612
use of fertilizers; soil and moisture conservation; use of improved high-yielding
crops, pasture, and animal varieties/breeds; and resistance/tolerance to pest and diseases. Girvetz et al. (2019) showed that climate change impact led to decreased
precipitation for the most part of Africa, except for few parts in South Africa and
East Africa where precipitation increased. The evaporation stress has also increased
due to increase in temperature, which outweighs the benefit of increased total precipitation in those parts of South and East Africa, resulting in drier soils than there
would be without climate change (Girvetz et al. 2019). Therefore, for each of the
sustainable agriculture intensification technologies and practices, one must ensure
that they give the same good results even in the face of the above-mentioned climate
change impact. Such a guarantee is possible with use of smartly chosen conservation agriculture (CA) to ensure infiltration and retention of rainwater in the soil
profile, without creating water logging conditions for vulnerable crops. Alternatively,
plans, mechanisms, and practices for supplemental irrigation must be available
when needed. Soil fertility management must also go hand in hand with sustainable
pest management to ensure adequate productivity. The choice of crop and varieties
to be grown must be based on the season weather forecast, while other soil fertility,
crop and pest management choices will depend on season and soil conditions. The
decision on either microdosing or full site-specific fertilizer use will depend on
intra-season amount and distribution of rainfall. This is because, when rainfall is
low and/or poorly distributed, microdose can produce the same yield as full dose
due to limited moisture to ensure all nutrients supplied by full dose fertilizer rate are
absorbed. Lack of reliable weather/climate information and forecast negatively
affects farmers’ decision on investing in agricultural input use. Given low soil fertility, supplementing the deficient nutrients, and use of other amendments to optimize
physical and chemical soil properties, it is necessary to find out how best climate/
weather information can be factored in the planning of agricultural production
among smallholder farmers.
Irrigation for Vertical Intensification and Supplemental Irrigation
Irrigation has been suggested to be a quick fix to unreliable and low rainfall.
Although irrigation has been proven to increase productivity at smallholder farming
system, sustaining irrigation is still a major problem due to climate change impacts
(Lefore et al. 2019). The unsustainability of irrigation is due to excessive use of
diminishing water resources, mostly groundwater and surface river water (Lefore
et al. 2019), increased salinity in irrigated systems, and increased evaporation due
to increased temperature. Lack of or weak institutional set-up to manage water
resources is a challenge to accessing irrigation water. Studies that shed light on best
institutional arrangements and multi-sector water resource management to ensure
CSA are still scanty.
Research and practice for supplemental irrigation to correct moisture deficit for
rain-fed agriculture in smallholder farming systems is almost not practiced in
SSA. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and management has the potential to sustain
B. R. Singh et al.
use of fertilizers; soil and moisture conservation; use of improved high-yielding
crops, pasture, and animal varieties/breeds; and resistance/tolerance to pest and diseases. Girvetz et al. (2019) showed that climate change impact led to decreased
precipitation for the most part of Africa, except for few parts in South Africa and
East Africa where precipitation increased. The evaporation stress has also increased
due to increase in temperature, which outweighs the benefit of increased total precipitation in those parts of South and East Africa, resulting in drier soils than there
would be without climate change (Girvetz et al. 2019). Therefore, for each of the
sustainable agriculture intensification technologies and practices, one must ensure
that they give the same good results even in the face of the above-mentioned climate
change impact. Such a guarantee is possible with use of smartly chosen conservation agriculture (CA) to ensure infiltration and retention of rainwater in the soil
profile, without creating water logging conditions for vulnerable crops. Alternatively,
plans, mechanisms, and practices for supplemental irrigation must be available
when needed. Soil fertility management must also go hand in hand with sustainable
pest management to ensure adequate productivity. The choice of crop and varieties
to be grown must be based on the season weather forecast, while other soil fertility,
crop and pest management choices will depend on season and soil conditions. The
decision on either microdosing or full site-specific fertilizer use will depend on
intra-season amount and distribution of rainfall. This is because, when rainfall is
low and/or poorly distributed, microdose can produce the same yield as full dose
due to limited moisture to ensure all nutrients supplied by full dose fertilizer rate are
absorbed. Lack of reliable weather/climate information and forecast negatively
affects farmers’ decision on investing in agricultural input use. Given low soil fertility, supplementing the deficient nutrients, and use of other amendments to optimize
physical and chemical soil properties, it is necessary to find out how best climate/
weather information can be factored in the planning of agricultural production
among smallholder farmers.
Irrigation for Vertical Intensification and Supplemental Irrigation
Irrigation has been suggested to be a quick fix to unreliable and low rainfall.
Although irrigation has been proven to increase productivity at smallholder farming
system, sustaining irrigation is still a major problem due to climate change impacts
(Lefore et al. 2019). The unsustainability of irrigation is due to excessive use of
diminishing water resources, mostly groundwater and surface river water (Lefore
et al. 2019), increased salinity in irrigated systems, and increased evaporation due
to increased temperature. Lack of or weak institutional set-up to manage water
resources is a challenge to accessing irrigation water. Studies that shed light on best
institutional arrangements and multi-sector water resource management to ensure
CSA are still scanty.
Research and practice for supplemental irrigation to correct moisture deficit for
rain-fed agriculture in smallholder farming systems is almost not practiced in
SSA. Rainwater harvesting (RWH) and management has the potential to sustain
B. R. Singh et al.