Knowledge Management Portal

The Blog shows how ICARDA's context-adapted technologies and machines significantly improve the livelihoods of dryland small-landholders in the Tunisian Agroecological Living Landscape (Kef-Siliana Transect) – the hardest hit by intensifying climate change and global shocks.

The objective of this work is to i) present a socio-technical package of agroecological interventions that are already being tested for this type of mixed farming system in the semi-arid area of Tunisia, and ii) illustrate the scope and mechanisms for scaling up this package. Results further illustrate the key factors that have led to a change in attitude and behaviour among local actors and farmers towards a better co-generation, co-sharing, and adoption of agroecological principles at farm, community, and landscape levels. This work was presented at the Tropentag 2022 conference in Prague Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague/Czech Republic: September 14-16

Background: Clusterbean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba L.) is important commercial crop which belongs to family Leguminosae and has capacity to fix the atmospheric nitrogen. The nitrogen fixed by the legume crop is not enough to meet the demand of short duration crop like clusterbean. Besides, the experimental site falls under arid region where drought stress and poor distribution of rain during the crop growing cycle is common which affects the crop growth and productivity. Drawing on these insights, the study was planned to assess the performance of cluster bean with objectives to quantify water balance and to calculate suitable levels of irrigation and nitrogen. Methods: The experiment was conducted at research farm, Agricultural research sub-station, Hanumangarh, Swami Keshwanand Rajasthan Agricultural University, Bikaner during Kharif, 2016. Cluster bean variety RGC-1055 with seed rate of 16 kg ha-1 was planted with 3 levels of irrigation (100, 200 and 300 mm) and 4 levels of nitrogen (0, 20, 40 and 60 kg ha-1) and analyzed in split plot design with three replications. Result: Results showed by that the irrigation and nitrogen application rates significantly influenced the growth parameters, yield, nitrogen content and uptake by cluster bean. Irrigation level 200 mm significantly increased leaf area index at 60 DAS (2.62), dry matter accumulation (DMA) at 60 DAS and harvest (16.51 and 42.62 g plant-1), crop growth rate at 30-60 DAS and at harvest (0.36 and 0.62 g m-2 day-1), relative growth rate at 60- at harvest (1.59 g g-1 day-1), grain yield (1624 kg ha-1), straw yield (3645 kg ha-1) and biological yield (5270 kg ha-1) over irrigation level 100 mm, but statistically at par with irrigation level 300 mm. However, leaf area index at harvest (1.24) was highest at 300 mm irrigation level. Nitrogen level at 40 kg ha-1 significantly increased leaf area index at 30, 60 DAS and at harvest (0.19, 2.65 and 1.16), dry matter accumulation at 60 DAS and at harvest (19.62 and 49.58 g plant-1), crop growth rate at 30-60 DAS and 60- harvest (0.46 and 0.71 g m-2 day-1), relative growth rate at 30-60 DAS and 60-harvest (1.26 and 1.66 g g-1 day-1), grain yield (1668 kg ha-1), straw yield (3696 kg ha-1) and biological yield (5364 kg ha-1) over control. The highest nitrogen content and uptake in grain and straw was obtained with irrigation level at 300 mm and nitrogen level @ 60 kg ha-1.

In Kutch (Gujarat District, India), there is a growing concern about the lack of good quality forage owing to the arid climate and poor soil health. Opuntia ficus-indica has been increasingly recognized as a drought-resilient forage in arid Kutch. This study seeks to identify the maturity phase of cactus cladodes with the best forage qualities. Five accessions of spineless forage cactus (CBG, No. 1270, No. 1271, No. 1308, and Bianca Macomer) and three cladode maturity phases (young, intermediate, and mature) were examined in a randomized block design experiment in a 5 _ 3 factorial arrangement. Although only mineral matter and total carbohydrate concentration were significantly different among the accessions, CBG showed better forage qualities than other accessions. Dry matter, organic matter, mineral matter, crude protein, ether extract, and total carbohydrate accumulations were higher in the intermediate phase. In the mature phase, relatively difficult to digest fiber components such as neutral detergent fiber, acid detergent fiber, lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose increase. Our findings indicate that for spineless forage cactus grown in arid areas, the intermediate phase is the best phase to harvest cladodes for feeding livestock

