Soil carbon sequestration in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Vågen, Tor-Gunnar; Lal, Rattan; Singh, Bal Ram

doi:10.1002/ldr.644

Cited by 178 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(82 reference statements)

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“…Schultz (1988) showed that C and N declined by 6% with burning but increased by 1% with stubble retention. Vagen et al (2005) concluded that the largest potential for increasing SOC is through the establishment of natural or improved fallow systems (agroforestry) with attainable C accumulation rates from 0.1 to 5.3 Mg C ha K1 yr…”

Section: Conservation Agriculture Definedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture

Hobbs

Sayre

Gupta

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

1,247

713

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The paper focuses on conservation agriculture (CA), defined as minimal soil disturbance (no-till, NT) and permanent soil cover (mulch) combined with rotations, as a more sustainable cultivation system for the future. Cultivation and tillage play an important role in agriculture. The benefits of tillage in agriculture are explored before introducing conservation tillage (CT), a practice that was borne out of the American dust bowl of the 1930s. The paper then describes the benefits of CA, a suggested improvement on CT, where NT, mulch and rotations significantly improve soil properties and other biotic factors. The paper concludes that CA is a more sustainable and environmentally friendly management system for cultivating crops. Case studies from the rice-wheat areas of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia and the irrigated maize-wheat systems of Northwest Mexico are used to describe how CA practices have been used in these two environments to raise production sustainably and profitably. Benefits in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and their effect on global warming are also discussed. The paper concludes that agriculture in the next decade will have to sustainably produce more food from less land through more efficient use of natural resources and with minimal impact on the environment in order to meet growing population demands. Promoting and adopting CA management systems can help meet this goal.

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Section: Conservation Agriculture Definedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture

Hobbs

Sayre

Gupta

2007

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

1,247

713

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet, the impacts of land-use change on SOC dynamics in sub-Saharan African ecosystems are still understudied, especially across diverse landscapes. Meta-analyses have shown that the conversion of forest/natural vegetation to agriculture leads to an overall loss of SOC (Post and Mann 1990;Schlesinger 1997;Ogle et al 2005;Vågen et al 2005;Don et al 2011), which has resulted in renewed efforts for restoring OC in agricultural soils (Lal et al 2004;Lal 2007;Tittonell and Giller 2013;Vanlauwe et al 2014). However, systematic surveys are needed to understand spatial variability of soil health indicators across the landscape, including interactions between inherent soil properties, SOC dynamics and land use, that enable targeted interventions at the plot and landscape-scales.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape-scale variability of soil health indicators: effects of cultivation on soil organic carbon in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania

Winowiecki

Vågen

Massawe

et al. 2015

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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Land-use change continues at an alarming rate in sub-Saharan Africa adversely affecting ecosystem services provided by soil. These impacts are greatly understudied, especially in biodiversity rich mountains in East Africa. The objectives of this study were to: conduct a biophysical baseline of soil and land health; assess the effects of cultivation on soil organic carbon (SOC); and develop a map of SOC at high resolution to enable farm-scale targeting of management interventions. Biophysical field surveys were conducted in a 100 km 2 landscape near Lushoto, Tanzania, with composite soil samples collected from 160 sampling plots. Soil erosion prevalence was scored, trees were counted, and current and historic land use was recorded at each plot. The results of the study showed a decline in SOC as a result of cultivation, with cultivated plots (n = 105) having mean topsoil OC of 30.6 g kg -1 , while semi-natural plots (n = 55) had 71 g OC kg -1 in topsoil. Cultivated areas were also less variable in SOC than seminatural systems. Prediction models were developed for the mapping of SOC based on RapidEye remote sensing data for January 2014, with good model performance (RMSEP cal = 8.0 g kg -1 ; RMSEP val = 10.5 g kg -1 ) and a SOC map was generated for the study. Interventions will need to focus on practices that increase SOC in order to enhance productivity and resilience of the farming system, in general. The highresolution maps can be used to spatially target interventions as well as for monitoring of changes in SOC.

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“…Subsistence farming in subSaharan Africa, in general, is, thus, characterized by low external input, low crop yield, food insecurity, nutrient mining and environmental degradation (Stoorvogel et al, 1993;Rhodes, 1995;Mafongoya et al, 2006). Strategies must, therefore, be developed to restore soil fertility, to reduce erosion and environmental degradation in order to increase food production and alleviate chronic hunger in the zone (Vagen et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality Protein Maize Response to Nitrogen Rate and Plant Density in the Guinea Savanna Zone of Ghana

Buah¹,

Abatania²,

Aflakpui³

2010

West African Journal of Applied Ecology

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Field experiments were conducted in the Guinea savanna ecology of Ghana to evaluate yield response of quality protein maize (Zea mays L.) hybrid to plant density and nitrogen (N) fertilizer. The experiments were conducted at four locations on 16 farmers' fields in 2002 and 2003. Three N rates (0, 90 and 135 kg/ha) were combined with three plant densities (50 000, 62 500 and 71 400 plants/ha) to constitute nine treatments which were tested in a randomized complete block design. Optimal N rate was not affected by plant density. There was no yield response to plant density. However, grain yield had a linear and quadratic response to N at all sites. Grain yield increases as a result of 90 kg N/ha applied over the farmers' practice (0 kg N/ha) at Tumu, Jirapa, Kpongu and Wa were 39%, 85%, 101% and 303% in 2002, respectively. Grain yield increases for the same rate and sites in 2003 were 31%, 83%, 63% and 51%, respectively. Marginal rate of return (MMR) to 90 kg N/ha combined with 62 600 plants/ha was the highest (5564%). Increasing N rate beyond 90 kg/ha did not result in corresponding increase in yield nor net benefit to merit the extra cost that may be incurred. From the study, application of 90 kg N/ha to hybrid maize would give economic yield response and acceptable returns at low risk to farmers, regardless of plant density.

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Soil carbon sequestration in sub-Saharan Africa: a review

Cited by 178 publications

References 83 publications

The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture

The role of conservation agriculture in sustainable agriculture

Landscape-scale variability of soil health indicators: effects of cultivation on soil organic carbon in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania

Quality Protein Maize Response to Nitrogen Rate and Plant Density in the Guinea Savanna Zone of Ghana

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