SPin (Soil Productivity in) Kenya: Measuring Soil Productivity of Small –Scale Farms, Understanding the Effects of Agroforestry in the Semi-Arid Drylands of Southeastern Kenya
Mentor 1
Dr. Mai Phillips
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
24-4-2015 10:30 AM
End Date
24-4-2015 11:45 AM
Description
SPin (Soil Productivity in) Kenya: Measuring Soil Productivity of Small –Scale Farms, Understanding the Effects of Agroforestry in the Semi-Arid Drylands of Southeastern Kenya Jennifer Blando, Jenna Williams, Angelica Sanchez, Andrew Mielcareck, Dr. Mai Phillips & Nicholas Syano University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA The goals of this project were to address severe water shortages and continual loss of vegetative cover leading to food insecurity and competition for scarce natural resources such as water and fuelwood while building long-term resilience of an indigenous dryland community using sustainable agroforestry systems in Maiuni Village, Makueni County District, Kenya. We assessed the adoption of agro-ecology practices under smallholder farming in the semi-arid environment of Mauini Village, measuring soil productivity within and between three experimental farms that contained Woodlots planted in 2008, 2010 and 2012 in order to to find both qualitative and quantitative evidence supporting the work being done on soil productivity in semi-arid regions. To fulfill the quantitative goals of this project the objectives of the project were: Objective: 1) Is there a difference between the moisture content of soil of three different ecosystems: i) non-planted fallow plot used as the control, ii) traditionally cultivated plot of maize & beans, iii) agroforestry plot. Objective: 2) Is there a difference between the moisture content of soil in agroforestry plots of different ages? To answer this question, the soil moisture content of agroforestry plots of 2-6 years were measured and compared. Objective: 3) Is there a difference between one dominant timber tree species sizes in different aged (2-6 years) agroforestry plots. This question was answered by taking the diameter at breast height (DBH) of 6 different tree species across different aged (2-6 years) agroforestry plots. Our results of the ANOVA analysis yielded no significant change in soil productivity between or within plots for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012. This finding leads us to believe that more time between plots is necessary before a significant change can be measured for this region and we would want to conduct further research with more soil samples across a greater breadth of years in order to validate this hypothesis. Our research found no significant difference between the moisture content of soil in agroforestry plots of different ages for the years we focused upon. There was a difference between one dominant timber tree species sizes in different aged (1-5 years) agroforestry plots.
SPin (Soil Productivity in) Kenya: Measuring Soil Productivity of Small –Scale Farms, Understanding the Effects of Agroforestry in the Semi-Arid Drylands of Southeastern Kenya
Union Wisconsin Room
SPin (Soil Productivity in) Kenya: Measuring Soil Productivity of Small –Scale Farms, Understanding the Effects of Agroforestry in the Semi-Arid Drylands of Southeastern Kenya Jennifer Blando, Jenna Williams, Angelica Sanchez, Andrew Mielcareck, Dr. Mai Phillips & Nicholas Syano University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA The goals of this project were to address severe water shortages and continual loss of vegetative cover leading to food insecurity and competition for scarce natural resources such as water and fuelwood while building long-term resilience of an indigenous dryland community using sustainable agroforestry systems in Maiuni Village, Makueni County District, Kenya. We assessed the adoption of agro-ecology practices under smallholder farming in the semi-arid environment of Mauini Village, measuring soil productivity within and between three experimental farms that contained Woodlots planted in 2008, 2010 and 2012 in order to to find both qualitative and quantitative evidence supporting the work being done on soil productivity in semi-arid regions. To fulfill the quantitative goals of this project the objectives of the project were: Objective: 1) Is there a difference between the moisture content of soil of three different ecosystems: i) non-planted fallow plot used as the control, ii) traditionally cultivated plot of maize & beans, iii) agroforestry plot. Objective: 2) Is there a difference between the moisture content of soil in agroforestry plots of different ages? To answer this question, the soil moisture content of agroforestry plots of 2-6 years were measured and compared. Objective: 3) Is there a difference between one dominant timber tree species sizes in different aged (2-6 years) agroforestry plots. This question was answered by taking the diameter at breast height (DBH) of 6 different tree species across different aged (2-6 years) agroforestry plots. Our results of the ANOVA analysis yielded no significant change in soil productivity between or within plots for the years 2008, 2010 and 2012. This finding leads us to believe that more time between plots is necessary before a significant change can be measured for this region and we would want to conduct further research with more soil samples across a greater breadth of years in order to validate this hypothesis. Our research found no significant difference between the moisture content of soil in agroforestry plots of different ages for the years we focused upon. There was a difference between one dominant timber tree species sizes in different aged (1-5 years) agroforestry plots.
