Abstract
Over the last decades, desertification, drought and erratic rainfall have become much debated and distressing issues for Niger, given the country’s reliance on natural resources and agriculture for livelihood. A decisive answer on the causes and extent of both meteorological and soil water drought is therefore of importance to enable effective policy and resilience, but adaption to future climate change often entails the very same practices as rehabilitating degraded land to enhance water productivity. This paper investigates the extent of both meteorological and soil water drought in Niger by combining rainfall and soil water analysis and assesses the potential of various small scale WSC techniques to tackle crop growth limitations in Niger. It presents a trend analysis of rainfall and drought parameters and compares the effect of 5 treatments (zaï + manure, demi-lunes + manure, no till with scarification + manure, control + manure and control) on crop performance and soil moisture profiles. The WSC-treatments zaï and demi-lunes produce significantly higher yields due to increased soil moisture levels throughout the season. Besides the improved soil moisture conditions, the potential of WSC practices to increase the agronomic efficiency is also largely explained by their impact on the soil nutrient status.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Easterling DR et al (2000) Observed variability and trends in extreme climate events: a brief review. Bull Am Meteor Soc 81:417–425
Fatondji D et al (2009) Decomposition of organic amendment and nutrient release under the zaï technique in the sahel. Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst 85:225–239
Kendall MG (1975) Rank correlation methods. Griffin, London
Mann HB (1945) Non-parametric test against trend. Econometrics 13:245–259
Nicholson S (2005) On the question of the ‘recovery’ of the rains in the West African Sahel. J Arid Environ 63:615–641
Rockström J (2003) Resilience building and water demand management for drought mitigation. Phys Chem Earth 28:869–877
Sivakumar MVK (1988) Predicting rainy season potential from the onset of rainset in Southern Sahelian and Sudanian climatic zones of West Africa. Agric For Meteor 42:295–305
Wildemeersch JCJ et al (2013) Assessing the constraints for adopting water and soil conservation techniques in Tillaberí. Land Degrad Dev. doi:10.1002/ldr.2252
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Wildemeersch, J.C.J., Garba, M., Sabiou, M., Cornelis, W. (2015). Water and Soil Conservation for Improved Crop Productivity and Water Household in Sahelian Conditions. In: Lollino, G., Arattano, M., Rinaldi, M., Giustolisi, O., Marechal, JC., Grant, G. (eds) Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09054-2_105
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09054-2_105
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09053-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09054-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)