Characterization and productivity assessment of the farming systems in the Upper part of the Nile Basin

In Ambo University. Department of Biology. International Conference on Ecosystem Conservation and Sustainable Development (ECOCASD), Ambo University, Ethiopia, 10-12 February 2011. Theme: Natural Resources for Livelihood Enhancement. Book of abstracts. West Shoa, Ethiopia: Ambo UniversityThe Ethiopian part of the Nile basin is dominated by a mixed crop-livestock rainfed agriculture constrained by temporal and spatial variations in climate, relief, soil, and sever land degradation exacerbated by lack of appropriate technologies. The continued shrinking per capita agricultural land due to population growth and diminishing land quality challenges the livelihood of the communities. This entails multifaceted and targeted interventions. Testing and scaling up of interventions require a relatively uniform system, but the basin's potential and constraints for crop and livestock productivity is heterogeneous, necessitating the identification and mapping of homogenous units. Farming systems are often taken as important entry point for agricultural technologies scaling up. Based on secondary data on climate, soil, crop and livestock, and the master plan of the sub-basins, this study captured and mapped the major farming systems and subsystems. Two major systems, the mixed crop-livestock farming and the pastoral/agro-pastural have been identified. The former was sub grouped into the cereal based, coffee-tree crops complex and the onset root crops complex subsystems. The cereal based system was further classified into the single cropping, the double cropping and the shifting cultivation subsystems, each of which was subdivided based on the dominant crop. The current productivity of the major crops in each farming systems was analysed and found to be lower than not only their potential but also their national average. However, some selected soil, water and crop management technologies have shown substantial yield increase. Therefore, scaling up of proven technologies within a farming system can substantially enhance crop yield and improve livelihood