Abstract
Smallholder farming in southern African needs climate-smart agricultural approaches to adapt to current climate stress and climate variability, and increasing risk of these under future global climate change. There are a range of climate-smart systems that have been proposed and conservation agriculture (CA) based on minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotation is one of them. A CA trial established in 2007 in Malawi was used during cropping -seasons 2015–2016 (El Niño) and 2016–2017 (La Niña) to assess the performance and resistance of different CA maize systems under climate-related stress at anthesis, a climate sensitive growth stage. Large in-situ rainout shelters were used to simulate increased daytime temperatures and in-season droughts of 18–19 days and 27 days. CA systems better resisted climate stress around anthesis than conventional tillage practices as CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice. This was expressed by higher CA maize grain yields, biomass yields or harvest index under conditions of natural (El Niño) or 19 day simulated drought. However, under 27 day drought simulation the resistance benefit of CA was no-longer significant. Crop diversification improved the resistance of CA systems to climate stress, more so when diversification was over time (rotation) than in space (intercropping). In all years CA systems substantially outyielded conventional practice, this highlights the benefits of medium-term (eight years) CA management before the rainout shelter experiment started. Our results from natural and simulated drought conditions confirm that CA systems can increase adaptive capacity to an increased risk of climate stress associated with projected global climate change. We show that large-scale rainout shelters are a useful means of accelerating our understanding of how long-term agricultural management practices can enhance resistance to climate stresses.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
CA maize systems better resisted climate stress around anthesis than conventional tillage practices.
- Organ / stage
- anthesise2
- Treatment
- CA systemse3
- Outcome
- climate stress around anthesise3
- Direction
- better resistede3
- Comparator
- conventional tillage practicese3
- Setting
- Malawie1
Zea maysOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“A CA trial established in 2007 in Malawi”
e2“under climate-related stress at anthesis”
e3“CA systems better resisted climate stress around anthesis than conventional tillage practices as CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice”
Claim · model-written summary
CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice.
- Treatment
- CA systemse3
- Outcome
- resistance to droughte3
- Direction
- greatere3
- Comparator
- conventional practicee3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e3“CA systems better resisted climate stress around anthesis than conventional tillage practices as CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice”
Claim · model-written summary
Higher CA maize grain yields, biomass yields or harvest index under natural (El Niño) or 19-day simulated drought than under conventional practice.
- Treatment
- 19 day simulated droughte1
- Outcome
- grain yields, biomass yields or harvest indexe1
- Direction
- highere1
- Qualifier
- natural (El Niño)e1
- Comparator
- conventional practicee3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“higher CA maize grain yields, biomass yields or harvest index under conditions of natural (El Niño) or 19 day simulated drought”
e3“CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice”
Claim · model-written summary
Under the 27-day drought simulation the resistance benefit of CA was no longer significant.
- Treatment
- 27 day drought simulatione1
- Outcome
- resistance benefit of CAe1
- Direction
- no_changeinferrede1
- Comparator
- conventional practicee2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“However, under 27 day drought simulation the resistance benefit of CA was no-longer significant”
e2“CA systems showed greater resistance to drought than conventional practice”
Claim · model-written summary
Crop diversification over time (rotation) improved resistance of CA systems to climate stress more than diversification in space (intercropping).
- Treatment
- rotatione1
- Outcome
- resistance of CA systems to climate stresse1
- Direction
- improvede1
- Comparator
- intercroppinge1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“Crop diversification improved the resistance of CA systems to climate stress, more so when diversification was over time (rotation) than in space (intercropping)”
Claim · model-written summary
In all years CA systems substantially outyielded conventional practice under medium-term CA management.
- Treatment
- medium-term (eight years) CA managemente1
- Outcome
- yielde1
- Direction
- substantially outyieldede1
- Qualifier
- In all yearse1
- Comparator
- conventional practicee1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“In all years CA systems substantially outyielded conventional practice, this highlights the benefits of medium-term (eight years) CA management”
Claim · model-written summary
CA systems can increase adaptive capacity to the increased risk of climate stress under projected climate change.
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“Our results from natural and simulated drought conditions confirm that CA systems can increase adaptive capacity”
Claim · model-written summary
Large-scale rainout shelters are a useful means of accelerating understanding of how long-term management enhances resistance to climate stress.
- Outcome
- large-scale rainout shelterse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“Conservation agriculture enhances resistance of maize to climate stress”
e1“We show that large-scale rainout shelters are a useful means of accelerating our understanding”
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