Conservation Farming and Changing Climate: More Beneficial than Conventional Methods for Degraded Ugandan Soils

Drake N. Mubiru, Jalia Namakula, James Lwasa, Godfrey A. Otim, Joselyn Kashagama, Milly Nakafeero, William Nanyeenya and Mark S. Coyne
Additional contact information
Drake N. Mubiru: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Jalia Namakula: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
James Lwasa: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Godfrey A. Otim: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Joselyn Kashagama: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Milly Nakafeero: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
William Nanyeenya: National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P.O. Box 7065, Kampala, Uganda
Mark S. Coyne: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, 1100 S. Limestone St., Lexington, KY 40546-0091, USA

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: The extent of land affected by degradation in Uganda ranges from 20% in relatively flat and vegetation-covered areas to 90% in the eastern and southwestern highlands. Land degradation has adversely affected smallholder agro-ecosystems including direct damage and loss of critical ecosystem services such as agricultural land/soil and biodiversity. This study evaluated the extent of bare grounds in Nakasongola, one of the districts in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda and the yield responses of maize ( Zea mays ) and common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to different tillage methods in the district. Bare ground was determined by a supervised multi-band satellite image classification using the Maximum Likelihood Classifier (MLC). Field trials on maize and bean grain yield responses to tillage practices used a randomized complete block design with three replications, evaluating conventional farmer practice (CFP); permanent planting basins (PPB); and rip lines, with or without fertilizer in maize and bean rotations. Bare ground coverage in the Nakasongola District was 187 km 2 (11%) of the 1741 km 2 of arable land due to extreme cases of soil compaction. All practices, whether conventional or the newly introduced conservation farming practices in combination with fertilizer increased bean and maize grain yields, albeit with minimal statistical significance in some cases. The newly introduced conservation farming tillage practices increased the bean grain yield relative to conventional practices by 41% in PPBs and 43% in rip lines. In maize, the newly introduced conservation farming tillage practices increased the grain yield by 78% on average, relative to conventional practices. Apparently, conservation farming tillage methods proved beneficial relative to conventional methods on degraded soils, with the short-term benefit of increasing land productivity leading to better harvests and food security.

Keywords: land degradation; land management; conservation farming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1084/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1084/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1084-:d:103211

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().