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    Increasing land pressure in East Africa: the changing role of cassava and consequences for sustainability of farming systems

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    fermont-increasing-2008.pdf (719.3Kb)
    Date
    2008
    Author
    Fermont, A.V.
    Asten, Piet J.A. van
    Giller, Ken E.
    Type
    Journal Article
    Metadata
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    Abstract/Description
    Increasing land pressure during the past three to four decades has transformed farming systems in the mid-altitude zone of East Africa. Traditional millet-, cotton-, sugarcane- and/or banana-based farming systems with an important fallow and/or grazing component have evolved into continuously cultivated cassava or cassava/maize-based systems. Within three to four decades, cassava cultivation increased from 1–11 to 16–55% of cropped fields in our six study sites. Declining soil fertility, and not labour or food shortage, was apparently the primary trigger for this transformation. The land use changes have increased nutrient offtakes and reduced nutrient recycling rates. Cassava and maize now account for 50– 90% of nutrient removal. Whereas single-season fallows were the most important source of nutrient recycling on cropped fields in the past, currently cassava litterfall and maize stover contribute roughly 70% of nutrient recycling, with 50–70% of N, P and K recycled in cassava litterfall. This may explain why many farmers reason that cassava ‘rests’ the soil. With increasing land use pressure farmers progressively use cassava as an ‘imitation fallow’ throughout their farm. Farmers increasingly target cassava to poor fertility fields characterized by low pH and available P. High cassava intensities are nonetheless maintained on more fertile fields, probably to guarantee regeneration of soil fertility on all fields. Once cassava is targeted to poor fertility soils, farmers have run out of low-input management options and need to intensifymanagement tomaintain system productivity. As cassava is now used by more farmers and on a larger acreage than fallowing in the studied farming systems, cassava cropping could perhaps serve as an excellent entry point to strengthen system sustainability.
    https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2008.06.009
    Multi standard citation
    Permanent link to this item
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12478/2873
    Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
    https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2008.06.009
    IITA Subjects
    Cassava; Plant Production; Farming Systems; Food Security; Farm Management; Soil Fertility; Plant Diseases; Soil Information; Plant Health; Disease Control; Genetic Improvement; Pests Of Plants; Plant Breeding; Plant Genetic Resources
    Agrovoc Terms
    Farming Systems; Soil Fertility; Cassava; Nutrient Removal; System Sustainability
    Regions
    Africa; Acp; East Africa; Europe
    Countries
    Uganda; Netherlands
    Collections
    • Journal and Journal Articles4835
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