IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/afjare/258600.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The effect of rainfall variability on sustainable wheat production under no-till farming systems in the Swartland region, South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Crookes, D.
  • Strauss, J.
  • Blignaut, J.N.

Abstract

Twenty years ago it was argued that rotational wheat production systems will reduce the economic risks to farmers and restore soil quality. Here we reflect on this assertion by analysing the evidence of a 12-year data window within a trial on a mixture of crop rotation systems at Langgewens Research Farm, South Africa. It was been found that production systems that include rotations with medics and/or medic-clover show some potential for improvement compared with wheat only, with a combination of the annual legume pasture with an added saltbush pasture showing the greatest improvement when taking into consideration the benefits from livestock production that are derived from pastures. Pastures are more resilient to changes in rainfall compared with wheat only. Planting pastures in alternate years also improves the yields from wheat, and this is beneficial in periods of low rainfall. Rotation systems on this farm that include lupin perform worse than the wheat-only model. Furthermore, when modelling the effect of drought on the system, the results of the multi- and rotation production systems actually improve.

Suggested Citation

  • Crookes, D. & Strauss, J. & Blignaut, J.N., 2017. "The effect of rainfall variability on sustainable wheat production under no-till farming systems in the Swartland region, South Africa," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 12(1), March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:afjare:258600
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.258600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/258600/files/5.%20Crookes%20et%20al.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.258600?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
    ---><---

    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:ags:afjare:258600. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaaeaea.html .

    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.