Teferi, Demissie
Abera, Wuletawu
Ture, Kassahun
Terefe, Tadesse
Solomon, Dawit
Gleixner, Stephanie
author_sort Jimma, Tamirat B.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Agricultural sustainability faces challenges in the changing climate, particularly for rain-fed systems like those in Ethiopia. This study examines the combined impacts of climate change and soil acidity on future crop potential, focusing on Ethiopia as a case study. The EcoCrop crop suitability model was parameterized and run for four key food crops in Ethiopia (teff, maize, barley and common wheat), under current and mid-century climate conditions. To assess the impacts of soil acidification on crop suitability, a simulation study was conducted by lowering the soil pH values by 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 and re-running the suitability model, comparing the changes in the area suitable for each crop. Our evaluation of the model, by comparing the modeled suitable areas with reference data, indicated that there was a good fit for all the four crops. Using default soil pH values, we project that there will be no significant changes in the suitability of maize, barley and wheat and an increase in the suitability of teff by the mid-century, as influenced by projected increases in rainfall in the country. Our results demonstrate a direct relationship between the lowering of soil pH and increasing losses in the area suitable for all crops, but especially for teff, barley and wheat. We conclude that soil acidification can have a strong impact on crop suitability in Ethiopia under climate change, and precautionary measures to avoid soil acidification should be a key element in the design of climate change adaptation strategies.
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spelling CGSpace1418772025-12-08T10:29:22Z Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia Jimma, Tamirat B. Chemura, Abel Spillane, Charles Teferi, Demissie Abera, Wuletawu Ture, Kassahun Terefe, Tadesse Solomon, Dawit Gleixner, Stephanie climate change sustainability soil ph soil quality Agricultural sustainability faces challenges in the changing climate, particularly for rain-fed systems like those in Ethiopia. This study examines the combined impacts of climate change and soil acidity on future crop potential, focusing on Ethiopia as a case study. The EcoCrop crop suitability model was parameterized and run for four key food crops in Ethiopia (teff, maize, barley and common wheat), under current and mid-century climate conditions. To assess the impacts of soil acidification on crop suitability, a simulation study was conducted by lowering the soil pH values by 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 and re-running the suitability model, comparing the changes in the area suitable for each crop. Our evaluation of the model, by comparing the modeled suitable areas with reference data, indicated that there was a good fit for all the four crops. Using default soil pH values, we project that there will be no significant changes in the suitability of maize, barley and wheat and an increase in the suitability of teff by the mid-century, as influenced by projected increases in rainfall in the country. Our results demonstrate a direct relationship between the lowering of soil pH and increasing losses in the area suitable for all crops, but especially for teff, barley and wheat. We conclude that soil acidification can have a strong impact on crop suitability in Ethiopia under climate change, and precautionary measures to avoid soil acidification should be a key element in the design of climate change adaptation strategies. 2024-02-09 2024-05-17T07:13:37Z 2024-05-17T07:13:37Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141877 en Open Access application/pdf MDPI Jimma, T.B.; Chemura, A.; Spillane, C.; Teferi, D.; Abera, W.; Ture, K.; Terefe, T.; Solomon, D.; Gleixner, S. (2024) Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia. Sustainability 16: 1468. ISSN: 2071-1050
spellingShingle climate change
sustainability
soil ph
soil quality
Jimma, Tamirat B.
Chemura, Abel
Spillane, Charles
Teferi, Demissie
Abera, Wuletawu
Ture, Kassahun
Terefe, Tadesse
Solomon, Dawit
Gleixner, Stephanie
Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title_full Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title_fullStr Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title_short Coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in Ethiopia
title_sort coupled impacts of soil acidification and climate change on future crop suitability in ethiopia
topic climate change
sustainability
soil ph
soil quality
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141877
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