Africa: U.S. Expertise Helps Enhance Crop Yields in Drought-Stricken Africa

Kibwezi, Kenya — Extra frequent and extreme droughts in Africa are hampering meals manufacturing, particularly in arid components of the continent, the place farmers battle to eke out a residing. A water retention system developed in the US helps African farmers battle the development and enhance crop yields in drought-affected areas.

Beneath the scorching solar within the Ulilinzi village of southeastern Kenya, farmers are participating in distinctive land preparations.

They’re putting in within the floor specifically designed polyethylene membranes that seem like clear covers, to stop the lack of moisture and vitamins from the soil.

Exacerbated by drought from local weather change, the sandy soil on this space, like in most arid and semi-arid areas, has made it practically unattainable to provide plentiful crops.

Nevertheless, this new water retention expertise developed within the U.S. is giving farmers right here new hope.

Alvin Smucker is a professor of soil biophysics at Michigan State College who developed the expertise.

“We had quite a lot of authorities funding, going into thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of {dollars} to place all these programs collectively. After which take a look at it in Texas, Arizona, California and Michigan. And these … we … all 4 universities that labored with us. So, this isn’t one thing that we simply put a bit of container within the yard — my yard — and now we’re saying it’s the greatest on the planet. It has been examined,” he mentioned.

Shem Kuyah, a researcher on the Jomo Kenyatta College of Agriculture and Expertise, is among the scientists main the trials of the expertise in Kenya.

“We’ve got examined the expertise with cowpea[s]. We’ve got additionally examined the expertise with maize, and we realized that farms the place we had put in these membranes had been extra productive,” mentioned Kuyah.

The expertise has to this point been examined in Zimbabwe and Kenya and is getting good opinions.

Florence Mutisya, a farmer in Ulilinzi village, has deployed the expertise in her farm.

She mentioned when the expertise got here, she was skilled on the way to make her sandy soil farm fertile. “I noticed the advantages and deployed it in my farm. And I can say that this expertise is working very nicely as a result of now, I get [a] good harvest.”

Just a few meters away, Ann Mutunga is harvesting kales at her farm.

“This expertise is superb.” She poses earlier than she continues. “I can say it’s good, as a result of when it was utilized in my farm for trials, I harvested quite a lot of maize,” Mutunga explains. “Even now, we’re very pleased as a result of as you possibly can see, we have now greens which you’ll be able to’t discover wherever else round right here,” she says, beaming with a smile.

The Worldwide Heart for Tropical Agriculture is among the many organizations spearheading trials of the subsurface water retention expertise within the sub-Saharan area and says it could possibly carry a couple of inexperienced revolution in the long term, as Sylvia Nyawira, a researcher on the middle, explains.

“Along with the expertise, farmers, in the event that they proceed to use, as an example, manure, retain their crop residues within the soil, lowering tillage within the soils. Then there’s buildup of natural matter. So, even in 5 years to return, the yields that we have now been witnessing in plots which have the expertise are anticipated to be a lot increased.”

Other than enhancing crop yields, consultants say the expertise may also assist in local weather change mitigation by carbon sequestration.

“As you enhance productiveness, the crops are in a position to take carbon from the environment and repair it into their biomass. And when this materials is included into the soil, it will increase soil natural matter. And by growing the natural matter within the soil, you’ll be able to repair carbon dioxide that was as soon as within the environment. You’ll be able to lock it into the soil,” mentioned Kuyah.

A key downside of this new water retention expertise is the excessive price and labor concerned. It prices between 1,250 to 2,000 U.S. {dollars} to purchase the specialised membranes to cowl one hectare of land.

The problem now could be making this expertise accessible for farmers in distant areas who want it essentially the most.