On-farm testing of wetting front detector as an irrigation scheduling tool in two communities in the upper east region of Ghana

United States Agency for International Developmen

Indicators of site-specific climate-smart agricultural practices employed in Ethiopia

Indicators of CSA practices/technologies are crucial to measure the performance of CSA practices/technologies and use as a guideline for data collection on the evaluation of CSA practices and technologies. Various indicators of CSA practices under the five categories including crop production, livestock production, integrated soil fertility management, erosion control, water management, and forestry/agroforestry management were identified using experts knowledge and literature review. The result showed that the number of indicators across the three pillars namely productivity and income, adaptation/resilience and mitigation (M,) and with additional indicators for gender equity and social responsiveness. The result also showed that higher numbers of indicators were found in integrated management, agroforestry systems, exclosure management, use of non-timber forest products, forage crop improvement, water harvesting, drip irrigation, river diversion, and promotion of low-carbon emitting animals. The study showed that CSA practices related to forestry and agroforestry management addressed the three pillars of CSA simultaneously. These indicators developed by experts and literature review can be used locally and globally since international system (SI) units are employed in their development. Although this study identified various indicators at practice/technology levels, further assessment is needed to identify result- and policy-level indicators of CSA practices/technologies in Ethiopia

Building climate resilience in rainfed landscapes needs more than good will

Rainfed smallholder farming is particularly vulnerable to climate change, which can greatly exacerbate existing poverty and livelihood challenges. Understanding the complexity of the systems that connect the environment, society and people can help us to reduce this vulnerability and increase the resilience of communities and households to climate perturbations. In recent years, resilience theory has proven a useful approach for exploring the complexity of development challenges. As a result, there has been an increase in the development of tools and frameworks for assessing resilience. Despite this increased focus, there is no consistent use of the resilience concept in development practice and little evidence as to the benefits of using the tools. This paper aims to bridge theory and practice by coupling research on resilience with its application in the international development field. The specific hypothesis we explore is if and how rural livelihoods build resilience toward increased climatic variability in already degraded agro-ecological landscapes? We present a resilience framework with indicators to assess the extent of community resilience to climate change through improved local agricultural production and natural resources management. Primary and secondary landscape and community data, together with development of participatory watershed action plans were used to populate 16 indicators in a resilience framework baseline for the two rainfed dominated watersheds in Ethiopia and Ghana respectively. Given community awareness of the challenges related to the watershed natural resources, local agriculture and extreme weather, the communities were very willing to develop action plans to improve their management of natural resources and build climate resilience. Nevertheless, our analysis of the watershed action plans revealed that strengthening resilience through local action alone, would likely not be sufficient to meet all climate -livelihood challenges identified. To address severity and recurrence of climate change related disturbances, such as droughts, floods and disease in poverty-affected rural communities, the capacity to improve resilience will depend on external factors, in addition to inherent action. New knowledge, infrastructure and social security mechanisms, including insurance and emergency assistance need to added to build resilience for poverty-affected communities in degraded watersheds. We conclude there are also challenges in the use of resilience framework for development and climate-action related to rural poverty affected and degraded livelihood systems. Populating complex social–environmental systems will also need further development, to understand progress in resilience building under changing climate. Special attention to systemic indicators that describe the coupling and interdependencies of social-ecosystem factors will be critical to take action

The effect of soil bunds on run-off, soil loss, soil moisture dynamics and crop yield in the Jawe-gumbura watershed, Ethiopia

United States Agency for International Developmen

Soil Carbon Storage Potential of Tropical Grasses: A Review

Environmental degradation and climate change are key current threats to world agriculture and food security and human–induced changes have been significant driving forces of this global environmental change. An important component is land degradation which results in a diminished soil organic carbon (SOC) stock with concomitant loss of soil condition and function. Land management to improve soil organic matter content, condition and productivity is therefore a key strategy to safeguard agricultural production, food supply and environmental quality. Soil organic carbon sequestration through the use of plant species with high photosynthetic efficiency, deep roots and high biomass production is one important strategy to achieve this. Tropical pastures, which are adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions have particular potential in this regard and have been used extensively for land rehabilitation. Tropical pastures also have advantages over trees for biomass and carbon accumulation due to their rapid establishment, suitability for annual harvest, continual and rapid growth rates. In addition, tropical pastures have the potential for SOC storage in subsoil horizons due to their deep root systems and can be used as biomass energy crops, which could further promote their use as a climate change mitigation option. Here we aimed to review current knowledge regarding the SOC storage potential of tropical grasses worldwide and identified knowledge gaps and current research needs for the use of tropical grasses in agricultural production system