Browsing by Author "Mugwe, Jayne"
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Item Effect of Integrating Tied ridging, Fertilizers and Cropping Systems on Maize Performance’ in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands of Eastern Kenya(African Journal of Education, Science and Technology (AJEST), 2019) Mwende, N.; Danga, B. O.; Mugwe, Jayne; Kwena, K.The main cause of food insecurity in the semi–arid parts of Eastern Kenya is decline in soil fertility, unsuitable cropping systems, low and unreliable rainfall. This has led to low food productivity. An experiment was carried out in semi-arid parts of Eastern Kenya during short rains 2014 and long rains 2015 to determine the effect of tied ridges, fertilizers and cropping systems on growth parameters, yields and yield components of maize. The experiment was a 2 x 4 x 2 factorial laid in a randomized complete block design. The results showed that, interaction between tied-ridges x fertilizers x cropping systems had a significant effect (P<0.05) on plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width and leaf area. Treatment combinations with maize mono crop resulted to increased vegetative growth compared to treatment combinations of maize cow pea intercrop. During the short rains 2014, treatment combinations of flat bed planting, farm yard manure 5t/ha + 20kgN/ha in maize mono crop recorded the highest value for vegetative growth. However, during the long rains 2015, treatment combinations of tied-ridging with 20kgN/ha in maize mono crop had increased vegetative growth. The interaction between tied ridging x fertilizers x cropping system was significant (P < 0.05) on ears weight, biomass and grain yields. The highest value for grain yield was registered by tied ridging with farm yard manure 5t/ha in maize mono crop and tied ridging plus 20kgN/ha in maize mono crop (0.15t/ha); an increase of 650% above the control treatment. Variations in seasonal rainfall affects the effectiveness of soil and water management practices. From this study, farmers in semi-arid regions of Eastern Kenya could adopt farm yard manure 5t/ha or 20kgN/ha with maize mono crop under tied ridging in order to improve maize yields in seasons when the rain fall amount is below average.Item An Evaluation of Integrated Soil Fertility Management Practices in Meru South District, Kenya.(Kenyatta University, 2007-10) Mugwe, JayneFarmers in the central highlands of Kenya do face problems of low crop yields due to soil fertility decline. This is as a result of continuous cropping, nutrient losses through crop harvests, soil erosion and leaching coupled with inability to replenish the soil through use of external inputs. The situation is aggravated by poor adoption, among farmers, of improved soil fertility management options. This study investigated feasibility of using integrated soil fertility replenishment technologies (SFRT) involving organics in combination with inorganic fertilizer to improve soil fertility and consequently crop yields in Chuka, Meru south district. The organic materials evaluated comprised of two leguminous trees (Calliandra calothyrsus and Leucaena trichandra), two herbaceous legumes (Mucuna pruriens and Crotalaria ochroleuca), Tithonia diversifolia, a locally available tree shrub, and cattle manure. Effect of these organic materials (sole or combined with inorganic fertilizer) on maize yields and soil properties (pH, macronutrients, inorganic nitrogen) was assessed under both on-station and on-farm experiments. Farmer adoption surveys were carried out to assess adoption process that included technology preferences and farmers‟ experiences, as well as household and farm characteristics determining decision to adopt or not to adopt SFRT. All biophysical data were subjected to ANOVA and means separated using LSD at α = 0.05. Social data were subjected to descriptive statistics and summarised using means, frequencies and percentages. Factors influencing adoption were subjected to multivariate regression analysis. The on-station experiment showed that treatments that had sole application of the organic materials at 60 kg N ha-1 , and organic materials (30 kg N ha-1 ) plus inorganic fertilizer (30 kg N ha-1 ) gave similar yields (p≤0.05). However, these treatments recorded higher maize yields than that from sole inorganic fertilizer treatment. They maintained maize yields at 4 to 6 t ha-1 and should therefore be recommended for use by farmers, who currently get 0.5 to 1.5 t ha-1 from their conventional farming systems. Herbaceous legumes gave the lowest yields among the organic resources, but performed better than the control treatment. At the onfarm trials, maize yields from researcher designed and farmer-managed trials were less variable than those from farmer designed and managed trials, which was attributed to differences in management practices among farmers. The organic materials had a positive contribution to soil pH, K, C and N while cattle manure showed superiority in terms of its contribution to soil properties. The amount of soil inorganic N within the plow layer and N-uptake by maize monitored during 2002 LR and 2004 LR seasons showed variation among the treatments, sampling periods, and between the seasons. There were high amounts of soil inorganic N at 0-15 cm soil depth at the beginning of the season, followed by a decline from around 4 to 8 weeks after planting. This trend was attributed to rapid mineralization of the incorporated organic materials and “Birch effect” that was followed by leaching, due to intense rainfall, coupled