Conservation agriculture (CA) has been found to increase crops yields, carbon content in soils, and maintain soil moisture suggesting it can improve soil fertility and enhance resilience of farming system by improving soil health and minimizing drought related impacts on crops yields (Goddard et al. 2008). When CA is integrated with soil and nutrient management techniques on highland areas like Kolero, it can enhanced further crop production even in highly degraded soils due to the interactive effects of improved plant nutrition and soil moisture relations. In this way CA may be considered ‘climate-smart’, i.e., the agricultural practice which produces triple wins: improve livelihoods, mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and increase adaptive capacity of farmers and agro-ecosystems. However, there is limited information on the mitigation and/or emission potential of CA-based farming systems in SSA. The objective of this study was therefore to examine soil nutrient dynamics, maize yield and GHGs emissions in CA within the 88 project on Mitigation for Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) in Kolero, Tanzania. Besides food crop production, this work will contribute to understanding of mitigation and/or GHG emissions potential of CA.
Ano de publicação
2014
Autores
Idioma
English
Palavras-chave
greenhouse gases, emissions, conservation agriculture
Geográfico
Tanzania
