Abstract
Abstract Conservation agriculture has been promoted to sustainably intensify food production in smallholder farming systems in southern Africa. However, farmers have rarely fully implemented all its components, resulting in different combinations of no-tillage, crop rotation, and permanent soil cover being practiced, thus resulting in variable yield responses depending on climatic and soil conditions. Therefore, it is crucial to assess the effect of conservation agriculture components on yield stability. We hypothesized that the use of all three conservation agriculture components would perform the best, resulting in more stable production in all environments. We evaluated at, eight trial locations across southern Africa, how partial and full implementation of these components affected crop yield and yield stability compared with conventional tillage alone or combined with mulching and/or crop rotation. Grain yield and shoot biomass of maize and cowpea were recorded along with precipitation for 2 to 5 years. Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase. Conversely, adding only mulch or crop rotation to no-tillage or conventional tillage led to lower or equal maize yield. Stability analyses based on Shukla’s index showed for the first time that the most stable systems are those in which mulch is added without crop rotation. Moreover, the highest yielding systems were the least stable. Finally, additive main effects and multiplicative interaction analysis allowed clarifying that mulch added to no-tillage gives stable yields on sandy soil with high rainfall. Similarly, mulch added to conventional tillage gives stable yield on sandy soil, but under low rainfall. This is the first study that highlighted the crucial role of mulch to enhance the stability and resilience of cropping systems in southern Africa, supporting their adaptability to climate change.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
Adding crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain yield by 6% across environments.
- Treatment
- the addition of crop rotation and mulche1
- Outcome
- maize graine1
- Direction
- increasede1
- Value
- 6%e1
- Comparator
- no-tillagee1
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding crop rotation and mulch to conventional tillage increased maize yield by 13%.
- Treatment
- the same practices added to conventional tillagee1
- Outcome
- yielde1
- Direction
- increasee1
- Value
- 13%e1
- Comparator
- conventional tillagee1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
Claim · model-written summary
Adding only mulch or crop rotation to no-tillage or conventional tillage led to lower or equal maize yield.
- Treatment
- adding only mulch or crop rotatione3
- Outcome
- maize yielde3
- Direction
- lower or equale3
- Comparator
- no-tillage or conventional tillagee3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e3“adding only mulch or crop rotation to no-tillage or conventional tillage led to lower or equal maize yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulch added without crop rotation gave the most stable yield systems according to Shukla index stability analysis.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
e4“Stability analyses based on Shukla’s index showed for the first time that the most stable systems are those in which mulch is added without crop rotation”
Claim · model-written summary
The highest yielding systems were the least stable.
- Outcome
- least stablee5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
e5“the highest yielding systems were the least stable”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulch added to no-tillage gives stable yields on sandy soil with high rainfall.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
e6“mulch added to no-tillage gives stable yields on sandy soil with high rainfall”
Claim · model-written summary
Mulch added to conventional tillage gives stable yield on sandy soil, but only under low rainfall.
- Treatment
- mulch added to conventional tillagee7
- Outcome
- stable yielde7
- Qualifier
- under low rainfalle7
- Setting
- sandy soile7
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“Across different environments, the addition of crop rotation and mulch to no-tillage increased maize grain by 6%, and the same practices added to conventional tillage led to 13% yield increase”
e7“mulch added to conventional tillage gives stable yield on sandy soil, but under low rainfall”
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