United States Agency for International Developmen

Chikowo, Regis

Jonas, E.

Kimaro, Anthony A.

CGSpace

Best-bet and best fit crop-ecology paradigm for sustainable intensification in ESAChikowo R1, Jonas E2, Kimaro A.A.31Michigan State University; 2Sokoine University of Agriculture ; 3World Agroforestry CentreKey messages• No one size fits all as farmers and farms are heterogeneous• Different biophysical environments will optimally support different pathways for intensification• Legume –cereal rotations work better for larger farms, while intercropping for small farms ensures crop diversity This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. January 2017We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their contributions to this research. We also acknowledge the support of all donors which globally support the work of the CGIAR centers and their partners through their contributions to the CGIAR systemObjectives and approachResearch teams across ESA project identified technologies that present the best opportunity to increase productivity: This entailed…1. taping into ecological provisions of leguminous crops for enhanced N cycling (Photos A, B, C)2. Adopting cropping arrangements/sequences that respond to farm sizes  and agroecologies and as well as integrating farmer production objectives (Photo D)Key resultsA. Malawi• The pigeonpea-groundnut intercropping system resulted in grain yields of groundnut that were comparable to productivity in sole cropping (Table 1).• The land equivalency ratio (LER) is a measure of land productivity, and a number >1 indicates that intercropping is advantageous .B. Tanzania• LER revealed that intercropping pigeonpea at the appropriate proportions based on local site conditions is necessary and a promising strategy to optimize yields in mixture. Higher proportions of pigeonpea in intercropping (1:2 ratio of maize to pigeonpea) was more beneficial to farmers in Mlali, a less potential site (LER = 1.53) than in Chitego, a high potential site (1.15), especially in years of poor precipitations and yields (Table 2).• Alternate arrangement (1:1;), which is mostly used by farmers (Photo D), was less sensitive to site variations as noted by the moderate LER in 2015 and higher LER in 2016 in both sites (Table 2). Significance and scaling potential• For small farms, this technology offers a huge opportunity for increasing land productivity and maintaining diversified crop production, for food  and income security. • Up to 1 million households situated in  pigeonpea and groundnut growing agro-ecologies will benefit from this technology • Extension system and development partners need to be supported to disseminate and support adoption of this technologyCropping system Grain yield (kg/ha)LERSole groundnut 16501.48Intercropped groundnut 1330Sole pigeonpea 950Intercropped pigeonpea 640AB CTable 1. Assessing productivity of doubled-up groundnut-pigeonpea technology Photo D. 1:2 spatial arrangements of maize and pigeonpea at Chitego, Dodoma, Tanzania Maize-PP ratio 2015 2016Mlali Chitego Mlali Chitego2M:1PP 1.06 1.71 1.09 1.161M:1PP 1.14 1.22 1.41 1.681M:2PP 1.53 1.15 1.02 1.49Table 2: LER for Maize-pigeonpea (PP) intercropping at Mlali and ChitegoVillages, Tanzania

Best-bet and best fit crop-ecology paradigm for sustainable intensification in ESA

https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/10568/80592/1/AR_dar217_chikowo.pdf

Best-bet and best fit crop-ecology paradigm for sustainable intensification in ESA

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