ESApartnersmeetAug2021

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Africa RISING ESA Project Partners Meeting
5 August 2021
Virtual via Ms TEAMS
[edit | edit source]

Participants

  1. A. Kimaro, ICRAF
  2. B. Zemadim, ICRISAT
  3. C. Thierfelder, CIMMYT
  4. D. Mgalla, IITA
  5. E. Swai, TARI-Hombolo
  6. F. Kizito, IITA
  7. F. Muthoni, IITA
  8. G. Fischer, IITA
  9. J. Kihara, Bioversity-CIAT
  10. J. Manda, IITA
  11. J. Odhong, IITA
  12. L. Claessens, IITA
  13. M. Bekunda, IITA
  14. M. Mutenje, IITA (consultant)
  15. P. Okori, ICRISAT
  16. R. Chikowo, MSU
  17. E. Temu, ICRAF
  18. M. Mulundu, ZARI
  19. M. Shitindi, SUA
  20. H. Beliyou, IFPRI
  21. E. Temu, ICRAF
  22. j. Mwololo, ICRISAT-ZW
  23. Y. Muzila, SUA
  24. W. Mhango
  25. F. Michael, IITA
  26. E. Mwambo, IITA
  27. G. Wanjiku, ICRISAT-MW




Agenda

  • Productivity and Resource Use efficiency of Agroforestry Systems in Semiarid Tanzania- Dr. Antony Kimaro (ICRAF)
  • Sustainable Intensification of Maize Cereal System using the Rip Tillage Technique in Semi-arid Areas of Kiteto District, Manyara Region in Tanzania - Elirehema Swai (TARI-Hombolo)

File:ESA ppt Antony Kimaro.pptx - Dr. Antony Kimaro (ICRAF)


  • Download the presentation from the link in the title above.

Discussion

  • Christain. Swai, How is the size of the shelter affecting the overall drought screening?
  • Antony. The shelter size we used is three by three meters, and the height is 2.5meters. These were arranged in a sort of way total plot was fifteen by 15 meters, each was dived into the subplot of eight by eight meters on the left. It was also proportioned between the center of the four by 4 meters plot.
  • Christian. Thanks, Antony. What are the possible effects on the tree, and how it is being reflected?
  • Antony. The shelters effect was more compared with the main screen and maize crop underneath. There are not many cropping seasons by drought in terms of yield productivity, but there was comparative control in each of the shelters where there are no trees. The presence of trees will be checked by the monoculture with and without trees to understand if it would cause positive or negative effects on maize alone treatments and with other treatments.
  • Christian. Okay, may you please elaborate on how long and time when you put the shelter?
  • Antony. We introduced before the tackling, and overall, at 50% tackling, and this was the onset of active group period on each of the seasons. In terms of precisely the month, it was mid-March, about six to eight weeks.
  • Mateete.Drought performing better than ambient, needs some more explanation?
  • Antony.Thanks, Mateete. In 2020, it was the year of an evenly distributed large amount of rainfall from mid of October towards the end of April/mid-May. The drought created favorable conditions for the varieties adapted to semi-arid areas compared to the ambient. Therefore, I would associate it with better performance in the drought treatments in 2020 compared to the trying year of 2019.
  • Fredy.Comment. Thank you, Antony, the increased productivity is excellent. It would be a good study if carried out for more than two years and assess yield stability in the context of resilience.
  • Jumbo.Comment. The design of experiments in terms of center size is something you need to pay attention to because of how the study was designed. It might be challenging to explain if the control of other factors has not been well accounted for. So, just two seasons may not be enough. That is why it seems there are speculations on performance. Other external factors should be accounted for. We need another season to see the consistency of the results.


File:ESA ppt Elirehema Swai.pptx - Mr. Elirehema Swai (TARI-Hombolo)


  • Download presentation from link in the title above.

Discussion

  • Shitindi. Swai, was there control fertilizer use under baby trials?
  • Swai.Yes, Shitindi. On the calories and protein production attribute to the water shortage. Both mother and baby trials have the same treatments at the same level. And all received the same amount of fertilizers at planting and before flowering.
  • Shitindi. Thanks, Swai, how about the issue of moistures, the difference in crop performance substitute to terms of texture between mother plots with clay soils, and most baby plots with another type of soil. Under normal conditions, I expected the clay soil to have higher moisture retention than the other type of soil. If the two kinds of soil receive the same amount of rain, the expectation is that the clay soil would retain more moisture for crop use.
  • Swai. We conducted the study across the season; it was impossible to obtain the data from a single event. During the experiment time, there was not enough soil moisture to allow the wetting of the soil under the clay. Where there is inadequate wetting, the impact of soil water impact would be difficult. Also, there was no water held between the replanting during the season, which would make the difference. But also, the experience from the semi-arid shows when there is limited soil moisture supply in the very wet season, farmers could get something under a semi clay soil compare to typical clay soil.
  • Mulundu. In the two years that the study was undertaken, was the normal rainfall attended for the study site? If not, are there are possibilities of having extra rainfall in the season, for example, if the study site can attend something in a range of at least 600-700 mm, has it been a thought that probably if the rainfall were higher, in that case, the performance of the two treatments would have different performance?
  • Swai. Thanks, Mulundu, We carried the study in a semi-arid area. Usually, there is an average rainfall of around 550-600 mm of rain per season. Because of the research and project time limit, it is difficult to conduct another study. Another study will require three seasons consequently to quantify the result.
  • Mateete.Comment. The first season which is entirely wet, is a good blessing in the study and should show that the technologies do not work all the time and everywhere, this should be stressed in this reporting.
  • Regis. Swai, during the introduction, you talked about the hardpan due to livestock tractors, etc. to reinforce the ideas under that aspect, it would be nice to show the existence of the hardpans through empirical data from the landscape, which would strengthen your arguments by reinforcing the paper with such kind of data.
  • Swai. Thanks, Regis. It is unfortunate. We did not conduct such type of study.
  • Regis. Noted, Swai. Also, there are concerns that there are limiting issues when it comes to infiltration, and sometimes it may lead to rainfall intensity above a certain threshold, and you turn to have a runoff. So probably we need to get data on how much moisture was infiltrated and how much was run off under certain rainfall conditions. I hope that kind of data is available.
  • Swai. Well, Regis, my study was confined to cumulative infiltration as such. But, I will look at it if we can go further working on your idea. We had no automatic rain weather station that could follow in terms of rainfall intensity. Besides, we had only the standard ranges to measure the rainfall amount and other paraments. The rainfall intensity was not difficult to measure.
  • Regis.Okay, How about the runoff? It would be essential to show because it is a proxy for infiltration if you could measure runoff. Do you have ideas about that, or was your study based on soil moisture only?
  • Swai. In phase one of the Africa RISING, another study was undertaken in the Kongwa Kiteto district and involved many parameters (runoff, soil loss, soil water content). Also, there was rip tillage using the oxen-drawn implement. In that study, we measured the runoff, and the impact was very evident. The rip tillage compares to conventional farmer tillage has less runoff. Tied ridge had low runoff, and traditional tillage of farmers had high runoff.