UNews - ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of South Australia

Agricultural research project benefits subsistence farmers in Africa

caroline.zentner — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 17:51:07 +0000

More than 100 subsistence farmers in three African countries have increased their yields and irrigated less often through an agricultural research project designed by Dr. Henning Bjornlund, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge visiting professor.

Bjornlund started the project in 2013 when he was the Canada Research Chair in Water Policy and Management at the U of L, a position he held from 2005 to 2014. He’s also a research professor of water policy and management at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of South Australia in Adelaide.

“We are trying to increase water use efficiency and productivity by working with small-scale farmers,” says Bjornlund. “We give them soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools that are installed in their fields. The farmers call them their eyes in the ground.”

A farmer in Zimbabwe holds the 'chameleon,' the soil moisture instrument that farmers call their eyes in the ground.

The project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), operates in close collaboration with partners in the African countries of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania.

The tools tell the farmers about soil moisture at the root level and the level of nutrients available at different depths so they can better manage their water use and fertilizer application. The tools give farmers information that counteracts the common belief that it’s better to give plants more water.

“In reality, that’s not the case. You can give too much water, with the result that nutrients are leached past the root zone,” he says. “In 18 months, a lot of the farmers have halved the number of times they irrigate.”

Many of the farmers are women who have family obligations in addition to farming. Irrigating their crops is labour intensive because the farmer has to physically make sure water reaches all the plants in a field. Irrigating less frequently has given the farmers more time to do weed control or start other ventures to earn money for their families.

Research has shown that households with a diverse income stream are better off than those without. Many farmers have now been able to earn money in additional ways. One bought a small solar panel he used to create a cellphone charging station. Others have purchased motorbikes they use as taxis. Still others make charcoal, mud bricks or buns they sell in the marketplace.

Dr. Henning Bjornlund, at left, talks with a group of farmers and a government agricultural advisor.

“Their yields have increased fairly substantially in a short time,” Bjornlund says. “These small farmers understand the importance of diversifying their income because they know that some years, farming might not produce a yield due to disease or drought.”

Irrigation water typically flows through a canal that can be many kilometres in length. If water is scarce in a given year, farmers who live closer to the source will take out their share of water first, and those who live farther down the canal may have no water for their crops.

“You can have fist fights. That’s a common problem in those kinds of irrigation schemes,” he says. “We have found, in at least two of the schemes we are working on, that the level of conflict has decreased because reducing the number of times they irrigated left more water in the canal.”

Some of the farmers also commented there is less friction between husbands and wives because higher yields result in higher incomes.

“It has been interesting. You think you are doing something with using water more efficiently and it actually has an effect that you didn’t imagine,” says Bjornlund.

The soil monitoring tools have allowed the farmers to learn much more than just the level of moisture and nutrients in the soil. Farmers in one district saw a difference between using natural fertilizer, consisting of manure and compost, and using chemical fertilizers.

“It took much longer, when they used manure, before the nutrients disappeared,” he says. “The nutrients are attached to the straw and other things so it leaches slowly, whereas granulated fertilizer dissolves as soon as it gets wet.”

Increasing yields is only part of the project. If everyone has a bumper crop of tomatoes, prices can fall and transport costs can rise. The research project’s innovation platform brings together all the different stakeholders in a community, including input suppliers, farmers, buyers and processors, to help identify what would be most profitable for farmers to grow.

“We are working with the farmers to organize collaboration across the value chain,” he says.

Stakeholders have also looked at ways to add value to the crops they produce, through processing or warehouse facilities.

“It’s very interesting and very encouraging to be part of this project. These farmers are really standing up and telling you how much better their lives have become in a fairly short period of time,” he says. “One of the women told us she had sent her daughter to university, the first child ever in that village to go to university.”

The project is scheduled to wrap up in July, 2017 and negotiations are underway for a second phase that would be in effect until 2021.

5 Questions With Dr. Henning Bjornlund

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:53:12 +0000

Dr. Henning Bjornlund is a Canada Research Chair in Water Policy and Management at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and a professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of South Australia. He has researched water policy and management issues in Australia since 1993 and in Canada since 2005. He recently served on the Ministers Advisory Group on Water Allocation and Management in Alberta, and has written widely about water policy and management issues with more than 275 publications and presentations.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

Prior to starting my first academic degree in 1990, I was the managing director for a company operating tropical plantations in South and Central America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific. As part of this work, I bought properties and negotiated access rights to water to grow bananas, citrus, rice and other tropical crops highly dependent on water.

While studying for my bachelor's degree I had to do a third-year research project and chose to concentrate on the impact of water policy on rural land values. This required a careful study of the literature on water markets and water rights. I continued this theme through both my master's and PhD studies.

Dr. Henning Bjornlund is one of the foremost experts in water policy and management issues.

How is your research applicable in "the real world"?

Water is probably the most important and valuable resource in the world. All human activity depends on it in one form or another. It is available in a finite quantity and has a finite ability to assimilate waste. Most human and economic activity in some way impacts on water quality and the availability of water. Human activities have had a serious impact on water bodies and the ecosystems dependent on them. Policy makers around the world are trying to come to terms with how to reverse this trend of environmental degradation, how to continue our human activities while minimizing our impact on the environment, how to use less water and be more efficient, how to produce more from less and how to share our limited resources. All of these issues are central to my research.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour and privilege that I can receive as an academic is an invitation to contribute to policy making, the development of professional standards or to public debate and awareness. Hence, invitations to serve on entities such as the Ministers Advisory Group on a new Water Management and Allocation framework for Alberta, to produce a policy commentary to contribute to the debate on water management and policy in Alberta, or help write a policy document for the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in London on the implications of changing water policies for property professionals are among the greatest honours I have received.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

Student participation is an integral part of my research program. I currently have seven PhD students and five master's students in Canada and Australia working on various issues related to water policy and management. Apart from answering pressing questions about how to resolve the world's growing water problems, a very important task is the building of human capacity to deal with these issues. Student training in this area is very important.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

How to share limited resources is one of the most challenging issues facing policy makers and water managers. This is a very complicated issue in that those who currently have the right to use water have invested a lot of time and money to be able to do so. Hence, any change in the way water is allocated can potentially have significant socio-economic impact on the current generation of water users, not the least of which are irrigators and the communities that currently depend on water use as the economic engine of their community. If I had unlimited funds I would like to conduct a Canada wide investigation of how people perceive a reallocation should take place, how such perception varies across Canada and what causes the variation. Such insight would assist the development of a national water plan or policy, as well as the development of provincial water policy plans.

Each month, the Legend will present 5 Questions With . . . one of our researchers. For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research and Innovation Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you'd like to be profiled, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca

This story first appeared in the October 2012 issue of the Legend. To see the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of South Australia

Agricultural research project benefits subsistence farmers in Africa

Related Topics

5 Questions With Dr. Henning Bjornlund

Related Topics

UNews - ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of South Australia