Browsing by Subject "Cereal crops"

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Climate on the edge: impacts and adaptation in Ethiopia’s agriculture
(2025) Feleke, Hirut Getachew; Amdie, Tesfaye Abebe; Rasche, Frank; Mersha, Sintayehu Yigrem; Brandt, Christian; Feleke, Hirut Getachew; School of Agriculture, Department of Plant Sciences, Ambo University, Ambo P.O. Box 19, Ethiopia; Amdie, Tesfaye Abebe; School of Plant and Horticultural Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa P.O. Box 5, Ethiopia;; Rasche, Frank; International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nairobi P.O. Box 30772-00100, Kenya;; Mersha, Sintayehu Yigrem; School of Animal and Range Sciences, Hawassa University, Hawassa P.O. Box 5, Ethiopia;; Brandt, Christian; Institute of Farm Management, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany;; Younos, Tamim; Lee, Juneseok; Parece, Tammy E.
Climate change poses a significant threat to Ethiopian agriculture, impacting both cereal and livestock production through rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, prolonged droughts, and increased pest and disease outbreaks. These challenges intensify food insecurity, particularly for smallholder farmers and pastoralists who rely on climate-sensitive agricultural systems. This systematic review aims to synthesize the impacts of climate change on Ethiopian agriculture, with a specific focus on cereal production and livestock feed quality, while exploring effective adaptation strategies that can support resilience in the sector. The review synthesizes 50 peer-reviewed publications (2020–2024) from the Climate Change Effects on Food Security project, which supports young African academics and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in addressing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Using PRISMA guidelines, the review assesses climate change impacts on major cereal crops and livestock feed in Ethiopia and explores adaptation strategies. Over the past 30 years, Ethiopia has experienced rising temperatures (0.3–0.66 °C), with future projections indicating increases of 0.6–0.8 °C per decade resulting in more frequent and severe droughts, floods, and landslides. These shifts have led to declining yields of wheat, maize, and barley, shrinking arable land, and deteriorating feed quality and water availability, severely affecting livestock health and productivity. The study identifies key on-the-ground adaptation strategies, including adjusted planting dates, crop diversification, drought-tolerant varieties, soil and water conservation, agroforestry, supplemental irrigation, and integrated fertilizer use. Livestock adaptations include improved breeding practices, fodder enhancement using legumes and local browse species, and seasonal climate forecasting. These results have significant practical implications: they offer a robust evidence base for policymakers, extension agents, and development practitioners to design and implement targeted, context-specific adaptation strategies. Moreover, the findings support the integration of climate resilience into national agricultural policies and food security planning. The Climate Change Effects on Food Security project’s role in generating scientific knowledge and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration is vital for building institutional and human capacity to confront climate challenges. Ultimately, this review contributes actionable insights for promoting sustainable, climate-resilient agriculture across Ethiopia.
Nitrogen improves the recovery of maize plants under repeated drought stress
(2022) Maywald, Niels Julian; Hernández‐Pridybailo, Andrés; Ludewig, Uwe
Background: Modern high-yielding crops, such as maize, are characterized by extensive yield stability across various environments and can cope with repetitive periods of moderate water shortage. However, there is conflicting evidence on how the nutritional status of the plants contributes to stress resilience and whether farmers have management options via nitrogen fertilization. Aims: We aimed at identifying factors relevant for improved growth recovery of maize after repeated water deficit stress (WDS). Methods: A pot experiment with maize and repeated WDS was conducted. Growth and recovery from stress and physiological parameters were measured. Results: The growth penalty of juvenile maize plants exposed to a moderate WDS was lost after additional exposure to a 2-week WDS. Primed plants transiently contained more osmolytes and performed superior in the second recovery phase when nitrogen fertilization was applied directly before the second WDS. Nitrogen fertilization did not affect the osmolyte quantity, and primed plants had transiently higher antioxidant levels, higher reactive oxygen species production and recovered more quickly with N addition. Conclusions: Pot experiments suggest that nitrogen fertilization may be an option to improve maize resilience to repeated WDS, a hypothesis that should be tested more rigorously in the field.