IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijarge/v10y2014i3p295-310.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In-situ soil moisture conservation: utilisation and management of rainwater for crop production

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Kathuli
  • J.K. Itabari

Abstract

The salient results of in-situ soil water conservation technologies that have been found suitable for increasing soil moisture in the arid and semi-arid lands of eastern Kenya are reviewed. The results showed that Zai pits, tumbukiza and deep tillage when used together with soil fertility improvement can increase crop yields by 4-10 times in comparison to conventionally cultivated fields. Use of tied-ridging with soil fertility improvement increases crop yields by 100-300%. Sub-soiling and ripping increases crop yields by 50-100% when used with soil fertility improvement. Micro-catchment technology at 1:1 and 2:1 catchment to cultivated land ratio increase crop yields, but is not practised due to land limitation. Use of fertilisers and or manures with in-situ soil moisture conservation leads to improved water use efficiency by crops planted in the semi-arid areas. It was concluded that, in-situ rainwater conservation technologies should be part of the farming systems in the semi-arid lands.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Kathuli & J.K. Itabari, 2014. "In-situ soil moisture conservation: utilisation and management of rainwater for crop production," International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 10(3), pages 295-310.
    • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijarge:v:10:y:2014:i:3:p:295-310
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=64009
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijarge:v:10:y:2014:i:3:p:295-310. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=1 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.