Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique

Conservation agriculture (CA) based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotations is considered as a soil and crop management system that could potentially increase soil quality and mitigate the negative effects of climate variability. When CA is combined with drought-tolera...

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Autores principales: Thierfelder, Christian L., Rusinamhodzi, Leonard, Setimela, Peter, Walker, Forbes, Eash, Neal S.
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Cambridge University Press 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/68444
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author Thierfelder, Christian L.
Rusinamhodzi, Leonard
Setimela, Peter
Walker, Forbes
Eash, Neal S.
author_browse Eash, Neal S.
Rusinamhodzi, Leonard
Setimela, Peter
Thierfelder, Christian L.
Walker, Forbes
author_facet Thierfelder, Christian L.
Rusinamhodzi, Leonard
Setimela, Peter
Walker, Forbes
Eash, Neal S.
author_sort Thierfelder, Christian L.
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Conservation agriculture (CA) based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotations is considered as a soil and crop management system that could potentially increase soil quality and mitigate the negative effects of climate variability. When CA is combined with drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties, farmers can reap the benefits of both—genetic improvement and sustainable land management. New initiatives were started in 2007 in Mozambique to test the two climate-smart agriculture technologies on farmers' fields. Long-term trends showed that direct seeded manual CA treatments outyielded conventional tillage treatments in up to 89% of cases on maize and in 90% of cases on legume in direct yield comparisons. Improved DT maize varieties outyielded the traditional control variety by 26–46% (695–1422 kg ha−1) on different tillage treatment, across sites and season. However a direct interaction between tillage treatment and variety performance could not be established. Maize and legume grain yields on CA plots in this long-term dataset did not increase with increased years of practice due to on-site variability between farmer replicates. It was evident from the farmers' choice that, beside taste and good milling quality, farmers in drought-prone environments considered the potential of a variety to mature faster more important than larger potential yields of long season varieties. Population growth, labor shortage to clear new land areas and limited land resources in future will force farmers to change toward more permanent and sustainable cropping systems and CA is a viable option to improve their food security and livelihoods.
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spelling CGSpace684442025-02-19T13:41:57Z Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique Thierfelder, Christian L. Rusinamhodzi, Leonard Setimela, Peter Walker, Forbes Eash, Neal S. climate change climate-smart agriculture food security agriculture direct sowing maize drought tolerance climate change adaptation food science Conservation agriculture (CA) based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotations is considered as a soil and crop management system that could potentially increase soil quality and mitigate the negative effects of climate variability. When CA is combined with drought-tolerant (DT) maize varieties, farmers can reap the benefits of both—genetic improvement and sustainable land management. New initiatives were started in 2007 in Mozambique to test the two climate-smart agriculture technologies on farmers' fields. Long-term trends showed that direct seeded manual CA treatments outyielded conventional tillage treatments in up to 89% of cases on maize and in 90% of cases on legume in direct yield comparisons. Improved DT maize varieties outyielded the traditional control variety by 26–46% (695–1422 kg ha−1) on different tillage treatment, across sites and season. However a direct interaction between tillage treatment and variety performance could not be established. Maize and legume grain yields on CA plots in this long-term dataset did not increase with increased years of practice due to on-site variability between farmer replicates. It was evident from the farmers' choice that, beside taste and good milling quality, farmers in drought-prone environments considered the potential of a variety to mature faster more important than larger potential yields of long season varieties. Population growth, labor shortage to clear new land areas and limited land resources in future will force farmers to change toward more permanent and sustainable cropping systems and CA is a viable option to improve their food security and livelihoods. 2016-10 2015-10-06T12:27:54Z 2015-10-06T12:27:54Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/68444 en Limited Access Cambridge University Press Thierfelder C, Rusinamhodzi L, Setimela P, Walker F, Eash NS. 2015. Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems
spellingShingle climate change
climate-smart agriculture
food security
agriculture
direct sowing
maize
drought tolerance
climate change adaptation
food science
Thierfelder, Christian L.
Rusinamhodzi, Leonard
Setimela, Peter
Walker, Forbes
Eash, Neal S.
Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title_full Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title_fullStr Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title_full_unstemmed Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title_short Conservation agriculture and drought-tolerant germplasm: Reaping the benefits of climate-smart agriculture technologies in central Mozambique
title_sort conservation agriculture and drought tolerant germplasm reaping the benefits of climate smart agriculture technologies in central mozambique
topic climate change
climate-smart agriculture
food security
agriculture
direct sowing
maize
drought tolerance
climate change adaptation
food science
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/68444
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