Participatory conservation tillage research: an experience with minimum tillage on an Ethiopian highland Vertisol - Descarga este documento en PDF. Documentación en PDF para descargar gratis. Disponible también para leer online.

Farmer participatory tillage trials were conducted in a highland Vertisol area of Ethiopia during the 1999 and 2000 croppingseasons. This participatory initiative clearly demonstrated that incorporating farmers’ knowledge, ideas and preferences couldimprove the wheat production package. A traditional practice of Chefe Donsa farmers—applying ash from their homesteadsto their fields to enable early-sown crops to withstand frost—led to the verification of the yield-enhancing effect of inorganicpotassium fertilizer on wheat. Farmer adoption of a minimum tillage production system increased the gross margin of wheatproduction by US$ 132 per hectare—based on 1999 prices—relative to the traditional flat seedbed system. The minimumtillage system was characterized by a much lower level of soil manipulation relative to the traditional flat seedbed system,and, as a consequence, markedly reduced the total human labor and draft oxen requirements for wheat production. Thus, theminimum tillage system could be an effective intervention for soil conservation due to early-season vegetative cover of thesoil surface. Also, the early crop harvest associated with the minimum tillage system was highly beneficial for small-holderfarmers—since the early harvest coincided with the cyclical period of severe household food deficits and high grain prices inlocal markets.

Keywords: Broad bed ; Ethiopia ; Minimum tillage ; Vertisol ; Wheat

Subject(s): Agricultural and Food Policy

Crop Production/Industries

Environmental Economics and Policy

Farm Management

Productivity Analysis

Issue Date: 2003

Publication Type: Journal Article

PURL Identifier: http://purl.umn.edu/182996 Page range: 1-15

Record appears in: CGIAR > International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) > Research Reports





Autor: Astatke, Abiye ; Jabbar, Mohammad A. ; Tanner, Douglas

Fuente: http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/182996?ln=en

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