IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/cijwxx/v36y2020is1ps102-s126.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamics between irrigation frequency and soil nutrient management: transitioning smallholder irrigation towards more profitable and sustainable systems in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Martin Moyo
  • André Van Rooyen
  • Henning Bjornlund
  • Karen Parry
  • Richard Stirzaker
  • Thabani Dube
  • Mthulisi Maya

Abstract

Successful irrigated agriculture is underpinned by answering two critical questions: when and how much to irrigate. This article quantifies the role of the Chameleon and the Wetting Front Detector, monitoring tools facilitating decision-making and learning about soil-water-nutrient dynamics. Farmers retained nutrients in the root zone by reducing irrigation frequency, number of siphons, and event duration. Water productivity increased by more than 100% for farmers both with and without monitoring tools. Transitioning smallholder irrigation systems into profitable and sustainable schemes requires investment in technology, farmers and institutions. Importantly, technologies need embedding in a learning environment that fosters critical feedback mechanisms, such as market constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin Moyo & André Van Rooyen & Henning Bjornlund & Karen Parry & Richard Stirzaker & Thabani Dube & Mthulisi Maya, 2020. "The dynamics between irrigation frequency and soil nutrient management: transitioning smallholder irrigation towards more profitable and sustainable systems in Zimbabwe," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(S1), pages 102-126, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cijwxx:v:36:y:2020:i:s1:p:s102-s126
    DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2020.1739513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/07900627.2020.1739513
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/07900627.2020.1739513?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kaveney, Brooke & Barrett-Lennard, Edward & Chau Minh, Khoi & Dang Duy, Minh & Nguyen Thi, Kim Phuong & Kristiansen, Paul & Orgill, Susan & Stewart-Koster, Ben & Condon, Jason, 2023. "Inland dry season saline intrusion in the Vietnamese Mekong River Delta is driving the identification and implementation of alternative crops to rice," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    2. Mekonnen, Dawit K. & Yimam, Seid & Arega, Tiruwork & Matheswaran, Karthikeyan & Schmitter, Petra M.V., 2022. "Relatives, neighbors, or friends: Information exchanges among irrigators on new on-farm water management tools," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    3. Ripendra Awal & Almoutaz El Hassan & Farhat Abbas & Ali Fares & Haimanote K. Bayabil & Ram L. Ray & Selamawit Woldesenbet, 2021. "Patterns of Nutrient Dynamics within and below the Rootzone of Collard Greens Grown under Different Organic Amendment Types and Rates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-16, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:cijwxx:v:36:y:2020:i:s1:p:s102-s126. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/cijw20 .

    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.