RETRACTED: Water Balance Dynamics in Mixed Crop-Livestock Systems of Northern Ghana: Unraveling the Interactions between Farm-Level and Landscape Fluxes in the Face of Climate Change

Agricultural development through settlement schemes on desert lands has always raised acute debates, especially over environmental issues due to cultivation based on intensive additions of water and fertilizers. However, nutrient cycling approaches at the farm level are generally based on apparent N flows, i.e., purchased inputs and sold products, without considering nutrient flows driven by mobile herds crossing the arable lands of sedentary farmers. Through a territory level approach, the present study aimed to assess the contribution of mobile pastoral herds located in the newly reclaimed land on the western desert edge of the Nile Delta on the supply of the manure for local sedentary farms. Based on a survey of 175 farmers, we calculated the partial farm nitrogen balances. Supplemental interviews were conducted with the pastoral community to assess the additional manure coming from grazing practices in the research area. The results show that the sedentary mixed crop-livestock systems based on the planting of Trifolium alexandrinum and a manure supply make a useful contribution toward converting poor, marginal soil into fertile soil. Moreover, grazing of crop residue by pastoral herds on the reclaimed land contributes to social sustainability by maintaining social links between the first occupants, the Bedouins, and the new settlers. Grazing accounts for 9% to 34% of farm-level N input and 25% to 64% of farm-level N output depending on the village and the cropping system. This contribution calls for different rural policies that consider the complementarity between pastoral herders and sedentary farmers that supports both systems' social and environmental sustainability.

Download Full-text

Transforming Smallholder Crop–Livestock Systems in the Face of Climate Change: Stakeholder-Driven Multi-Model Research in Semi-Arid Zimbabwe

Handbook of Climate Change and Agroecosystems ◽

10.1142/9781786348814_0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 217-276

Author(s):

Sabine Homann-Kee Tui ◽

Patricia Masikati ◽

Katrien Descheemaeker ◽

Gevious Sisito ◽

Buhle Francis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Model Research ◽

The Face ◽

Livestock Systems ◽

Semi Arid

Download Full-text

Climate Change and Livelihood Vulnerability in Mixed Crop–Livestock Areas: The Case of Province Punjab, Pakistan

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12020586 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 586 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Muhammad Irshad Ahmad ◽

Hengyun Ma

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Primary Source ◽

Vulnerability Index ◽

Local Policy ◽

Intergovernmental Panel ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Mixed Crop ◽

The Face ◽

Arid And Semiarid Areas ◽

Future Policy

The mixed crop–livestock system is a primary source of livelihood in developing countries. Erratic climate changes are severely affecting the livelihoods of people who depend upon mixed crop–livestock production. By employing the livelihood vulnerability index (LVI), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change LVI (LVIIPCC), and the livelihood effect index (LEI), this study evaluated livelihood vulnerability in southern Punjab, Pakistan. The study provides a range of indicators for national and local policy makers to improve resilience in the face of livelihood vulnerability. By incorporating more major components and subcomponents, this study identifies more specific challenges of livelihood vulnerability for future policy directions. It is interesting to find that credit and cash used for crop inputs are critical financial constraints for farmers. From the estimated indicators, this study also provides some specific policy recommendations for the four study districts of Punjab Province. These results are helpful in identifying and highlighting vulnerability determinants and indicators. Initiating and promoting better adaptive capacity and starting resilience projects for households are urgent actions required by donors and governments to reduce the livelihood vulnerability of mixed crop–livestock households in arid and semiarid areas.

Download Full-text

Climate change adaptation in mixed crop–livestock systems in developing countries

Global Food Security ◽

10.1016/j.gfs.2014.02.002 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 99-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Author(s):

Philip K. Thornton ◽

Mario Herrero

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Developing Countries ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Mixed Crop ◽

Livestock Systems

Download Full-text

Evapotranspiration is resilient in the face of land cover and climate change in a humid temperate catchment

10.1101/075598 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

S. K. Hamilton ◽

M. Z. Hussain ◽

C. Lowrie ◽

B. Basso ◽

G. P. Robertson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Land Cover ◽

Water Balance ◽

Deciduous Forest ◽

Local Data ◽

Evaporative Water ◽

The Past ◽

Perennial Vegetation ◽

The Face

AbstractIn temperate humid catchments, evapotranspiration returns more than half of the annual precipitation to the atmosphere, thereby determining the balance available to recharge groundwaters and support stream flow and lake levels. Changes in evapotranspiration rates and therefore catchment hydrology could be driven by changes in land use or climate. Here we examine the catchment water balance over the past 50 y for a catchment in southwest Michigan covered by cropland, grassland, forest, and wetlands. Over the study period about 27% of the catchment has been abandoned from row-crop agriculture to perennial vegetation and about 20% of the catchment has reverted to deciduous forest, and the climate has warmed by 1.14°C. Despite these changes in land use, precipitation and stream discharge, and by inference catchment-scale evapotranspiration, have been stable over the study period. The remarkably stable rates of evapotranspirative water loss from the catchment across a period of significant land cover change suggest that rainfed annual crops and perennial vegetation do not differ greatly in evapotranspiration rates, and this is supported by measurements of evapotranspiration from various vegetation types based on soil water monitoring in the same catchment. Compensating changes in the other meteorological drivers of evaporative water demand besides air temperature—wind speed, atmospheric humidity, and net radiation—are also possible, but cannot be evaluated due to insufficient local data across the 50-y period. Regardless of the explanation, this study shows that the water balance of this landscape has been resilient in the face of both land cover and climate change over the past 50 y.

Download Full-text