Pearl Millet Developed Deep Roots and Changed Water Sources by Competition with Intercropped Cowpea in the Semiarid Environment of Northern Namibia

Zegada‐Lizarazu, Walter; Kanyomeka, Luke; Izumi, Yoshiharu; Iijima, Morio

doi:10.1626/pps.9.355

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Water uptake under such a restricted soil physical environment will also be modified by rooting in shallow soil layer (Zegada-Lizarazu et al, 2006a;Iijima et al, 2007). Deep rooting (Araki and Iijima, 2005;Zegada-Lizarazu et al, 2006b will offer the chance for the crop to survive under the drought environment by acquiring the water resources in the deep soil layer. In this experiment, cotton showed relatively stable root elongation under the combined soil physical stress of anaerobiosis and mechanical stress.…”

Section: Implication Of the Present Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Soil Physical Stress of Soil Drying, Anaerobiosis and Mechanical Impedance to Seedling Root Growth of Four Crop Species

Iijima¹,

Kato²,

Taniguchi³

2007

Plant Production Science

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Section: Implication Of the Present Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined Soil Physical Stress of Soil Drying, Anaerobiosis and Mechanical Impedance to Seedling Root Growth of Four Crop Species

Iijima¹,

Kato²,

Taniguchi³

2007

Plant Production Science

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“…Intercropping with leguminous plants in particular provides the added benefit of increased soil fertility through nitrogen fixation (Mafongoya et al 2006). Low rainfall can be a significant impediment to successful intercropping in semi-arid regions of southern Africa (Zegada-Lizarazu et al 2006). Species with low rainfall requirements and limited competitiveness with main crops should thus be selected for intercropping systems.…”

Section: Intercroppingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weed control under conservation agriculture in dryland smallholder farming systems of southern Africa. A review

Lee

Thierfelder²

2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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Human-induced soil degradation has led to declining yields and soil fertility in many parts of the world. Conservation agriculture has been proposed as a strategy to ensure more sustainable land use. While conservation agriculture, based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and diversification may improve a range of soil characteristics and can be a potential cropping system for improving farmer resilience to climate change, increased weed pressure is often an impediment to its widespread adoption in southern Africa. Weed control under conservation agriculture in other countries has been linked to increased herbicide use, but concerns about herbicide resistance, access to chemicals, and environmental impacts highlight the need for alternative weed control strategies accessible for smallholders. Farmers in semi-arid regions contend with the additional challenge of low biomass production, which may limit the weedsuppressing benefits of permanent soil cover. This paper reviews the regional applicability of various mechanical (manual weeding, weeding using animal traction, weed seed harvest), thermal (soil solarization, weed steaming, flaming), chemical (herbicides, seed coating), and cultural (crop competition, crop residue retention, intercropping, crop rotation) weed control strategies. For each strategy, benefits and challenges were assessed and contextualized with the circumstances of rainfed smallholder farmers in southern Africa. We found that (1) no single solution can solve all weed control challenges under current conservation agriculture systems; (2) success of weed control strategies is largely contingent upon site-specific conditions, including soil type, dominant weed species, and socioeconomic factors; and (3) practices new to southern Africa, such as weed steaming, merit localized research. Previous reviews have addressed various weed control strategies, but a comprehensive review of strategies available to smallholder farmers in semi-arid southern Africa is lacking. Finding a suitable combination of weed control strategies is critical for encouraging smallholder farmers to adopt and maintain conservation agriculture practices. Keywords Mechanical weed control. Chemical weed control. Herbicides. Cultural weed control. Semi-arid agriculture. No-tillage

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“…This finding was indicative of a more complete exploitation of nutrient resources in the soil. In the sand-dominated semiarid region of N Namibia, the root-weight density of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was increased in deeper soil layers, and reduced in the uppermost soil layers when intercropped with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (Zegada-Lizarazu et al, 2006). For the clay-rich tropical regions of E Africa, studies on the vertical root distribution of intercropping versus single-crop systems containing the widespread and important maize (Zea mays) are nonexistent.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vertical root distribution in single‐crop and intercropping agricultural systems in Central Kenya

Neykova

Obando

Schneider

et al. 2011

Z. Pflanzenernähr. Bodenk.

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Intercropping is an important and widespread land-management system in the tropics. At two agricultural sites in Central Kenya differing in elevation and soil type Haplic Nitisols (eutric) and Vitric Gleysols (eutric, epiclayic, endoclayic), we investigated the vertical root distributions using the trench wall profile method in single-crop systems of maize (Zea mays L.) and in intercropping systems of maize and legumes (common bean, Phaseolus vulgaris L.; pigeon pea, Cajanus cajan [L.] Millsp.) to test for possible differences in the use of water and nutrient resources. The physico-chemical soil properties of the sites were similar and imposed no restrictions to the vertical growth of the roots into soil depths of 1.4 m. The vertical distributions of the fine roots (∅ 0.5-2 mm) and very fine roots (∅ < 0.5 mm) were quantified by calculating the parameter b which was computed from the cumulative fraction (Y) of the root densities along the depth (d) of the soil profiles (Y = 1 -b d ). We found no consistent differences between the single-crop and the intercropping systems in the rooting depth down to 1.4 m. However, higher b values for fine roots of the intercropping systems were indicative of a more homogeneous vertical root distribution than in the single-crop fields. In the intercropping fields, 50% of the total number of fine roots were distributed over the uppermost 36 cm of the soil, whereas in the single-crop fields, 50% of the fine roots were concentrated in the uppermost 15-21 cm. Medium-sized roots (∅ > 2-5 mm) were detected in the intercropping fields only. The more homogeneous root distribution in the intercropping fields likely indicates a more efficient use of the limited resources nutrients and water.

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Pearl Millet Developed Deep Roots and Changed Water Sources by Competition with Intercropped Cowpea in the Semiarid Environment of Northern Namibia

Cited by 16 publications

References 28 publications

Combined Soil Physical Stress of Soil Drying, Anaerobiosis and Mechanical Impedance to Seedling Root Growth of Four Crop Species

Combined Soil Physical Stress of Soil Drying, Anaerobiosis and Mechanical Impedance to Seedling Root Growth of Four Crop Species

Weed control under conservation agriculture in dryland smallholder farming systems of southern Africa. A review

Vertical root distribution in single‐crop and intercropping agricultural systems in Central Kenya

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