Climate smart agriculture adaptation strategies for rain-fed agriculture in drought-prone areas of Central Kenya

Peterson N.M. Njeru, Immaculate Maina, John K. Lekasi, Stephen K. Kimani, Anthony O. Esilaba, Jayne Mugwe and M. Mucheru-Muna

International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2016, vol. 12, issue 2, 113-124

Abstract: The drier parts of Central Kenya are characterised by poor crop harvest due to unpredictable, unreliable and poor rainfall distribution patterns. The field experiment was laid out in Partially Balanced Incomplete Block Design (PBIBD) with 36 treatments replicated three times. The treatments of tied ridges and contour furrows under sorghum alone and intercrop plus external soil amendment of 40 kg P/ha + 20 kg N/ha + manure 2.5 t/ha had the highest grain yield of 3.1 t/ha. The soil fertility levels differed significantly from one another (p = 0.0001) in terms of sorghum grain yield. Generally, all experiment controls had the lowest grain yields as low as 0.3 t/ha to 0.5 t/ha. Therefore, integration of minimal organic and inorganic inputs under various water harvesting technologies could be considered as an alternative food security initiative towards climate smart agriculture for climate change mitigation in drought-prone areas of Central Kenya.

Keywords: rainfall distribution patterns; cropping calendar; soil amendments; food security; climate smart agriculture; Kenya; adaptation strategies; rain-fed agriculture; drought prone areas; grain yield; water harvesting; climate change mitigation. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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