IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jasjnl/v9y2017i10p1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of In-Field Rain Water Harvesting on Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Biomass and Yield

Author

Listed:
  • S. Laurie
  • N. Nhlabatsi
  • H. M. Ngobeni
  • S. S. Tjale

Abstract

Water scarcity affects both food security and human nutrition. In-field rain water harvesting (IRWH) combines the advantages of rainwater harvesting, no-till, basin tillage and mulching on high drought risk clay soils. In this study, the IRWH system was customized to fit the cropping system of orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). Field trials were conducted over two seasons to compare cultivation of OFSP using IRWH versus conventional tillage (CON). Data collection included plant survival, root initiation, marketable root yield, unmarketable root yield classes and biomass. Planting OFSP using the IRWH system resulted in significantly higher total biomass, higher marketable and total root yield per plant, as well as larger number of roots per plant compared to CON. Despite the relatively higher yield, total production (t/ha) was only significantly higher in season two at 4.6 t/ha vs 2.7 t/ha for CON. Subsistence farmers and households in semi-arid areas may grow small plots of orange-fleshed sweet potato in IRWH opposed to only growing maize and in that way add vitamin A to the diet. This is the first study on the application of IRWH to produce OFSP under rainfed conditions, and more research can be conducted to expand the knowledge on application and benefits of IRWH for OFSP production.

Suggested Citation

  • S. Laurie & N. Nhlabatsi & H. M. Ngobeni & S. S. Tjale, 2017. "The Effect of In-Field Rain Water Harvesting on Orange-Fleshed Sweet Potato Biomass and Yield," Journal of Agricultural Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(10), pages 1-1, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jasjnl:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/download/67412/38488
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jas/article/view/67412
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:ibn:jasjnl:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1. 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.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.