with uptake of N by the maize crop. Treatments that had tithonia, calliandra and leucaena applied had the highest soil inorganic N in most sampling periods and also the highest cumulative N uptake by maize. It was evident that the effect of external inputs on N uptake was dependent on climatic conditions (especially rainfall) prevailing throughout the growing period. Poor rains during 2004 LR resulted in accumulation of soil inorganic N and restricted N uptake by the maize crop. There was high residual inorganic N at 100-150 cm soil depth that was probably due to greater N mineralization compared to plant uptake in the top-soil immediately after the onset of the rainy season and subsequent nitrate leaching. This inorganic N observed in the 100-150 cm depth is below the rooting zone of most maize plants and may not be available to the maize crop. The study established that first farmer preferences were SFRT involving manure and tithonia combined with fertilizer followed by fertilizer alone and was attributed to easy accessibility and probably low opportunity cost of practicing these technologies. Technologies that combined organic and inorganic fertilizer were more popular among farmers and farmers used them on significantly (p≤0.05) larger plots than with application of either sole organics or inorganic fertilizer. Farmers developed innovations that involved mixing of organic materials, which gave high yields possibly due to increased nutrients supply and other benefits associated with organic materials. The main benefits reported were increased crop yields and fodder (calliandra and leucaena) and this could have been a driving force to the adoption of the technologies. The major constraints were high labour demand and inadequate biomass and farmer tried to cope by preparing land early, applying materials without chopping and planting trees near the crop fields. Five factors were identified to significantly (p≤ 0.1) influence adoption. Age of household head and number of mature cattle negatively influenced adoption. Farm management category, ability to hire labour and number of months in a year households bought food for the family positively influenced adoption. The odds in favour of adoption increase by a factor of 0.9 for households hiring labour, while households buying food for more than three months in a year have an adoption probability of 25%. The implication of these results is that adoption of improved SFRT could be enhanced through targeting of young families where both spouses work on farm fulltime, food insecure households and farmers who lack access to other sources of soil improvement such as those without enough cattle to produce manure. This study has filled an important gap by providing a recommendation on some appropriate technologies for replenishing soil fertility by smallholder farmers in Meru South District. The role of cattle manure in increasing soil fertility parameters was well demonstrated and due to its easy accessibility in the region, it is likely to remain one of the key resources for managing soil fertility. It is therefore recommended that factors that seem to limit its performance especially on farms such as low quality be addressed. The study also showed how farmers test and manage new soil fertility management innovations to meet their livelihood objectives, and identified factors crucial for enhancing adoption of integrated SFRT. The government therefore needs to strengthen, expand and support long-term soil initiatives that aim at enhancing adoption of these technologies. Policies and institutional support should be focussed on enhancing willingness and ability of farm households to adopt the technologies while taking into consideration key factors that were identified to influence adoption in this study. Further research is recommended on the follwing areas: residual effects on soil of low and high quality organic resources, partitioning of N upon decomposition of these resources, tradeoffs of biomass banks on farms and their economic viability, diffusion and potential of up-scaling of integrated soil fertility management technologies in the area.Item Factors influencing level of participation of community forest associations in management forests in Kenya(Taylor & Francis Group, 2016) Musyokia, Josephine Kamene; Mugwe, Jayne; Mutundu, Kennedy; Muchiria, MbaeIn Kenya, a Participatory Forest Management (PFM) approach was adopted through formation of Community Forest Associations (CFA) to improve forest cover and their livelihoods as provided for in the Forest Act 2005. The main objective of this study was to determine the factors influencing the level of CFA members’ participation in PFM activities in selected forests in Kenya. The study was undertaken on the Ontukigo and Ngare Ndare CFAs involved in participatory management of the Ontulili and Ngare Ndare forests respectively, located in the Eastern Conservancy, Buuri Sub County (Meru County) in Kenya. Semi structured questionnaires were administered to randomly selected 80 CFA and 80 Non CFA members. Participatory Rural Appraisal tools, including focused group discussions and community wealth characterization, were used to collect qualitative data for precise description of the quantitative data. The level of participation of CFA members in PFM activities was positively and significantly influenced by the level of perceived PFM benefits (χ2 = 38.73, P=0.05); range of farm size (χ2=12.72, P=0.05); and nature of the head-of-household (χ2 =29.99, P=0.001). As such, benefits gained from the forest play an important