Browsing by Author "Kimaro, D."

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Agricultural drought analysis for sustainable smallholder maize production in semi-arid areas: A case study of the lower Moshi irrigation scheme, Tanzania
(2015) Patrick, B.; Kimaro, D.; Lal, R.
Rainfed maize (Zea mays) in semi-arid Sub-Saharan Africa is subject to many climate-related risks—including agricultural dry spells and droughts. Effectively selecting appropriate agricultural water management strategies must first begin with evaluation of the potential climate-related risks. This article evaluates dry spell occurrence in the Mabogini Village—located within a semiarid area in Tanzania—using a water balance approach with nineteen years of historical daily precipitation data. The water balance equation was related to crop water requirements to evaluate both the prevalence of agricultural dry spells as well as estimate the water deficits throughout the same time period. Only four of the nineteen seasons did not experience a dry spell of at least five consecutive days. 37% of the seasons had at least one dry spell of 6-10 days while 63% had at least one dry spell of greater than 15 days. Soil water deficit in relation to crop production ranged from 0-140 mm. This study concludes that dry spells lasting greater than 15 days throughout 63% of the past 19 growing seasons represent a high risk to smallholder farmers in the area. The high prevalence of long dry spells suggests that rainfed maize production is not sustainable in the region without interventions. However, relatively small water deficits suggest that proper water capture, storage, and supplemental irrigation methods could help to bridge the gap between dry spells. It is therefore recommended that water management practices be put in place immediately to support productive and sustainable maize production in the area.
Assessing drivers of soil properties and classification in the West Usambara mountains, Tanzania
(Elsevier, 2017-10-16) Massawe, B. H. J.; Winowiecki, L.; Meliyo, J. L.; Mbogoni, J. D. J.; Msanya, B. M.; Kimaro, D.; Deckersf, J.; Gulinck, H.; Lyamchai, C.; Sayula, G.; Msokah, E.; Vagen, T.; Brush, G.; Jelinskii, N. A.
Improved soil information in tropical montane regions is critical for conservation, sustainable agricultural management, and land use planning, but is often challenged by topographic and land-use heterogeneity. The West Usambara mountains are a part of the Eastern Arc chain of mountains of Tanzania and Kenya, a globally important tropical montane ecoregion made up of isolated fault-block mountain complexes characterized by high biological endemism, population density, and agronomic productivity. We synthesized novel and legacy soil data from published and unpublished studies to better understand the drivers of soil property distributions and soil diversity in the West Usambaras, and to serve as a foundation for improved soil mapping efforts across the Eastern Arc. Analysis of the resulting dataset of 468 sites (ranging in elevation from 1040 to 2230 m.a.s.l.) revealed that soil properties varied more significantly by land use and topography than by soil type, suggesting that future mapping efforts in the region should focus primarily on soil property prediction and secondarily on soil classification. Sites under cultivated land uses had the lowest topsoil soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations and highest pH values, and SOC generally increased with increasing elevation. Valley soils had significantly lower surface SOC concentrations but higher exchangeable bases and pH values than all other landscape positions. Soil pH decreased by an average of 3.5 units across the entire elevation gradient and decreased by 1 unit with elevation even after SOC, land use and landscape position were included in multiple regression models. The relationship of cation exchange capacity (CEC) to SOC and clay content varied by landscape position. Therefore, particularly in montane regions where soils can vary significantly over short distances, multiple functions may be necessary to produce improved estimates of parameters such as CEC. Soil classification was driven most strongly by topography, with Acrisols (WRB Reference Group) and Ultisols (U.S. Soil Taxonomy (ST)) as the dominant soil types, located primarily on mid slope, upper slope and crest landscape positions, making up 47% and 75% of observed profiles, respectively. However, five ST Orders and seven WRB Reference Groups were present in the dataset, with the highest soil diversity occurring at lower slope landscape positions. Conclusions drawn from this large dataset support previous work in the West Usambaras and provide a conceptual foundation from which to build improved soil maps across the Eastern Arc and in other tropical montane systems throughout the world.
Lepus conference soils, land use and plague Lushoto, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2013-08) Hieronimo, P.; Meliyo, J.; Gulinck, H.; Kimaro, D.; Msanya, B.; Mulungu, L.; Kihupi, N.; Deckers, S.; Leirs, H.; Leirs, H.
This excursion guide leads you to the case study area of the LEPUS project. The study area is located in a 200 km2 section of the Western Usambara Mountains and within the Lushoto district (map 1 ). I t is centred over the region in which during the period 1 980 - 2004 many bubonic plague cases were registered. Within the case area, there is west-east gradient from high to low plague incidence.
Lepus conference soils, land use and plague Lushoto, Tanzania
(2013) Hieronimo, P.; Meliyo, J.; Gulinck, H.; Kimaro, D.; Msanya, B. M.; Mulungu, L.; Kihupi, N.; Deckers, S.; Leirs, H.