Abstract
Moisture stress is one of the key constraints that negatively affects sustainable crop production in many smallholder farming systems across Africa. Under rainfed agriculture, water conservation practices can be a solution to improve soil water content and reduce moisture stress. Water conservation technologies such as tied ridges, tied contours, infiltration pits, dead level contours, fanya juus, planting basins and their combinations can be adopted to capture rainwater and reduce moisture stress during dry spells. Improvements in crop yields have been reported with the use of water harvesting technologies across Africa. The effectiveness of these technologies is dependent on region, soil type and availability of labour to construct these structures. Benefits of water conservation technologies can be realised much more when they are integrated with organic nutrient sources which improve soil fertility to achieve climate smart agriculture and reduce food insecurity. This chapter presents a synthesis of water harvesting technologies which can be adopted by smallhoder farmers to cope with effects climate change and improve crop production in semi-arid areas across Africa.
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Kugedera, A.T., Sakadzo, N., Kokerai, L.K., Ranganai, N. (2023). Water Harvesting Technologies for Sustainable Crop Production in African Smallholder Farming Systems. In: Fanadzo, M., Dunjana, N., Mupambwa, H.A., Dube, E. (eds) Towards Sustainable Food Production in Africa. Sustainability Sciences in Asia and Africa(). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2427-1_10
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