Samples of 447 T-CORE lines and 15 repeated checks under the experiment code (M1F22_ca) were planted on December 30, 2021, at Terbol station field, Lebanon with 2 replications. Each line is planted in two rows with a total of 14 seeds. At f the flowering stage, increasing the number of lines affected by Fusarium wilt with a total of lines affected (9.5%) from both replications. The plants were harvested in June 2022 to continue taking the yield and yield component traits.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a significant consumer of irrigation water and precipitation on cropland. Global and regional interest in the sustainable management of limited freshwater supplies to meet the rapidly increasing population and food demands has resulted in advanced scientific research on ET measurement, rapid water accounting, and irrigation schedules in the NENA region. The primary goal of this paper is to compare actual daily evapotranspiration (ET) collected by a remote sensing model and validated by Energy Balance (EB) flux tower field measurements. The flux tower was installed in a wheat field in Sids Agricultural Research Station in Beni Suef Governorate. Through the integration of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Terra and Sentinel-2 data, a new remote sensing-based ET model is built on two parties: Thermal condition factor (TCF) and vegetation condition fraction (VCF). The remote sensing-based ET estimation model was evaluated using ET field measurements from the Energy Balance flux tower. The land use and land cover maps were created to assist the interpretation of remotely sensed ET data. Field data for five categories were collected to test the accuracy of the land use and cover maps: Water bodies (93 points), urban areas (252 points), trees (104 points), other field crops (227 points), and wheat (249 points), for a total of 925 ground points. The Google Earth Engine (GEE) imported sentinel-2 datasets and filtered the necessary dates and regions. From 1 October 2020 to 30 May 2021, sentinel-2 data were processed and transformed into the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI), which were then combined. The composite layer data were classified using the Random Forest (RF) method on the GEE platform, and the results showed an overall accuracy of 91 percent. The validation factors revealed good indices when RS-based ET results were compared to ground-measured ET. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 0.84 mm/day. The ‘r’ and ‘d’ values indicated satisfactory results, where ‘r’ yielded a value of 0.785, which indicates that the correlation between predicted and reference results is robust. The analysis of d values revealed a high degree of correlation between predicted (RS-based ET) and reference results (measured ET). The d value was found to be 0.872. Between 21 November 2020 and 30 April 2021, RS-based accumulated ET was 418 mm/season, while ground-measured ET was 376 mm/season. The new RS-based ET model produced acceptable daily and seasonal results.

Background The experiment evaluated the effect of supplementing sheep fed natural pasture hay with processed sweet lupin grain on growth performance and its economic feasibility. The finding revealed that use of steamed lupin shown to improve the nutritive value of the grain and sheep performance. Methods The experiment was carried out using 24 yearling lambs with initial body weight of 27.53 ± 2.67 kg (mean ± SD) for 126 days (21 days quarantine, 15 days of adaptation and 90 days growth trial followed by 7 days digestibility trial). The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design consisting of four treatments and six blocks. Treatments comprised the feeding of natural pasture hay ad libitum + concentrate mix 440 g (T1), natural pasture hay + 440 g/day roasted, coarsely ground sweet lupin grain (T2), natural pasture hay + 440 g/day sweet lupin grain soaked in water for 72 h (T3), natural pasture hay + 440 g/day steamed sweet lupin grain (T4). Results There was improvements in total dry matter intake and digestibility coefficients of dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber in sheep supplemented with processed sweet lupin grains compared (T4) by 58.49%, 24.66%, 39.39%, 22.97% and 39.68%, respectively, over the control group. Specifically sheep supplemented with T4 had significantly higher (p < 0.001) average daily gain (by 51.04%), feed conversion efficiency (46.34%) and daily weight gain (144.78 g/day) compared to the control treatment, respectively. All processing methods resulted in favorable average daily gain and net return, thus can be employed in feeding systems depending on their availability and relative cost. Conclusions Supplementing sheep fed natural pasture hay with 440 g/day steamed sweet lupin grains improved growth performance and fattening economics of Doyogena sheep compared to T2 (roasted sweet lupin grain), T3 (soaked sweet lupin grain) or the control (T1).

Alley cropping is an agroforestry practice of planting arable crops between trees or shrubs. The integration of forage treeshrub species in an alley-cropping system was examined as an approach to mitigate the effects of climate-induced drought, to improve soil quality and to secure better livelihoods for smallholder famers in West Asia. Forage tree-shrub performance was evaluated in an alley-cropped system using seven leguminous forage species (Medicago arborea, Colutea istria and Coronilla glauca), three Atriplex species (A. canescens, A. nummularia, A. undulata) and spineless cactus pear (Opuntia ficus indica) intercropped between annual crops of wheat, vetch and barley at the Mushaqqar Research Station in Jordan. Growth characteristics were measured by monitoring tree-shrub stem diameter, stomatal conductance, plant height and estimating tree-shrub biomass production. The suitability index was based on growth characteristics for each tree-shrub. Results showed that the Atriplex species showed a higher suitability index compared to leguminous shrubs and cactus pear. Among the Atriplex species, Atriplex canescens recorded the highest plant height, stem diameter and estimated biomass production across all three field crops. Leguminous species recorded low biomass productivity at the beginning of summer but with a low suitability index. Despite their vital role in soil nutrient improvement, there were found to be unreliable in providing supplement forage for livestock. The cactus pear recorded a low suitability index and is not recommended. When implementing alley cropping systems, a balance should be considered between high forage biomass shrub species accessible to livestock after harvesting crops and shrubs that enhance soil nutrient status for improving field crop growing conditions.