role as incentives to community participation in PFM.Item Farmer groups' characteristics' influence on the selection of soil fertility enhancement technologies in Eastern Kenya(2015) Mwebia, Frashiah Wangeci; Mucheru-Muna, Monicah W.; Mugwe, JayneDeclining soil fertility is a key problem in East and Central African sub-region and in the Central highlands of Kenya, which is compounded by the ever growing population that depends on the decreasing land sizes. Despite development of good and effective soil fertility enhancement (SFE) technologies, uptake by the farmers has remained low. Farmers' groups approach is one of the methodologies used for dissemination of SFE technologies but understanding of how this approach influences uptake of the technologies is limited. This study assessed the influence of farmer groups' characteristics on the technology application and also the influence that farmers' participation, trainings and socio-economic characteristics have on the selection of the technologies. The study was carried out in Mbeere South and Maara sub-counties in Kenya. Interview schedules were administered to farmer groups and individual farmers. Descriptive (frequencies, means, frequencies, percentages) and inferential (correlation and regression) statistics were performed on the data collected using SPSS software. The results showed that several key variables influenced groups' application of animal manure. These include; group size (p=O.O 19), the number of females in the group (p=O.027) and reason for applying manure (p=O.O 15). Variables that influenced application of fertilizer include; reason for applying fertilizer (p=O.043) and Tropical livestock unit (p=O.025). Variables that influenced application of a combination of manure combined with inorganic fertilizer include; group age (p=O.008), reason for applying the combination (p=O.022) and group gender (p=O.056). Household variables that influenced selection of manure include; HH size (p=O.OOl), benefits of manure (p=O.OII), TLU (p=O.036), source of knowledge (p=O.023) and most effective teaching method (p=O.024). HH variables that influenced selection of fertilizer include; HHH education (p=O.033), land under food crops (p=O.012) and availability of on-farm income (p=O.OI2). HH variables that influenced the selection of a combined use of animal manure and inorganic include: HHH education (p=O.OOl), TLU (p=O.Oll) and availability of farm income (p=O.Oll). Among the total trainings (93.6%) that were conducted; 98.2% were soil " fertility related, 24.3% were group dynamic related while 39.4% were production related. There was a significant (p=O.043) relationship between trainings and selection of a combination of manure + fertilizer. There was a significant (p=O.039) relationship between farmer participation and selection of a combination of manure + fertilizer. The information obtained from this study will be helpful to the groups themselves, researchers, policy makers, farmers' training designers and other stakeholders wishing to disseminate technologies in natural resource management programmes.Item Impact of plant clinics on disease and pest management, tomato productivity and profitability in Malawi(Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International, 2018) Bett, Eric; Mugwe, Jayne; Nyalugwe, Nixon; Haraman, Erick; Williams, Frances; Tambo, Justice; Wood, Anna; Bundi, Maryomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is one of the most widely cultivated vegetable crops in Malawi and a crucial source of vitamins and mineral nutrition. However, tomato production has been more constrained by pests and diseases compared to other vegetable crops, resulting in low yields and returns among the smallholder farmers. The Plantwise programme, involving the use of plant clinics, is an innovative approach to solve plant health problems in developing countries. Farmers participating in plant clinics are expected to benefit in terms of changes in knowledge, and management of crop pest and diseases leading to improved livelihoods. However, few studies have been carried out to assess the impact of plant clinics on farmers’ enterprises. Impact assessment demonstrates and measures the outcomes of a given agricultural development initiative. This study therefore aimed to assess the impact of plant clinic activities in Malawi on tomato productivity. The AKAP sequence (Awareness, Knowledge, Adoption and Productivity) was used as a methodological framework to evaluate plant clinic impact among smallholders in Malawi. The data was collected from 738 households (279 users and 459 non-users of plant clinics) through household interviews using the open data kit (ODK) in August 2017 and subjected to data cleaning and transformation before analysis. The data was analysed using R, SPSS and STATA procedures. The study revealed that both local and external sources of crop pest and disease information were important in Malawi, an approach which has been advocated as effective in managing insect vectors and bacterial/fungal pathogens in smallholder vegetable farming systems, such as Malawi. The plant clinics were shown to increase farmer-seeking and intervention behaviour of specific and knowledge-intensive agronomic solutions, compared to non-users who relied on local and more general sources of pest and disease management information. Users of plant clinics also recorded higher patterns in recognition of pathogen disease symptoms than non-users. Plant clinic attendees recorded significantly higher knowledge levels of red spider mite (RSM) of 