Dryland agriculture in Cabo Verde copes with steep slopes, inadequate practices, irregular intense rain, recurrent
droughts, high runoff rates, severe soil erosion and declining fertility, leading to the inefficient use of rainwater.
Maize and beans occupy N80% of the arable land in low-input, low-yielding subsistence farming. Three collaborative
field trialswere conducted in different agroecological zones to evaluate the effects ofwater-conservation techniques
(mulching of crop residue, a soil surfactant and pigeon-pea hedges) combinedwith organic amendments (compost
and animal or green manure) on runoff and soil loss. During the 2011 and 2012 rainy seasons, three treatments and
one control (traditional practice) were applied to 44- and 24-m2 field plots. A local maize variety and two types of
beanswere planted. Runoff and suspended sedimentswere collected and quantified after each daily erosive rainfall.
Runoff occurred for rainfalls≥50mm(slope b10%, loamy Kastanozem),≥60mm(slope≤23%, silt–clay–loam Regosol)
and≥40mm(slope≤37%, sandy loam Cambisol). Runoffwas significantly reduced only with themulch treatment
on the slope N10% and in the treatment of surfactant with organic amendment on the slope b10%. Soil loss
reached 16.6, 5.1, 6.6 and 0.4 Mg ha−1 on the Regosol (≤23% slope) for the control, surfactant, pigeon-pea and
mulch/pigeon-pea (with organic amendment) treatments, respectively; 3.2, 0.9, 1.3 and 0.1 Mg ha−1 on the
Cambisol (≤37% slope) and b0. 2Mg ha−1 for all treatments and control on the Kastanozem(b10% slope). Erosion
was highly positively correlated with runoff. Mulch with pigeon-pea combinedwith an organic amendment significantly
reduced runoff and erosion fromagricultural fields on steep slopes, contributing to improved use of rainwater
at the plot level. Sustainable land management techniques, such as mulching with pigeon-pea hedges and an
organic amendment, should be advocated and promoted for the semiarid hillsides of Cabo Verde prone to erosion
to increase rainwater-use and to prevent further soil degradation
