Sequestration of organic carbon in West African soils by<i>Aménagement en Courbes de Niveau</i>

Doumbia, Mamadou; Jarju, Ansumana; Sène, M.; Traoré, Kalifa; Yost, Russell S.; Kablan, Richard; Brannan, Kevin M.; Berthé, Abou; Yamoah, Charles F.; Querido, António; Traoré, Pierre C. Sibiry; Ballo, Abdou

doi:10.1051/agro:2008041

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Improved varieties with a higher yield potential likely took advantage of the higher available water under CRT to produce higher yield. Accumulated water in CRT may delay water stress [6,30,52] while being more available for the crop to accomplish its physiological processes of biomass accumulation and grain filling [53,54]. This finding corroborates Gigou et al [36] who estimated water supply through modeling and concluded that more significant water was available in CRT field when compared to the control in South Mali.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…Agriculture & Food Security *Correspondence: ibosimon_1@yahoo.fr 1 Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), BP 262, Bamako, Mali Full list of author information is available at the end of the article erratic rainfall patterns leading to water stress at some critical plant-growth stages [7] and inherent low soil fertility [6]. In addition, rain storms generate runoff and associated soil erosion [8][9][10][11].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This later phenomenon reduces top soil layer depth and soil organic matter content leading to weak soil water-holding capacity. The combined effects of all the above-mentioned factors will induce low water infiltration rates [12] with only 10-15% of rainfall that will be used by crops for transpiration [6,13]. Thus, water availability to crop roots in the soil profile constitutes a major constraint for sustainable production systems [14][15][16][17].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These improved varieties were chosen because of their performance on station trials, although local varieties are sometimes considered better adapted to high stress and low productivity conditions typical of smallholder farms. In Mali, CRT, referred to as "Aménagement en courbes de niveau" [12,6,35], is a water conservation technique locally developed in the early 1990s by Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER) and Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD). According to Kablan et al [12], the innovation of CRT resides in the fact that it is a holistic landscape level method for managing surface water on farmers' fields.…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the contoured ridges decrease runoff, increase water infiltration and, therefore, capture rainfall close to the crop root system. The technology has been applied in the Sudanian area with rainfall varying from 600 to 1200 mm in southern Mali where runoff still occurs in fields with a slope as low as 1 to 2%, [6]. As a consequence of increased water infiltration due to CRT [8,12], an increase in crop yields of 30-50% was reported for millet, sorghum, maize, groundnut and cotton [30,36].…”

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimizing yield of improved varieties of millet and sorghum under highly variable rainfall conditions using contour ridges in Cinzana, Mali

et al. 2017

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Background: Low productivity of cereals, the staple food, in Sahelian zone of Cinzana in Mali is caused by a range of factors including but not limited to inherent low soil fertility, and insufficient and inadequate distribution of the rainfall due to high climate variability. In addition, the small amount of rain falls as heavy storms in very short periods of time leading to water losses by runoff which in turn causes a lot of erosion. The two phenomena therefore call for a combination of both strategic (combating erosion) and tactical (coping with inter-and intra-annual rainfall variability) measures to cope with the production uncertainties in such risk-prone environment. As opposed to most farmers' practice of using the same variety, a tactical solution of using varieties of different cycles for different rainfall amounts/patterns was thought to be worth testing. Varieties of different cycles for different rainfall amounts/patterns were combined with a well-known soil and water conservation practice which is the contour ridge tillage (CRT). The combined effects of the two measures on the production of different varieties of sorghum and millet as well as on soil water content were assessed in on-farm participatory trials in five villages. The experiment was run during three consecutive years (2012, 2013 and 2014).Results: A key finding of this research is that regardless of the yearly rainfall amount and provided CRT is used, there were large differences in yields between improved varieties and local ones. This is a result of higher soil water conservation and better response of the improved varieties. Conclusion:The use of CRT increases considerably the yields of improved varieties of the most important staple crops of the Cinzana commune which are millet and sorghum. Thus, the use of these early maturing improved varieties, along with CRT, could be an accessible adaptation strategy to climate variability by farmers.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Open Accessmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Optimizing yield of improved varieties of millet and sorghum under highly variable rainfall conditions using contour ridges in Cinzana, Mali

et al. 2017

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Recent developments in nanotechnology transforming the agricultural sector: a transition replete with opportunities

et al. 2017

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The applications and benefits of nanotechnology in the agricultural sector have attracted considerable attention, particularly in the invention of unique nanopesticides and nanofertilisers. The contemporary developments in nanotechnology are acknowledged and the most significant opportunities awaiting the agriculture sector from the recent scientific and technical literature are addressed. This review discusses the significance of recent trends in nanomaterial-based sensors available for the sustainable management of agricultural soil, as well as the role of nanotechnology in detection and protection against plant pathogens, and for food quality and safety. Novel nanosensors have been reported for primary applications in improving crop practices, food quality, and packaging methods, thus will change the agricultural sector for potentially better and healthier food products. Nanotechnology is well-known to play a significant role in the effective management of phytopathogens, nutrient utilisation, controlled release of pesticides, and fertilisers. Research and scientific gaps to be overcome and fundamental questions have been addressed to fuel active development and application of nanotechnology. Together, nanoscience, nanoengineering, and nanotechnology offer a plethora of opportunities, proving a viable alternative in the agriculture and food processing sector, by providing a novel and advanced solutions. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

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13C-dating, the first method to calculate the relative age of molecular substance homologues in soil

Lichtfouse

2011

Environ Chem Lett

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International audienceThis article reports the design of 13C-dating, the first method to calculate the relative age of molecular substance homologues occurring in fractions from the same soil sample. Soil is a major carbon pool impacting modern climate by CO2 release and uptake. Molecular substances that sequester carbon in soils are poorly known due to the absence of methods to study molecular-level C dynamics over agricultural time scales, e.g. 0-200 years. Here I design a method to calculate the relative age of the plant-derived C31 n-alkane occurring in 6 fractions from a soil sample naturally 13C-labelled by maize cropping during 23 years. Soil fractions are the bulk soil extract, two humin-encapsulated fractions and three particle-size fractions. Results show that C31 n-alkane homologues have relative ages ranging from - 6.7 years for the humin-encapsulated homologue to + 25.1 years for the 200-2000 μm fraction homologue. Such a wide variation of 31.8 years evidences temporal pools of molecular substances in soil. This finding also reveals that physical encapsulation can strikingly change the dynamics of a single molecular substance. 13C-dating thus allows to assess the carbon storage potential of molecular substances from crop soils. Such knowledge will help to identify molecular compounds, associated soil pools and agricultural practices that favour carbon sequestration. 13C-dating is further applicable to any environmental sample containing organic matter subjected to a 13C isotope shift with time. 13C-dating will also help to study the sequestration and delayed release of chemicals in various disciplines, such as pollutants in environmental sciences, pharmaceuticals in medicine, and nutrients in food science

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Sequestration of organic carbon in West African soils byAménagement en Courbes de Niveau

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Optimizing yield of improved varieties of millet and sorghum under highly variable rainfall conditions using contour ridges in Cinzana, Mali

Optimizing yield of improved varieties of millet and sorghum under highly variable rainfall conditions using contour ridges in Cinzana, Mali

Recent developments in nanotechnology transforming the agricultural sector: a transition replete with opportunities

13C-dating, the first method to calculate the relative age of molecular substance homologues in soil

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