Mitigating droughts effects on tropical agriculture systems: The role of improved soil management practices in regulating soil moisture, temperature and carbon losses

Abstract

Climate change is unequivocal and its threat on rain fed agriculture in the tropics is a fact. Changes in temperature, sparse and irregular rainfall, runoff patterns entail droughts extremes, excess evapotranspiration and loss of soil moisture. These items drive soil degradation, crop production, distribution, and supply of food, and subsequently food riot and social stability. Therefore, it urges to develop and improve cost effective agricultural water management and soil conservation in order to increase its resilience and adaptation to climate change. This study focused on the pre-wetted straw amendments effects on soil temperature (ST, °C), moisture content (SMC, %), soil organic carbon density (SOCD, t/ha) and core relationships SOCD versus ST and SMC under short-term field experiment in Nigeria. Results indicated significant difference of treatments on each parameter evaluated (p<0.001). Three best treatments were identified. Their responses (TR, %) to each variable were soil temperature (ST, °C) reduction was up to 20 %, soil moisture content (SMC, %) increase about 41%. Similarly, SOCD (t/ha) had increased to 40.3%. Moreover, the study revealed strong evidence of SOCD linear decrease with ST increase (r = -0.8), but polynomial increase with SMC increase (r = 0.9). It was then concluded that this approach is vital for agricultural water management and soil conservation indispensable to adapt to droughts extremes on tropical rain fed agro-ecosystems in sub Saharan Africa (SSA), while increasing resilience to food insecurity and adaptation to climate change. Key words: Climate change, droughts, food security, mitigation, adaptation, soil conservation, sub Saharan Africa (SSA).