English

Gavin Ryan,Jelinski Nicolas,Haji Hussein,Porter Paul

doi:10.5897/ajar2018.13177

Abstract

Domestic production only supplies half of Somalia’s cereal requirements and more than half of the country’s population is considered food insecure.  In this study, the Somali Agriculture Technical Group (SATG) used an on-farm participatory research approach to compare the economic viability and plant yield parameters of an improved maize production system (SATG system) with those of the traditional farming systems (traditional system) of the Lower Shebelle region of Somalia. The SATG system included urea, diammonium phosphate, insecticide application, and a greater than average planting population. This research was conducted on seventy-seven farms located near the villages of Afgoi and Awdhegle during the 2014/15 Deyr season and was compared with results from a similar 2014 Gu season trial. Significant plant yield and harvested plant population differences emerged for crop management system, location, and season. In the 2014/15 Deyr season, implementation of the SATG system yielded 124% more grain than the traditional system (SATG = 3,970 kg ha-1) and had 28% more plants at harvest (SATG = 37,300 plants ha-1). Analysis of 2014/15 Deyr season cost and revenue revealed that, while production costs associated with the SATG system were higher than those associated with the traditional system, greater net revenues and profit reliability were observed for the SATG system. When plant growth and yield parameters were compared across seasons, both the SATG and traditional systems exhibited greater yields and harvested plant populations in the 2014 Gu season. In both seasons, the greatest grain yields were observed on farms near Awdhegle. As soil fertility appears to be the primary maize yield constraint in the region, these locational differences may have may have resulted from underlying locational differences in soil electrical conductivity. Throughout the Lower Shebelle, however, implementation of the SATG system appears to increase maize yields and improve farm net income. Key words: Deyr, fertility, maize, net income, on-farm, Somalia, participatory.

Highlights

For more than twenty-five years, Somalia has struggled to overcome the political instability, civil unrest, and infrastructure collapse that occurred when the Siad Barre government fell in 1991
In the 2014/15 Deyr season, the grain yield of the Somali Agriculture Technical Group (SATG) system (3,970 kg ha-1) was 124% greater than that of the traditional system, and this pattern persisted when each location was examined independently (Table 1)
A regression analysis on the relationship between plant population at harvest and grain yield demonstrated that when adequate fertilizer was supplied, as was the case for the SATG system, greater plant populations at harvest resulted in higher yields

Summary

INTRODUCTION

For more than twenty-five years, Somalia has struggled to overcome the political instability, civil unrest, and infrastructure collapse that occurred when the Siad Barre government fell in 1991. (World Bank Group, 2018). With the majority of the Somali population being rural (World Bank Group, 2016), development schemes that focus on improving rural livelihoods will likely prove most effective. While crop production represents up to 20% of the country’s GDP (Somali Development Bank, 2015) and agriculture employs 71% of the population (CIA, 2017), domestic cereal production only satisfies around half of the population’s requirements (FAO, 2012), and food can account for 80% of household expenditures (FEWS, 2014). The Somali Agriculture Technical Group (SATG, www.SATG.org) is working to advance Somali agriculture through targeted crop research in Somalia’s Lower Shebelle region (Figure 1). SATG used a farmer participatory research approach to compare the agronomics and economics of a new irrigated maize cropping system with those of the region’s traditional maize production system

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Conclusion