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Participatory conservation tillage research: An experience with minimum tillage on an Ethiopian highland Vertisol

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Title Participatory conservation tillage research: An experience with minimum tillage on an Ethiopian highland Vertisol
 
Creator Astatke, A.
Jabbar, M.A.
Tanner, D.
 
Subject TILLAGE
 
Description Farmer participatory tillage trials were conducted in a highland Vertisol area of Ethiopia during the 1999 and 2000 cropping seasons. This participatory initiative clearly demonstrated that incorporating farmers’ knowledge, ideas and preferences could improve the wheat production package. A traditional practice of Chefe Donsa farmers—applying ash from their homesteads to their fields to enable early-sown crops to withstand frost—led to the verification of the yield-enhancing effect of inorganic potassium fertilizer on wheat. Farmer adoption of a minimum tillage production system increased the gross margin of wheat production by US$ 132 per hectare—based on 1999 prices—relative to the traditional flat seedbed system. The minimum tillage system was characterized by a much lower level of soil manipulation relative to the traditional flat seedbed system, and, as a consequence, markedly reduced the total human labor and draft oxen requirements for wheat production. Thus, the minimum tillage system could be an effective intervention for soil conservation due to early-season vegetative cover of the soil surface. Also, the early crop harvest associated with the minimum tillage system was highly beneficial for small-holder farmers—since the early harvest coincided with the cyclical period of severe household food deficits and high grain prices in local markets.
 
Date 2011-06-25T08:18:40Z
2011-06-25T08:18:40Z
2003-05-15
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Astatke, A., Jabbar, M. and Tanner, D. 2003. Participatory conservation tillage research: an experience with minimum tillage on an Ethiopian highland Vertisol. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment 95(2-3):401-415.
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/3978
 
Language en
 
Source Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment