Assessing Drought Effects on Banana Production and On-Farm Coping Strategies by Farmers – A Study in the Cattle Corridor of Uganda

Author(s):  
Moureen Nansamba ◽  
Julia Sibiya ◽  
Robooni Tumuhimbise ◽  
Walter Ocimati ◽  
Enoch Kikulwe ◽  
...  

Abstract Drought is a major threat to banana production in Uganda, leading to large yield losses. This study documented drought effects on banana production and identified farmers’ coping strategies to mitigate the impact of droughts. Interviews were conducted in eight districts, randomly selected from banana-growing districts in Uganda’s cattle corridor, characterised by frequent droughts. Data were collected from 120 respondents/farms. Banana production in the study area was dominated by small-scale farmers, growing mostly a combination of cooking and dessert banana types. Among the 15 identified effects of drought stress on banana growth, reduced bunch weight, wilting and drying of leaves, reduced leaf production and reduced number of fingers and clusters were the most reported. ‘Mpologoma’ and ‘FHIA 17’ cultivars were reported as the most and least affected by drought stress, respectively. Although the cattle corridor is prone to recurrent droughts, the deployment of drought coping strategies was mostly low, with farmers using one to three strategies. A total of 12 drought mitigation practices were used across the cattle corridor, with mulching being the most common option. Irrigation was perceived as the most effective mitigation option though its deployment was limited by water scarcity and the high cost of water pumps. This study suggests the need for government support in drought stress mitigation practices and the development of drought-tolerant cultivars by breeders. Additionally, farmers need to prioritise preventive coping strategies like planting drought-tolerant cultivars, irrigation, mulching, and manure application and ensure the appropriate time of deployment of mitigation practices.

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1534
Author(s):  
Chandra Mohan Singh ◽  
Poornima Singh ◽  
Chandrakant Tiwari ◽  
Shalini Purwar ◽  
Mukul Kumar ◽  
...  

Drought stress is considered a severe threat to crop production. It adversely affects the morpho-physiological, biochemical and molecular functions of the plants, especially in short duration crops like mungbean. In the past few decades, significant progress has been made towards enhancing climate resilience in legumes through classical and next-generation breeding coupled with omics approaches. Various defence mechanisms have been reported as key players in crop adaptation to drought stress. Many researchers have identified potential donors, QTLs/genes and candidate genes associated to drought tolerance-related traits. However, cloning and exploitation of these loci/gene(s) in breeding programmes are still limited. To bridge the gap between theoretical research and practical breeding, we need to reveal the omics-assisted genetic variations associated with drought tolerance in mungbean to tackle this stress. Furthermore, the use of wild relatives in breeding programmes for drought tolerance is also limited and needs to be focused. Even after six years of decoding the whole genome sequence of mungbean, the genome-wide characterization and expression of various gene families and transcriptional factors are still lacking. Due to the complex nature of drought tolerance, it also requires integrating high throughput multi-omics approaches to increase breeding efficiency and genomic selection for rapid genetic gains to develop drought-tolerant mungbean cultivars. This review highlights the impact of drought stress on mungbean and mitigation strategies for breeding high-yielding drought-tolerant mungbean varieties through classical and modern omics technologies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 243-257
Author(s):  
Elgailani Abdalla ◽  
Tarig Ahmed ◽  
Omar Bakhit ◽  
Yasir Gamar ◽  
Salih Elshaikh ◽  
...  

Abstract Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.), produced in the traditional small-scale rainfed sector of Western Sudan, accounts for 80% of the total annual groundnut acreage, producing 70% of the total production. Low productivity of groundnut is a characteristic feature in North Kordofan State, which is characterized as the most vulnerable state to the impact of climate change. Terminal drought stress resulting from reduction in rainfall amount and distribution at the end of the season is the most deleterious drought period, as it coincides with groundnut pod filling and maturation periods. High and stable yields under subsistence farming conditions in North Kordofan State could be realized only by using adapted high-yielding, drought-tolerant genotypes. Mutation induction by gamma-rays of 200 and 300 Gy was utilized to irradiate 500 dry seeds of the Spanish-type groundnut genotypes, Barberton, Sodari, ICGV 89104, ICGV 86743, ICGV 86744 and ICG 221, aiming at increasing the chances of obtaining genotypes with the desired drought-tolerant traits. Mutants were selected from the M3 plants using visual morphological traits. Groundnut mutants at the M4 and M5 generations, advanced by single seed descent, were evaluated for end-of-season drought tolerance. A terminal drought period of 25 days was imposed after 60 days from planting, using a rainout shelter. Mutants that survived 25 days of terminal drought stress were further evaluated for agronomic performance under rainfed field conditions. The groundnut mutant, Barberton-b-30-3-B, produced 1024 kg/ha, a significantly higher mean pod yield over 12 seasons compared with 926 kg/ha for 'Gubeish', the widely grown released check cultivar, showing overall yield advantage of 11%. Under 5 years of participatory research, Barberton-b-30-3-B was ranked the best with yield increment of 21% over 'Gubeish' under the mother trials. The GGE biplot analysis for 12 and five seasons, respectively, showed that Barberton-b-30-3-B was stable and produced a good yield in both high and low rainfall situations. Hence, Barberton-b-30-3-B was found to be a suitable mutant for sustainable profitable yields in the marginal dry lands of North Kordofan State and was officially released as 'Tafra-1' by the National Variety Release Committee during its second meeting of April 2018.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (16) ◽  
pp. 4658-4676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory A Gambetta ◽  
Jose Carlos Herrera ◽  
Silvina Dayer ◽  
Quishuo Feng ◽  
Uri Hochberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Water availability is arguably the most important environmental factor limiting crop growth and productivity. Erratic precipitation patterns and increased temperatures resulting from climate change will likely make drought events more frequent in many regions, increasing the demand on freshwater resources and creating major challenges for agriculture. Addressing these challenges through increased irrigation is not always a sustainable solution so there is a growing need to identify and/or breed drought-tolerant crop varieties in order to maintain sustainability in the context of climate change. Grapevine (Vitis vinifera), a major fruit crop of economic importance, has emerged as a model perennial fruit crop for the study of drought tolerance. This review synthesizes the most recent results on grapevine drought responses, the impact of water deficit on fruit yield and composition, and the identification of drought-tolerant varieties. Given the existing gaps in our knowledge of the mechanisms underlying grapevine drought responses, we aim to answer the following question: how can we move towards a more integrative definition of grapevine drought tolerance?


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 2541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nadeem ◽  
Jiajia Li ◽  
Muhammad Yahya ◽  
Alam Sher ◽  
Chuanxi Ma ◽  
...  

Climate change, food shortage, water scarcity, and population growth are some of the threatening challenges being faced in today’s world. Drought stress (DS) poses a constant challenge for agricultural crops and has been considered a severe constraint for global agricultural productivity; its intensity and severity are predicted to increase in the near future. Legumes demonstrate high sensitivity to DS, especially at vegetative and reproductive stages. They are mostly grown in the dry areas and are moderately drought tolerant, but severe DS leads to remarkable production losses. The most prominent effects of DS are reduced germination, stunted growth, serious damage to the photosynthetic apparatus, decrease in net photosynthesis, and a reduction in nutrient uptake. To curb the catastrophic effect of DS in legumes, it is imperative to understand its effects, mechanisms, and the agronomic and genetic basis of drought for sustainable management. This review highlights the impact of DS on legumes, mechanisms, and proposes appropriate management approaches to alleviate the severity of water stress. In our discussion, we outline the influence of water stress on physiological aspects (such as germination, photosynthesis, water and nutrient uptake), growth parameters and yield. Additionally, mechanisms, various management strategies, for instance, agronomic practices (planting time and geometry, nutrient management), plant growth-promoting Rhizobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation, quantitative trait loci (QTLs), functional genomics and advanced strategies (CRISPR-Cas9) are also critically discussed. We propose that the integration of several approaches such as agronomic and biotechnological strategies as well as advanced genome editing tools is needed to develop drought-tolerant legume cultivars.


2007 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tegegne Gebre-Egziabher

ABSTRACTThe footwear sector in Ethiopia is dominated by cheap imports from Asia, particularly from China. This has inflicted heavy impacts on the sector, and threatened its competitiveness in the domestic market. This study examines the impact of imports and coping strategies of firms to withstand the competition. Firm level data were gathered from micro, small and medium footwear enterprises. The findings revealed that Chinese shoes are superior in design, price and quality, with the result that they have taken over the domestic market. The impact of Chinese imports on local producers varied from downsizing, bankruptcy, loss of assets and property, to downgrading activities and informalising operations. Firms have pursued coping strategies that focused on improving design and quality, as well as lowering prices and profit margins. Coping strategies appear to be differentiated by size of firms, and have some association with the performance of firms. The ways forward for local producers should focus on collaborative engagements of stakeholders and government to overcome the competitive disadvantages of firms. Training, technology, quality control, benchmarking and reorganization of production should be designed as a package of intervention. In addition, strengthening local producers to engage in collective actions and promoting exports should also be given proper attention.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6582
Author(s):  
Syeda Fasiha Amjad ◽  
Nida Mansoora ◽  
Samia Yaseen ◽  
Afifa Kamal ◽  
Beenish Butt ◽  
...  

On a global scale, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a widely cultivated crop among all cereals. Increasing pollution, population expansion, socio-economic development, ecological and industrial policies have induced changes in overall climatic attributes. The impact of these factors on agriculture dynamics has led to various biotic and abiotic stresses, i.e., significant decline in rainfall, directly affect sustainable agriculture. Increasing abiotic stresses have a direct negative effect on worldwide crop production. More promising and improved stress-tolerant strategies that can help to feed the increasing global population are required. A laboratory experiment was performed on two of the latest wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes (Akbar 2019 and Anaj 2017) from Punjab Pakistan, to determine the influence of seed priming with thiamine (vitamin B1) along with soil inoculation of Endophytic bacterial strains to mitigate the effects of drought stress at different degrees. Results revealed that thiamine helped in the remote germination; seeds of Anaj 2017 germinated within 16 hours while Akbar 2019 germinated after one day. Overall growth parameters of Anaj 2017 were negatively affected even under higher levels of drought stress, while Akbar 2019 proved to be a susceptible cultivar. A significant increase in RFW (54%), SFW (85%), RDW (69%), SDW (67%) and TChl (136%) validated the effectiveness of D-T3 compared to C-T0 in drought stress. Significant decrease in MDA, EL and H2O2 signified the imperative function of D-T3 over C-T0 under drought stress. In conclusion and recommendation, we declare that farmers can get better wheat growth under drought stress by application of D-T3 over C-T0.


Horticulturae ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Rūta Sutulienė ◽  
Lina Ragelienė ◽  
Giedrė Samuolienė ◽  
Aušra Brazaitytė ◽  
Martynas Urbutis ◽  
...  

Abiotic stress caused by drought impairs plant growth and reduces yields. This study aimed to investigate the impact of silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) through the adverse effects of drought on the growth, oxidative stress, and antioxidative response of pea ‘Respect’. Pea plants were grown in a greenhouse before being watered (100 ± 1 mL per pot) or foliar sprayed (ca. 14 ± 0.5 mL plant−1) with suspensions containing SiO2 NPs (0, 12.5 ppm, 25 ppm, and 50 ppm) and were exposed to drought stress for 10 days. Drought stress was created by maintaining 30% of the soil moisture while the control was 80%. The growth parameters of pea grown under drought stress conditions were improved by spraying or watering plants with SiO2 NPs (12.5, 25, and 50 ppm). At drought stress, peas treated with SiO2 NPs (50 ppm) increased their relative water content by 29%, specific leaf area by 17%, and decreased root/shoot ratio by 4% as compared to plant non-treated with SiO2 NPs. In addition, spraying or watering of SiO2 NPs increased peas tolerance to drought by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes at least three times including catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, glutathione reductase, and superoxide dismutase, as well as reducing hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation in plant tissue. It was observed the increase in total phenolic compounds and non-enzymatic antioxidant activity (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP) in peas treated with SiO2 NPs under drought stress. The physiological response of peas to drought and the effects of SiO2 NPs studied in this experiment based on the use of the concentration of 50 ppm nanoparticles can protect peas from the damaging effects of drought and could help reduce global food shortages.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 4786-4789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Xi Ren ◽  
Yan Shi

The effects of drought stress on the photosynthesis and dry leaf yield in the different Stevia rebaudina Bertoni germplasms of: IS-1, QF-1, QTZ4, JD-1 and AL-4 was studied with the pot method in greenhouse. The results indicated that the net photosynthetic (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr) and dry leaf production of stevia showed different degree changes with the continuing of drought-stress time. There was no significant change in Pn, Tr and dry leaf production in short-term drought-stress treatment(Ta:5d), but as the time of drought-stress continuing, the Pn were on the declining trend: the Pn of various materials in T2 (without irrigation for 10d) showed maximum decrease, they decreased for 28.85%, 47.04%, 43.03%, 43.61% and 42.25% than that in T1 (without irrigation for 5d), respectively. The variation trend of Tr in various materials were the same to the Pn. And it indicated that there was no appreciable impact on the dry leaf yield in the mild drought (without water for 5d), but with the drought stress continuing, the dry leaf yield of per plant became less and less. The varying degrees decreases of dry leaf yield in different materials with the same drought stress showed that different materials with different tolerance to drought stress.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (7) ◽  
pp. 1550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Yu ◽  
Mengyuan Jiang ◽  
Changkui Guo

Drought stress induced pollen sterility is a harmful factor that reduces crop yield worldwide. During the reproductive process, the meiotic stage and the mitotic stage in anthers are both highly vulnerable to water deficiency. Drought at these stages causes pollen sterility by affecting the nature and structure of the anthers, including the degeneration of some meiocytes, disorientated microspores, an expanded middle layer and abnormal vacuolizated tapeta. The homeostasis of the internal environment is imbalanced in drought-treated anthers, involving the decreases of gibberellic acid (GA) and auxin, and the increases of abscisic acid (ABA), jasmonic acid (JA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Changes in carbohydrate availability, metabolism and distribution may be involved in the effects of drought stress at the reproductive stages. Here, we summarize the molecular regulatory mechanism of crop pollen development under drought stresses. The meiosis-related genes, sugar transporter genes, GA and ABA pathway genes and ROS-related genes may be altered in their expression in anthers to repair the drought-induced injures. It could also be that some drought-responsive genes, mainly expressed in the anther, regulate the expression of anther-related genes to improve both drought tolerance and anther development. A deepened understanding of the molecular regulatory mechanism of pollen development under stress will be beneficial for breeding drought-tolerant crops with high and stable yield under drought conditions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afsana Hannan ◽  
Md. Najmol Hoque ◽  
Lutful Hassan ◽  
Arif Hasan Khan Robin

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops in Bangladesh. Over the last two decades, wheat consumption has passionately amplified in Bangladesh but its production has declined due to various stress environments. Recurrent drought event due to climate change that threatens the country’s food safety has become a serious concern. To safeguard the food security, adopting suitable breeding strategies can add momentum. Developing drought tolerant wheat varieties are the definitive means of protecting the crop against hostile effects of drought. Plant breeders are exploring various breeding strategies to breed for the varieties that can cope with water deficient conditions well. Besides, breeders are consistently looking for new prospects and strategies that can boost genetic gain in yield. To endorse drought tolerance in wheat, understanding the physiological and genetic adaptation mechanisms of wheat cultivars during drought stress would provide the estimated benchmarks to adjust for suitable breeding programs. The efforts of developing drought tolerant wheat genotypes could be supported by different breeding strategies including in vitro haploid and double haploid protocols, polyploidization, development of various types of hybrids and induced mutants by utilizing both classical and molecular breeding techniques. The proposed book chapter shall discuss the pattern of drought-stress in the wheat growing regions, effects of drought stress on wheat production and suitable breeding strategies for developing drought tolerant genotypes in Bangladesh.


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