Climate-smart agroforestry:  Faidherbia albida  trees buffer wheat against climatic extremes in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Sida, Tesfaye Shiferaw; Baudron, Frédéric; Kim, Haekoo; Giller, Ken E.

doi:10.1016/j.agrformet.2017.10.013

Cited by 107 publications

(73 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The lower temperature under trees can delay crop phenology and elongate the grain filling stage, which can improve crop yield (Craufurd and Wheeler 2009;Sida et al 2018) when water and nutrients are sufficiently available (Anwar et al 2015), but this effect was not observed in this study.…”

Section: Microclimate and Fertility Effects Of Trees On Cropcontrasting

confidence: 49%

Farming with trees: a balancing act in the shade

Ndoli¹

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The smallholder agriculture sector in East Africa is the dominant economic and social activity for millions of farm households who are often resource-poor, food-insecure and most vulnerable to climate change. In this region, population pressure has led to shorter fallow periods or continuous cropping even on hillslopes causing erosion and leading to reduced soil organic matter content and nutrient mining without replenishment. Consequently, poor agricultural productivity has led to food shortages and these problems are likely to intensify in the region, as the human population is growing faster than in other parts of the world. Agroforestry, a low-input technology, was shown to contribute to the enhancement of food production while ensuring sustainability in sub-Saharan Africa.Agroforestry may improve food security by increasing soil fertility and providing additional income from tree products. Thus, agroforestry is now receiving increasing attention as a sustainable landmanagement option and some countries in East Africa (e.g. Rwanda) have pledged to restore up to 100% of their agricultural land mainly through agroforestry by the year 2020. Nevertheless, crop yields reduction in agroforestry are frequent due to competition for resources among trees and crops.In recent studies, tree canopy and root pruning were tested to improve light availability and resource use efficiency but studies that tackle crop management and tillage options to optimize crop productivity in the agroforestry systems are scarce.This thesis aims to assess the importance of agroforestry across Rwanda and its implication on crop productivity and food security of farm households, explore and recommend the maize varieties and tillage options that could minimize tree-crop competition in the equatorial savannah of Rwanda and Ethiopia. The approach combined household survey on the contribution of trees on household income and food security in six agroecologies of Rwanda, experiments on the microclimate and fertility effects of trees on crops in sub-humid region of Rwanda, maize variety testing in agroforestry systems and trials on conservation agriculture with trees in the equatorial savannah of two East African countries: Rwanda (Bugesera site) and Ethiopia (Meki site). The survey in Rwanda found that food security increases with increasing farm size and farmers with more trees tended to be wealthier (e.g. with larger land and more often higher crop and livestock income) and therefore tended to be more food secure in half of the agroecologies. The proportion of household income that came from tree products was the least among sources of income suggesting that most tree products are not sold but kept by farmers for their own use. Yet tree vi income was important for about 12% of the farmers, contributing more than 20% of their overall income. Households having low food security relied more on income from tree products than those with higher food security status. Therefore, income from tree products can be seen as a 'safety net' for the po...

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Section: Microclimate and Fertility Effects Of Trees On Cropcontrasting

confidence: 49%

Farming with trees: a balancing act in the shade

Ndoli¹

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“…Again this highlights the importance of large trees on ecosystems (Jones et al, 2018;Lindenmayer and Laurance, 2017). In addition it has implications for nature based solutions in moderating urban temperatures (Gill et al, 2007;Nielsen et al, 2017), water use (Lin et al, 2018), energy saving (Kliman and Comrie, 2004;McPherson and Simpson, 2003;Morakinyo et al, 2018), as well as climatic-efficient agroforestry (Sida et al, 2018). While these effects can be quantified via remote sensing, they may often pass unnoticed as high resolution data are needed (Zhou et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-driven competitive facilitative tree interactions and their implications on nature-based solutions

