Enhancing food production in semi arid coastal lowlands Kenya through water harvesting technologies

Date

2013

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute - Mtwapa

Abstract

To evaluate the performance of drought tolerant maize varieties under different water harvesting technologies (zai pits, tied ridges and conventional), the treatments were laid out in a split plot design with water harvesting methods as the main plots, and maize varieties as the sub-plots. Four maize varieties were evaluated under the three water harvesting technologies. Maize yields in zai pits and tied ridges treatments were significantly higher than for conventional treatment. Maize constitutes a major component of the diet in the region, with more than 70% of maize cultivated by farmers in small holder units of less than 20 hectares of land.

Description

Paper for presentation at the 27th SSEA/6th ASSS Conference held on October 20-25, 2013 in Nakuru, Kenya

Keywords

KENYA, SEMIARID ZONE, CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION, WATER HARVESTING, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, FOOD PRODUCTION, LAND USE, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH, EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS, MAIZE, ZAI PIT TECHNOLOGY

Citation

DOI