last final thesis of umer

2.5. Yield Gap in Maize
Increasing concern about the future of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa in light of accelerating
soil degradation and potential of threats of climate change have increased the need for new and
more adapted cropping systems that increase production ,whilst conserving the natural
resources(FAO,2002).
Conservation agriculture is one of the “greener” solutions currently being controversially
discussed (Gilbert,2012) as a potential cropping system that can mitigate the negative effects of
declining soil fertility and climate change under arrange of farming systems.
Conservation agriculture is cropping system based on minimum soil disturbance, the retention of
living or dead plant materials as surface mulch and rotation of crops of different species in full
rotations, as inter or relay crops (FAO, 2002).
Maize yield in conservation agriculture system (mono cropped or intercropped with legume) were
higher than in conventional tillage practices. However, associating maize with legumes reduced
maize grain in some seasons when only conservation agriculture were compared to each other
(Kamanga et al., 2010).
Closing the yield gap, therefore is wide geographic variation in crop and livestock production,
even cross regions that experience similar climates. The difference between realized productivity
and the best that can be achieved using current genetic materials and available technologies is
termed the “yield gap”. The best yield that can be obtained locally depend the capacity of the
farmers to access and use sustainable cropping system, improved seed and proper agronomic
managements (Charles et al., 2016).
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