19% compared to non-users (17%). Plant clinics users demonstrated increased tomato yields and incomes in Malawi. Users of plant clinics increased yields by 20% compared to matched non-users. The gross margins for tomato farmers improved by 21% for users of plant clinics. The plant clinics in Malawi enhanced the awareness and knowledge of tomato pests and diseases, which improved adoption of interventions and tomato yields in Malawi. Thus, this approach should be promoted and scaled up to improve the Malawi tomato sector through farmer training, awareness creation and capacity building on pathogens, pests and their effective management.Item Integrated Soil Fertility Management in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evolving Paradigms Toward Integration(Springer Nature, 2019-05) Mugwe, Jayne; Ngetich, Felix; Otieno, Erick OduorItem Maize response to Tithonia diversifolia and rock phosphate application under two maize cropping systems in Kenya(F.a.C.T Ltd, 2014) Ahmat, Filbert L.; Mugwe, Jayne; Kimani, Stephen K.; Gweyi-Onyango, Joseph P.Objective: The experiment was conducted with the aim of investigating maize response to Tithonia diversifolia and Minjingu Rock phosphate (MPR) applied under maize-bean intercrop as compared to the traditional maize monocrop to improve maize grain yields. Methodology: The experiment was conducted in pots in a greenhouse for the duration of 8 weeks.. The trial was laid out in a split plot arrangement with three replicates. The main plots comprised of sole maize crop and maize-bean intercrop whereas the sub plots included the control (no input), Tithonia biomass applied alone, MPR also applied alone, TSP again applied alone and Tithonia biomass co-applied with MPR. Soil samplings were done at 4 and 8 weeks after planting and assessed for .P availability and soil labile P. Data was also taken on maize dry matter yield at 8 weeks. ANOVA was done using SAS (version 9.2) and means separated at 5% probability level using DMRT. Results: Maize-bean intercrop was effective in increasing PR solubilisation, P availability and shoot dry matter production. At the same level of P input from MPR, P availability under maize-bean intercrop increased above the ones under sole maize by 154.8% and 91.4% in the first and second samplings, respectively. The increase is thought to have been partly due to the effect of the rhizosphere acidification by bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) during the process of biologically nitrogen fixation. Implications: This farmers-practices matching and also environmentally-friendly low input approach enables farmers to boost production, cut down the cost of production and consequently increase the profit margin.Item The Potential of Organic and Inorganic Nutrient Sources in Sub-Saharan African Crop Farming Systems(INTECH, 2012) Ngetich, Felix K.; Shisanya, C.A.; Mugwe, Jayne; Mucheru-Muna, Monicah; Mugendi, DanielItem The Effects of Integrated Soil Fertility Management and Cropping Systems onSoil Water Content on Sorghum and Cowpea Production in Central Highlands of Kenya(Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems, 2024-09-07) Njeru, Peterson Newton; Mugwe, Jayne; Mucheru-Muna, Monicah; Kimani, StephenBackground: Soil fertility degradation remains the major biophysical cause of declining per capita crop production on smallholder farmers in Central Kenya highlands. The study was carried out for 3 consecutive seasons in Embu County classified as semi-arid lands in Kenya. Objectives: To determine the effect of Soil Water Harvesting (SWH), cropping systems and Integrated Soil Fertility Management technologies on sorghum and cowpea production in Mbeere South Sub-County, Kenya. Methodology: The treatments were arranged in a factorial structure with 3 levels of SWH, 2 cropping systems and 6 soil fertility management options laid out in a partially balanced incomplete block design. The SWC was measured after 2 weeks after planting interval stages in the whole season. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and significant means separated using Least Significant Difference (LSD) at 95% Confidence Interval. Results: There was a two way interactions effect between SWH*Fertility management options on sorghum grain yields was significant (p=0.0027, p=0.0008 and p=0.0057) during long rains (LR) of 2011 and 2012, and short rains (SR) of 2011, respectively. Additionally, SWH methods significantly affected sorghum grain yields in a similar trend (p=0.002, p=0.0005 and p=0.0003) in their respective seasons. In SR 2011 and LR 2012, soil fertility options also produced significant effects (p=0.0047 and p=0.0024) on cowpea grain yields, respectively. The results further indicated that there were significant higher SWC measurements at initial stages of 2 WAP, 4 WAP and 6 WAP intervals as compared to the late stages of the season. However, sole cropping systems had significantly more SWC measurement than those in intercropping systems in both seasons. Implications: Manure added treatments positively affected SWC conservation and this could be as a result of increased soil organic carbon which improved soil fertility. The available SWC played a great role in drought effect mitigation by availing moisture to sorghum and cowpea productivity especially when prolonged dry spells coincide with crop’s sensitive phenological growing stages. Conclusions: Water harvesting methods cropping systems and soil fertility management options had positive influence on soil moisture conservation and crop yields production in Central Kenya Highland.