Impact of no tillage and mulching practices on cotton production in North Cameroon: A multi-locational on-farm assessment

Naudin, Krishna; Gozé, Éric; Balarabé, Oumarou; Giller, Ken E.; Scopel, Éric

doi:10.1016/j.still.2010.03.002

Cited by 59 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…In contrast, in nontraditional cotton growing districts such as Zomba pesticide use was uncommon, which suggests that the access to and use of herbicides to control weeds was the sole responsibility of farmers. These results are in line with assertions by Naudin et al (2010) who claimed that farmers in traditional cotton-growing areas of Cameroon had less problems in handling herbicides than their counterparts in Madagascar where pesticide use was uncommon.…”

Section: Variables Coefficientsupporting

confidence: 91%

Adoption and extent of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi

Ngwira¹,

Mekuria²,

Thierfelder³

2014

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

125

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Understanding factors affecting farmers' adoption of improved technologies is critical to success of conservation agriculture (CA) program implementation. This study, which explored the factors that determine adoption and extent of farmers' use of the three principles of CA (i.e., minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover with crop residues, and crop rotations), was conducted in 10 target communities in 8 extension planning areas in Malawi. The primary data was collected using structured questionnaires administered to individual households. Triangulation with key informant interviews, field observations, and interactive discussions with farmers and farmer groups provided information behind contextual issues underpinning the statistical inferences. From a total of 15,854 households in the study areas, it is estimated that 18% of the smallholder farmers had adopted CA, representing an area of about 678 ha (1,675 ac; 2.1% of all cultivated land). Land area under CA constituted about 30% of total cultivated land among adopters. A random sample of 151 adopters and 149 nonadopters proportional with respect to adoption rates was drawn from various communities and interviewed using structured questionnaires. A total of 30 key informant interviews were conducted with stakeholders including staff of Total Land Care, government extension workers, agroinput suppliers, and lead farmers. The first stage of the Heckman model showed that hired labor, area of land cultivated, membership to farmer group, and district influenced farmers' decisions to adopt CA. The second stage of Heckman model results suggested that total cultivated land, duration of practicing CA, and district influenced farmers' decisions to extend their land to CA. Our study can be used to show the agency and social structures that are likely to influence adoption and extent of CA. Future policy should address ways to provide access to information and long-term support to farmers to enable them to embrace the technology fully.

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Section: Variables Coefficientsupporting

confidence: 91%

Adoption and extent of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi

Ngwira¹,

Mekuria²,

Thierfelder³

2014

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation

125

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“…Thus, the selected legume crops may be considered a 'bonus' in CA systems, although weed control can be more challenging with this system. Other studies have demonstrated a significant contribution to biomass production by intercropping maize with cereals compared with monocrop cereals 17,24,37 . Although farmers planted the type of legumes adapted to their local context, the grain yields obtained were lower than the potential.…”

Section: Maize and Legume Intercroppingmentioning

confidence: 97%

Conservation agriculture systems for Malawian smallholder farmers: long-term effects on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality

Ngwira

Thierfelder²,

Lambert

2012

Renew. Agric. Food Syst.

137

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Conservation agriculture (CA) systems are based upon minimal soil disturbance; crop residue retention and crop rotation and/or intercrop association are increasingly seen to recycle nutrients, increase yield and reduce production costs. This study examines the effects of CA practices on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality under the conditions encountered by smallholder farmers in two farming communities from 2005 to 2011 in Malawi, as part of the contribution to remedy a lack of supporting agronomic research for these relatively new systems. The drier agroenvironment of Lemu of Bazale Extension Planning Area (EPA) is characterized by sandy clay loam soils and lower rainfall. Here, CA showed positive benefits on maize yield after the first season of experimentation, with highest increases of 2.7 Mg ha (US$176) spent under conventional tillage practices. In Lemu, both CA systems resulted in gross margins three times higher than that of the conventional control plot, while in Zidyana, CA monocrop maize and CA maize-legume intercrop resulted in 33 and 23% higher gross margins, respectively, than conventional tillage. In Zidyana, the earthworm population was highest (48 earthworms m −2 in the first 30 cm) in CA monocrop maize, followed by a CA maize-legume intercropping (40 earthworms) and lowest (nine earthworms) in conventionally tilled treatment. In both study locations CA monocrop maize and CA maizelegume intercrop gave higher water infiltration than the conventional treatment. Improvements in crop productivity, overall economic gain and soil quality have made CA an attractive system for farmers in Malawi and other areas with similar conditions. However, for extensive adoption of CA by smallholder farmers, cultural beliefs that crop production is possible without the ubiquitous ridge and furrow system and residue burning for mice hunting have to be overcome.

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“…The agronomic and economic performances of the conservation tillage or water conservation practices in tropical regions, for instance Nigeria, are greatly affected by the amount of precipitation and its distribution (Benites and Ofori, 1993). Conservation tillage, such as no-till or reduced tillage, produced a higher soil water storage (SWS) and Corn yield than conventional tillage (Ojeniyi, 2005;Naudin et al, 2010). Thiagalingam et al (1991) found that no-till increased the yields of Soybean and Corn during the dry years, and Zotarelli et al (2012) reported that no-till increased the yield of Soybean.…”

Section: Soil Water Storage Conservation Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

2016

IJAPR

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Increasing water productivity and radiation use efficiencies (RUE) of Soybeans are very important in order to improve its production at field level. In this study, we investigated the productivity of Soybeans under the conventional (NC) and six water conservation practices: Tied ridge, Mulch, Soil bund , Tied ridge plus soil bund , Tied ridge plus mulch (TRML) and Mulch plus Soil bund arranged in a randomised complete block design. The objective of the study was to determine the effects of soil water storage (SWS) on land and water productivity and radiation use efficiency ( .3% under water conservation practices. However, WPbiomass and seed yield were not significantly related to RUE. It is hereby concluded that water conservation practices increased the seed yield and water productivity for seed and biomass but did not significantly affect the RUE of the crop. These findings will provide useful information for the development of water and radiation driven models for the production of Soybeans under rainfed conditions.

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Impact of no tillage and mulching practices on cotton production in North Cameroon: A multi-locational on-farm assessment

Cited by 59 publications

References 25 publications

Adoption and extent of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi

Adoption and extent of conservation agriculture practices among smallholder farmers in Malawi

Conservation agriculture systems for Malawian smallholder farmers: long-term effects on crop productivity, profitability and soil quality

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