In Africa’s drought-affected regions, a water system created in the United States is assisting in enhancing food production.
Due to increasingly severe droughts, it is particularly difficult to raise food in these drier regions of the continent.
The method, created by Michigan State University soil biophysics professor Alvin Smucker, uses plastic membranes that resemble translucent coverings.
They stop the soil from losing water and other beneficial elements when they are planted.
The method has so far been tested in Zimbabwe and the south-eastern Kenyan settlement of Ulilinzi, where the sandy soil makes it practically impossible to grow many crops.
Droughts exacerbate the problem. But local farmers now have new hope thanks to modern water retention technology.
Government financing for the study totaled millions of dollars, which was used to assemble all these devices and test them in Texas, Arizona, California, and Michigan.
One of the researchers overseeing the technology’s testing in Kenya is Shem Kuyah from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
He said that corn and cowpea farms served as the testing grounds for the membranes.
These membranes had been erected, and the farms that had them were more productive.
The framers who have been developing this technology claim their harvests have been good.
They are receiving vegetables that are unique to the area and cannot be found anyplace else.
One of the agencies overseeing testing in the sub-Saharan region is the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, where Sylvia Nyawira works as a researcher.
According to her, crop growth over a lengthy period of time could be aided by the retention technique.
She claimed that organic matter would accumulate in the soil if farmers kept their crop wastes there.
The yields we have been seeing in plots with the technology are therefore anticipated to be significantly greater even in five years.
Experts claim that in addition to increasing food production, the technique can also assist mitigate the consequences of climate change.
According to Kuyah, “when productivity rises, crops are able to fix carbon from the atmosphere into their biomass.” “You may lock it into the ground.”
However, the new water retention technique is expensive and labor-intensive.
The membranes can be purchased for up to $2,000 to cover one hectare of land.
Source: Michigan State University
