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Nutrient dynamics in conservation
agriculture in the Malagasy Highlands
Seed money for the preparation
of a new project (Emmanuel Frossard)
Hydromechanical effects of compaction
on ferrasols of the Havana Province
Seed money for the preparation of a new
project (Dani Or)
Conservation agriculture has been proposed to sustainably
improve agricultural production in the tropics. This approach
combines direct-seeding, permanent mulch cover
and diverse crop rotation and is being adopted by smallholders
in the Midwest of Madagascar. Whereas the effects
of soil preparation and of residue management have been
studied, little work has been done on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus
(P) dynamics, and their interaction in conservation
agriculture – as practiced by smallholders in the tropics.
Nutrient limitations in these systems might be one of the
barriers hindering the adoption of conservation agriculture
by smallholders.
The Group of Plant Nutrition of the ETH Zurich in collaboration
with the Laboratory of Radio-Isotopes at the University
of Antananarivo and the Sustainable Farming and Rice
Cropping Systems Unit (SCRID) in Antananarivo, Madagascar
prepared a project that was submitted to the Swiss National
Science Foundation and SDC. It aims at understanding
how conservation agriculture affects the fluxes and
dynamics of N and P in the presence of legumes. Furthermore,
together with farmers, it aims at identifying possible
strategies that will allow using these resources in the most
sustainable way. This information will contribute to the
development of tools for evaluating the relevance of conservation
agriculture for smallholders in the tropics.
Although almost 50% of the total area of Cuba is covered
by agricultural soils and the climate is favourable,
Cuba imports most of the food consumed by its inhabitants.
Economic and anthropic factors have severely affected
the efficiency of the agricultural activity. They have
provoked a negative impact on the ecosystem, mainly expressed
in terms of soil erosion and compaction. In 2001,
it was estimated that 24% of the cultivated land could be
affected by soil compaction.
Havana Province is the region with the most intensive
and most technical agriculture in Cuba. In this region, the
predominant soil type is ferrasol. The region has a mostly
flat topography, which is very favourable for the use of
machinery. This has contributed to compaction not only at
the top soil layers but also deeper in the subsoil.
The Group of Soil and Terrestrial Environmental Physics at
the ETH Zurich in collaboration with the Agrophysics Research
Unit of the Universidad Agraria de la Habana prepared
a project that was submitted to the Swiss National Science
Foundation and SDC. The project aims at investigating
the effects of compaction in ferrasol fields in terms of soil
hydromechanical behaviour and water balance. Furthermore,
it aims at identifying how compaction in subsurface
soil layer affects potato crop development and yields and
how these effects could be mitigated.
Project
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leader
53
Contact
persons
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Collaborators
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Duration
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Research collaboration
Seed money
Legende A view from the Malagasy Highlands, Madagascar
On-site observations during the preliminary visit of Dani Or
and Hannes Flühler in the Havana Province, Cuba