Abstract
Droughts are common in the semi-arid areas of Ethiopia and adversely influence the wellbeing of many of the 80% of the population involved in agriculture. The introduction of any strategy that could increase crop yields would therefore be advantageous. The objective of the study was to attempt to assess the benefit that the in-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH) crop production technique would have, compared to conventional tillage, on increasing soil water, and therefore the yield of a crop, on a semi-arid ecotope at Mieso. The mean annual rainfall at Mieso is 738 mm. The soil is a Hypo Calcic Vertisol with a high clay and silt content and is very susceptible to crusting. To achieve the objective of the study, rainfall-runoff measurements were made during 2003 and 2004 on 2 m x 2 m plots provided with a runoff measuring system, and replicated 3 times for each treatment. There were 2 treatments: conventional tillage (CT) that simulated the normal local CT; and a flat surface simulating the no-till IRWH technique (NT). Rainfall intensity was measured at 1-min intervals and runoff was measured after each storm. The Morin and Cluff runoff model was calibrated and validated using measured rainfall-runoff data. Appropriate values for final infiltration rate ( If), surface storage (SD) and the crusting parameter (γ) were found to be: 10 mm∙hr -1 ; 2 mm for NT and 5 mm for CT; 0.4 mm-1; respectively. The runoff (R)/rainfall (P) ratio (R/P) gave values of 0.43 and 0.34 for the NT and CT treatments, respectively. There was a statistical difference between the runoff on the 2 treatments. The first estimated yield benefit of IRWH compared to CT is 455 kg∙ha -1 . Based on the average long-term maize yield of 2 000 kg∙ha -1 at Melkassa, this is an estimated yield increase of 23%.
Highlights
Crop production in Ethiopia is mostly under rain-fed conditions, most of which is marginalised by water stress (MoA, 2000)
The optimum utilisation of rainwater is of utmost importance. This entails improving rainwater productivity (RWP), recently defined by Botha (2006) as the total long-term grain yield divided by total long-term rainfall
Crop production systems employing rainwater harvesting have been shown by many workers in Africa to result in significant crop yield increases (Mwakalila and Hatibu, 1993; Kronen, 1994; Gicheru, et al, 1998; Ojasvi, et al, 1999)
Summary
Crop production in Ethiopia is mostly under rain-fed conditions, most of which is marginalised by water stress (MoA, 2000). The optimum utilisation of rainwater is of utmost importance. This entails improving rainwater productivity (RWP), recently defined by Botha (2006) as the total long-term grain yield divided by total long-term rainfall. A technique that has given good results in a semi-arid area of South Africa is in-field rainwater harvesting (IRWH) as described in Fig. 1 (Hensley, et al, 2000). This technique is known as mini-catchment runoff farming (Oweis et al, 1999). The technique led to maize yield increases of between 25% and 50% and significant increases in RWP compared to conventional tillage, in a semiarid area on crusting clay and duplex soils that have a high water storage capacity (Botha, et al, 2003; Botha, 2006)
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