Analysis of Intra and Interseasonal Rainfall Variability and Its Effects on Pearl Millet Yield in a Semiarid Agroclimate: Significance of Scattered Fields and Tied Ridges

Silungwe, Festo Richard; Graef, Frieder; Bellingrath-Kimura, Sonoko Dorothea; Tumbo, Siza D.; Kahimba, Frederick C.; Lana, Marcos

doi:10.3390/w11030578

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Timely planting including dry soil planting [18], tied ridges, microdose and scattered fields [9,30], and other strategies of risk minimization in agricultural production found in literature provide useful experience in dealing with rainfed production challenges, but they individually partially address the challenges. An important insight is to combine different strategies together for attaining significant effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Daily rainfall data were collected on site using a standard manual rain gauge. The seasonal rainfall for the area is highly variable, with a coefficient of variation (CV) between 10% and 14% in a small area of 15 km 2 [9]. Additionally, the area is susceptible to severe spatial variabilities in daily rainfall amounts that can exceed a spatial threshold CV of 300% [30,31].…”

Section: Weather Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this region, food availability is dictated by how good the rains are to support agriculture production [7,8]. Together with poor soil fertility and drought, rainfall variability poses a significant threat to food production for many households in the area [5,[9][10][11]. Irrigation bears high potential in promoting crop yields constrained by rainfall variability challenges [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Tanzania, for instance, irrigation is used on less than one percent of the total potential area for irrigation, which is 29.4 million ha [13]. The promotion of infield rainwater harvesting practices such as the use of tied ridges [9], pits [14] and basins [15], as well as the use of micro dams [16,17], is resulting in these practices receiving attention as alternatives for limited access to formal large-scale irrigation. In addition, cultivating drought-tolerant crops, such as pearl millet, and paying close attention to the timing of its planting, is crucial for attaining higher yields [18][19][20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, cultivating drought-tolerant crops, such as pearl millet, and paying close attention to the timing of its planting, is crucial for attaining higher yields [18][19][20]. The potential of pearl millets to fight hunger is high in semi-arid SSA since it is among the major cereal in the region [9,21,22]. Reducing the gap between its potential and actual yields is necessary, but it requires continuous efforts in testing suitable management practices that fit the conditions of its production area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Modelling Rainfed Pearl Millet Yield Sensitivity to Abiotic Stresses in Semi-Arid Central Tanzania, Eastern Africa

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drought and heat-tolerant crops, such as Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), are priority crops for fighting hunger in semi-arid regions. Assessing its performance under future climate scenarios is critical for determining its resilience and sustainability. Field experiments were conducted over two consecutive seasons (2015/2016 and 2016/2017) to determine the yield responses of the crop (pearl millet variety "Okoa") to microdose fertilizer application in a semi-arid region of Tanzania. Data from the experiment were used to calibrate and validate the DSSAT model (CERES Millet). Subsequently, the model evaluated synthetic climate change scenarios for temperature increments and precipitation changes based on historic observations (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018). Temperature increases of +0.5 to +3.0 • C (from baseline), under non-fertilized (NF) and fertilizer microdose (MD) conditions were used to evaluate nine planting dates of pearl millet from early (5 December) to late planting (25 February), based on increments of 10 days. The planting date with the highest yields was subjected to 49 synthetic scenarios of climate change for temperature increments and precipitation changes (of −30% up to +30% from baseline) to simulate yield responses. Results show that the model reproduced the phenology and yield, indicating a very good performance. Model simulations indicate that temperature increases negatively affected yields for all planting dates under NF and MD. Early and late planting windows were more negatively affected than the normal planting window, implying that temperature increases reduced the length of effective planting window for achieving high yields in both NF and MD. Farmers must adjust their planting timing, while the timely availability of seeds and fertilizer is critical. Precipitation increases had a positive effect on yields under all tested temperature increments, but Okoa cultivar only has steady yield increases up to a maximum of 1.5 • C, beyond which yields decline. This informs the need for further breeding or testing of other cultivars that are more heat tolerant. However, under MD, the temperature increments and precipitation change scenarios are higher than under NF, indicating a high potential of yield improvement under MD, especially with precipitation increases. Further investigation should focus on other cropping strategies such as the use of in-field rainwater harvesting and heat-tolerant cultivars to mitigate the effects of temperature increase and change in precipitation on pearl millet yield.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%