Trends of productivity of water in rain-fed agriculture

Rain-fed farmingProductivityCrop productionWater requirementsEvapotranspiration

Trends of productivity of water in rain-fed agriculture: historical perspective

Rain-fed farmingProductivityCrop productionWater requirementsEvapotranspiration

Productivity of water and economic benefit associated with deficit irrigation scheduling in maize

Water deficitIrrigation schedulingMaizeEvapotranspirationCrop yieldEconomic aspects

Knowledge sharing and communication tools for dialogue issues on productivity of water in agriculture in Mkoji sub-catchment, Tanzania

River basinsIrrigated farmingProductivityAgricultural extension

Productivity of water and economic benefit associated with deficit irrigation scheduling in maize

Water deficitIrrigation schedulingMaizeSoil moisturePlant growthCrop yield

Economics of rainwater harvesting for crop enterprises in semi-arid areas: the case of Makanya Watershed in Pangani River Basin, Tanzania

River basinsWatershedsRainWater harvestingVillagesMaizeBeansRunoff

Economics of rainwater harvesting for crop enterprises in semi-arid areas: the case of Makanya Watershed in Pangani River Basin, Tanzania

River basinsWatershedsRainWater harvestingVillagesMaizeBeansRunoffEconomic aspects

Use of a hydrological model for environmental management of the Usangu Wetlands, Tanzania

Wetlands / Rivers / Ecology / Environmental effects / Remote sensing / Hydrology / Simulation models / Water budget / Irrigated sites / Land cover / Time series analysis / Tanzania / Usangu Wetlands / Great Ruaha River

Optimizing water and nitrogen application for neglected horticultural species in tropical sub-humid climate areas: A case of African eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum L.)

African eggplant, a traditional and important nutrient-dense crop to Tanzania’s nutrition and food security. However, yields remain low as a result of sub-optimal irrigation and fertilizer practices. To reduce the yield gap, a randomized split-plot design set up with irrigation as a main and nitrogen (N) treatments as a sub-factor. The irrigation regimes were 100 % (I100), 80 % (I80) and 60 % (I60) of crop water requirements whilst nitrogen levels were 250 kg N/ha (F100), 187 kg N/ha (F75), 125 kg N/ha (F50) and 0 kgN/ha (F0). The study evaluated the effect of irrigation water and N on crop growth variables and yield, fruit quality, WUE and NUE. The study showed the importance of combining different irrigation performance indicators which responds to different levels of water and nitrogen to evaluate and assess suitable irrigation and fertilizer strategies for African eggplant. The crop growth variables (plant height and LAI) had a good correlation with fruit yield (R2 = 0.6 and 0.8). The fruit quality was best performed by 100 % water in combination with 75 % N treatment. The best WUE and NUE was attained at 80 % and 100 % levels of water in combination with 75 % N. However, minimizing trade-offs between the various indicators, the optimal application for African eggplant would likely be around 80 % of the total irrigation requirement and 75 % of the N requirement in sandy clay loam soils under tropical sub-humid conditions

Mr. Meteo: Providing climate information for the unconnected

A majority of the world remain unconnected to the World Wide Web due to issues like low literacy and relevant information. This study presents Mr. Meteo, a system that provides weather information via voice calls in local languages to rural farmers in Ghana. The study used an interdisciplinary approach to identify relevant informational needs and socio-economic implications, and early end-user and stakeholder involvement. Mr. Meteo was deployed in Bolgatanga, Ghana and represents a novel design in terms of actual web data access to rural areas. The positive feedback from farmers, and stakeholder’s interest in continuity, shows this approach to be an appropriate method of development and implementation of information systems for rural areas; successful due to end-user and stakeholder involvement, focus on existing technologies, the use of voice technologies to mitigate the problem of illiteracy, and information relevance to end-users. This paper presents the methodology and results of this novel, practical, local-context ICT4D project,that has produced a viable information system for rural communities