Abstract
Potato is one of the key annual upland cash crops cultivated in the Jaffna District of Sri Lanka. However, potato farmers are challenged by climate extremes, increasing pest/disease loads and excessive use of agro-chemicals all of which are expected to increase in the future. To address these critical issues, a package of climate changeadaptive and eco-friendly agronomic practices that included mulching to conserve soil moisture, integrated pest management for crop protection and site-specific fertilizer management for efficient crop-soil nutrient management (adaptation package) was formulated and tested on potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.) crops in seven farmer fields in Jaffna. The experiment was conducted in the major rainy season (Maha) of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 and consisted of two treatments as Adaptation package (T 1 ) and Existing practice (T 2 ), which is the current farmers’ practices characterized with heavy reliance on chemical control of pests and diseases and application of inorganic fertilizers subsequent to decisions of farmer. The results revealed significant (p<0.05) benefits of the above climate changeadaptive, eco-friendly agronomic package in terms of growth, yield, economic profit and environmental health of potato cultivation. Benefits of the adaptation package were greater in the drier and warmer 2014/15 Maha season, thus demonstrating its climate resilience. Therefore, the tested adaptation package can be recommended for adoption by the farmers to improve the yield of potato while promoting lower water and agro-chemical use thereby having increased resilience to climate change and improved environmental sustainability especially in the dry regions where potato is cultivated.
Highlights
Potato is one of the important upland annual crops in Sri Lanka, which is cultivated in an annual extent of ca. 5000 ha with an average yield of 15 t ha-1 (DOA, 2014)
The objective of the present work was to test a package of climate change-adaptive and eco-friendly practices for potato which comprised of mulching for soil moisture conservation, integrated pest management (IPM) for environment-friendly crop protection and site-specific fertilizer management (SSFM) for efficient crop-soil nutrient management in the farmer fields of Jaffna District to study its performances on growth, yield, economy and environmental friendliness in comparison to the existing farmers’ practice
As it is highly likely that water availability could decrease in a future climate in Sri Lanka (De Costa, 2008), the adaptation package tested in the present study has demonstrated its resilience to climate change impacts
Summary
Potato is one of the important upland annual crops in Sri Lanka, which is cultivated in an annual extent of ca. 5000 ha with an average yield of 15 t ha-1 (DOA, 2014). Potato is one of the important upland annual crops in Sri Lanka, which is cultivated in an annual extent of ca. The average yield is far below the potential yield as the crop is heavily affected by pest and disease attacks and Evaluation of an Agronomic Package for Potato Cultivation in Jaffna improper soil fertility management (Abhayapala et al, 2014). Increasing ambient temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, declining soil fertility and changed pest/ disease dynamics are key aspects of climate change that are relevant to crop production (Rosenzweig et al, 2008; Gregory et al, 2009; St. Clair and Lynch, 2010). These impacts have high potential to accelerate the existing climatic constraints of potato crop production mainly in the vulnerable dry regions of the country. As indiscriminate use of agrochemicals has already caused severe environmental hazards in the Jaffna Peninsula, increased emphasis is being given to eco-friendly approaches of crop protection and soil nutrient management (Vithanage et al, 2014)
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