Moustakas

Daliakopoulos

Benton

2019

Science of The Total Environment

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Spatio-temporal data are more ubiquitous and richer than even before and the availability of such data poses great challenges in data analytics. Ecological facilitation, the positive effect of density of individuals on the individual's survival across a stress gradient, is a complex phenomenon. A large number of tree individuals coupled with soil moisture, temperature, and water stress data across a long temporal period were followed. Data-driven analysis in the absence of hypothesis was performed. Information theoretic analysis of multiple statistical models was employed in order to quantify the best data-driven index of vegetation density and spatial scale of interactions. Sequentially, tree survival was quantified as a function of the size of the individual, vegetation density, and time at the optimal spatial interaction scale. Land surface temperature and soil moisture were also statistically explained by tree size, density, and time. Results indicated that in space both facilitation and competition co-exist in the same ecosystem and the sign and magnitude of this depend on the spatial scale. Overall, within the optimal data-driven spatial scale, tree survival was best explained by the interaction between density and year, sifting overall from facilitation to competition through time. However, small sized trees were always facilitated by increased densities, while large sized trees had either negative or no density effects. Tree size was more important predictor than density in survival and this has implications for nature-based solutions: maintaining large tree individuals or planting species that can become large-sized can safeguard against tree-less areas by promoting survival at long time periods through harsh environmental conditions. Large trees had also a significant effect in moderating land surface temperature and this effect was higher than the one of vegetation density on temperature.

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“…To mimic agroforestry in WOFOST several weather and soil parameters were changed based on literature research (Dilla et al, 2019;Sida, Baudron, Kim, et al, 2018;Yengwe et al, 2018). The first step was choosing a tree species where the potential benefits of agroforestry, such as adding nutrients to the soil and improve microclimatic conditions were maximised, while limiting competition for water, light and nutrients were minimised.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first step was choosing a tree species where the potential benefits of agroforestry, such as adding nutrients to the soil and improve microclimatic conditions were maximised, while limiting competition for water, light and nutrients were minimised. Faidherbia albida is leguminous tree that is grown across Sub Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, and is a suitable candidate for agroforestry for multiple reasons: it has a deep tap-root, making it drought resistant and reducing competition for water, it fixes nitrogen and therefore increases soil fertility and has it loses its leaves during the growing season ("reverse phenology") and therefore reducing light competition (Dilla et al, 2019;Garrity et al, 2010;Sida, Baudron, Kim, et al, 2018). The parameters that were changed in WOFOST are listed in Table 1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on the challenges mentioned in the introduction we decided to research if agroforestry can be a potential management change for smallholder farmers in the CRV. Previous research has shown that agroforestry in Sub Saharan Africa can increase yields of different grain crops such as wheat, maize and sorghum (Birhane et al, 2018;Garrity et al, 2010;Glover et al, 2012;Kuyah et al, 2019;Sida, Baudron, Kim, et al, 2018). To research whether agroforestry is a suitable climate-smart option for farmers in the CRV this study proposes a main research question:…”

Section: Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agroforestry: A Triple Win for Mixed Farming Systems in Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

2020

JBAH

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The Ethiopian Central Rift Valley floor faces various challenges related to reducing food insecurity, degraded ecosystems and climate change. Farming in the lower valley region is largely done under rainfed conditions, and the area's overreliance on agriculture and its very low levels of irrigation make it singularly vulnerable to the vagaries of its highly variable and changing climate. This study sought to answer the question of the effect of agroforestry as a Climate Smarts Agriculture (CSA) strategy option to improve food productivity in a mixed farming system at farm-level in Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia. To extrapolate current agricultural practices into the future, WOFOST (World Food Studies simulation model) was used to simulate the yields under the effect of climate change. For the business as usual it was assumed that the strategies currently used by farmers remained the same in the future that is application of synthetic fertiliser and unavailability of irrigation systems. However, a few parameters were changed due to climate change such as amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. The parameters that were changed included temperature, PAR, soil moisture and nitrogen deposition. WOFOST results were based on historical weather data (1979 -2015) and future data .The results of this study showed a positive effect of agroforestry in combination with enhanced manure management. This study recommends using agroforestry with enhanced manure management as a climate smart strategy that will improve all CSA pillars. The multiple benefits associated with agroforestry, when managed well, are a viable option for smallholder farmers of the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Analysis exposure and impact future weather dataTo get an understanding of the severity of climate change in the CRV, observed and future weather data were

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Climate-smart agroforestry: Faidherbia albida trees buffer wheat against climatic extremes in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia

Cited by 107 publications

References 36 publications

Farming with trees: a balancing act in the shade

Farming with trees: a balancing act in the shade

Data-driven competitive facilitative tree interactions and their implications on nature-based solutions

Agroforestry: A Triple Win for Mixed Farming Systems in Central Rift Valley, Ethiopia

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