Our projects> Solution for increasing farm system resilience and carbon sinks on sandy soils

Solution for increasing farm system resilience and carbon sinks on sandy soils

Closed
Adaptation
Agriculture/fishery
Call 8
Kenya
Time consumed
 
Start: 01-Nov-19 End: 31-Oct-22
Lead Nordic partner
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Country of Lead Nordic partner
Sweden
Local partner(s)
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Enterprises (JKUATES), Nairobi, Kenya, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Nairobi, Kenya
Other partner(s)
SWRT SOLUTIONS LLC, Michigan, USA
NCF grant size
449,695
Total project cost
582,195
Methods
Sustainable agricultural practices
Country of implementation:
Kenya
Open in goole maps

Description

The project is based on demonstrating the utility of the Subsurface Water Retention Technology (SWRT) to increase farm system resilience, crop production and carbon accumulation in sandy soils. The technology involves the subsurface installation of impermeable water‐retaining membranes which disrupts large amounts of water and nutrients lost through natural deep percolation in sandy soils. With a life span of about 40 years, SWRT represents a...

Objective

The project has three main objective. The first objective is to demonstrate the importance of Subsurface Water Retention Technology (SWRT) in increasing farm system resilience, crop production and carbon accumulation in sandy soils. This will be done on 20 farms. The second objective is to attract the interest of farmers, financial institutions and entrepreneurs and raise their awareness on the installation and short-term return on...

Results

At the completion of the project, the project team achieved all the objectives. The innovation (SWRT) was demonstrated on 20 farms with maize, cowpea and kales for four seasons. The increased production ranged from 50 % to 72 % of the marketable crop part with increase in biomass doubling the quantity reached in plots without SWRT. The accumulation in biomass is a contributor to soil...
Sustainable Development Goals

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