Identifying best crop management practices for chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Northeastern Ethiopia under climate change condition

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the important cool season food legumes in the semi-arid northeastern Ethiopia; however, its productivity is adversely affected by a number of abiotic and biotic factors. The objectives of this study were to assess impacts of projected climate change on grain yield of chickpea by 2030 s (2020-2049) and 2050 s (2040-2069) and to identify crop management options that increase productivity of the crop. The CROPGRO-chickpea model in DSSAT (Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer) was used to assess impacts of projected climate change on chickpea and to identify adaptation options. The crop model was first calibrated and evaluated in the study area for simulating growth, yield and water balance of the soil. The result of the model calibration and evaluation showed that there were close agreement between the simulated and observed values that showed the performance of the model to simulate growth, phenology and yield of chickpea under semi-arid northeastern Ethiopian condition. The calibrated model was used to assess impacts of projected climate changes on chickpea and identify crop management options. The impact of projected climate change was assessed for 2030 s and 2050 s time periods under all the RCPs with and without CO 2 fertilization. To identify crop management options, different varieties of chickpea, supplemental irrigation and change in planting dates have been evaluated. The result of climate change impact analysis on chickpea showed that grain yield is predicted to significantly increase both by 2030 s and 2050 s under CO 2 fertilization condition across all the RCPs as compared to baseline grain yield (1961-1990). However, simulation without CO 2 showed that grain yield will not significantly increase by 2030 s and 2050 s across all the scenarios. Based on the prediction result it can be generalized that chickpea will be benefited from the projected climate changes in northeastern Ethiopia. According to the simulation result application of two supplemental irrigation (flower initiation and pod setting stages) and early sowing significantly (P < 0.05) increase grain yield of chickpea in northeastern Ethiopia under the present and future climate conditions. Selection of appropriate cultivars based on the agroecology of the area has paramount important to increase chickpea productivity under the present and future climate condition.

The impact of adaptation practices on crop productivity in northwest Ethiopia: an endogenous switching estimation

“…As shown in Table 4, the impact of adaptation on crop yields is determined by differencing column (c1) and column (c2). The results portray that adaptation grants higher yields as compared with not adapting, which is consistent with several studies (for example Asrat and Simane 2017;Mohammed et al 2017;Bedeke et al 2018;Di Falco and Veronesi 2018;Gorst, Dehlavi, and Groom 2018;Khanal et al 2018;Nonvide 2018;Wekesa, Ayuya, and Lagat 2018). That is, farmers who actually adopted would have gained lower if they had not adapted; and those farmers who actually did not adapt would have gained higher if they had adapted (counterfactual).…”

“…Numerous studies have also examined the impact of climate change adaptation on crop productivity and income (see e.g. Asrat and Simane 2017;Mohammed et al 2017;Amare and Simane 2018;Di Falco and Veronesi 2018;Gorst, Dehlavi, and Groom 2018;Khanal et al 2018;Nonvide 2018;Wekesa, Ayuya, and Lagat 2018;Cholo et al 2019). However, the current study differs from these studies in at least four areas.…”

“…Thirdly, most of the previous studies estimate the impact of adaptation strategies by aggregating crops and income. To the best of the researchers' knowledge, crop level estimation was conducted by Gorst, Dehlavi, and Groom (2018) at the macro level in Pakistan; Mohammed et al (2017) in north Ethiopia; and Bedeke et al (2018) in southern Ethiopia. Estimating the impact of adaptation for each crop is important for the fact that each crop might grow in different seasons and the farm management options likely play an important part in determining how productive these crops are (Gorst, Groom, and Dehlavi 2015).…”

Building resilience to climate shocks in Ethiopia

“…More specifically, crop models in the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) are used (Hoogenboom et al 2017;. DSSAT is widely used by agricultural researchers to understand crop production system dynamics and simulate different farm management and environmental changes in Ethiopia (for example, Araya et al 2015;Kassie et al 2014Kassie et al , 2015Mohammed et al 2017) and climate variability impacts associated with ENSO (for example, MacCarthy et al 2017;Sarkar, Ortiz, and Balkcom 2017).…”

A new approach to the traditional drying models for the thin‐layer drying kinetics of chickpeas

“…On the one hand, if harvested early, losses caused by the attack of insects and microorganisms are minimized. On the other hand, if the grains are harvested early, they tend to present high moisture content which increases the chances of spoilage due to high water activity (Mohammed, Tana, Singh, Molla, & Seid, 2017). Therefore, to increase the shelf-life and avoid spoilage, drying is considered the premier methodology for preservation.…”