Abel K. Kaaya
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Soil Science, Faculty Member
Fra Institutt for jord- og fannfag. Rapport nr. 5/1997 (55). Faggruppe: Jordfag. Geografisk omrade: Tanzania.
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Fra Institutt for jord- og vannfag. Rapport nr. 7/96 (48). Faggruppe: jordfag. Oppdragsgiver: Institutt for jord- og vannfag, NLH.
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Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2019, Vol. 18(2): pp 88-98A GIS-based multi-criteria land evaluation (MCE) was performed in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania to avail decision makers and farmers with evidence based decision support... more
Tanzania Journal of Agricultural Sciences 2019, Vol. 18(2): pp 88-98A GIS-based multi-criteria land evaluation (MCE) was performed in Kilombero Valley, Tanzania to avail decision makers and farmers with evidence based decision support tool for improved and sustainable rice production. Kilombero valley has been identified by the government and investors for rice production intensification. Five most important criteria for rice production in the area were identified through literature search and discussion with local agronomists and lead farmers. The identified criteria were 1) soil properties, 2) surface water resources, 3) accessibility, 4) distance to markets, and 5) topography. Surveys, on-screen digitizations, reclassifications and overlays in GIS software were used to create spatial layers of the identified criteria. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to score the criteria using local extension staff and lead farmers as domain experts on a scale of 0.0 – 1.0. Surface water resource scored the highest weight (0.462) followed by soil chemical properties (0.234). Other criteria and their weight in paranthesis are soil physical properties (0.19), topography (0.052), accessibility (0.036), and distance to market (0.025). The MCE results showed that about 8% of the study area was classified as having low suitability for rice production while only 2% was highly suitable. The majority of the area (about 89%) was classified as having medium suitability for rice production. Since the suitability decision was dominated by the surface water resource criterion, the rice suitability in the study area can be greatly improved by improving the water resources management
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Fra Institutt for jord- og vannfag. Rapport nr. 7/96 (48). Faggruppe: jordfag. Oppdragsgiver: Institutt for jord- og vannfag, NLH.
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Research Interests: Climate Change, Climate variability, Agriculture, Energy Consumption, Ethiopia, and 15 moreLAOS, Katanga, Participatory, Burkina Faso, Key words, Agricultural Production, Extension service, Extension Services, Institutional, Energy Sources, Cowpea, Gender Disparity, Hermetic, Limpopo Province, and kmetijstvo
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Fra Institutt for jord- og fannfag. Rapport nr. 5/1997 (55). Faggruppe: Jordfag. Geografisk område: Tanzania.Combining air-photo interpretation and field investigations, a soil surey was carried out in the northern part of Morogoro... more
Fra Institutt for jord- og fannfag. Rapport nr. 5/1997 (55). Faggruppe: Jordfag. Geografisk område: Tanzania.Combining air-photo interpretation and field investigations, a soil surey was carried out in the northern part of Morogoro District, Tanzania. General environmental features of the area including geology, geomorphology, climate and vegetation are described. Thirteen mapping units and 12 soil profiles were described from two toposequences containing the most common soils of the area. The soils tall in the orders Vertisols, Lixisols, Cambisols, Leptosols, Luvisols and Acrisols great groups of the FAO-Unesco (1988) system. Parent material, relief and climate are major factors of soil development in the study area. Some genereal data on morphology and physico-chemical properties of the studied soil profiles are presented. The gently undulating to undulating plains have very deep, well drained slightly acid to strongly acid soils with relatively low CEC levels. Soils in river vall...
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A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers’ sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were... more
A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers’ sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were collected from the fields of 18 randomly selected major groundnut producing villages. The soils were analysed for various chemical and physical properties. Then focused group discussions as instruments of data collection were used to capture information on market availability for groundnuts. The simple limitation method was used to compute land suitability. The results showed that most (63.63%) of the soils were strongly acidic, with the mean pH of 4.95±0.35. The mean of CEC was 3.63±2.73 cmol / kg. There was a highly significant and positive relationship between pHCaCl2 and the concentration of Ca (r = 0.653, Original Research Article Chirwa et al.; IJPSS, 10(4): 1-18, 2016; Article no.IJPSS.25161 2 P = .000), Mg (r = 0.614, P = .000) and K (r = 0.651, P = .000). There was also a positive highly significant relationship between N and SOM (r = 0.487, P = .004). A positive and highly significant relationship between gender of the smallholder farmer and sale of groundnuts at markets of nearest towns (r = 0.202, P = .005) was observed. It was observed that 72.22% of the groundnuts producing areas of Chisamba District were marginally suitable (S3) for groundnut production. It was also observed that 68.75 % of the soils in the study area were marginally suitable for maize production. It was concluded that the major soil fertility limiting factors were soil acidity, low CEC, SOM, Ca, Mg, K and N. The major socio-economic limiting factor was the non-availability of stable markets.
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The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on... more
The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on groundnut production, use of inputs and cropping systems was conducted in Chisamba District, Zambia. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, 164 farmers from 20 villages within 11 agricultural camps in two agricultural blocks were randomly chosen for the study. Questionnaires were administered to only smallholder farmers who cultivated groundnuts. Results showed that the cropping systems used by smallholder farmers in Chisamba District were crop rotation (90%), mixed-intercropping (5%) and sole-cropping (5%). Groundnut production was mainly undertaken by female smallholder farmers (71%) on land averaging 1.68 ha. However, there was non-significant relationship between gender of the household head and adoption of cropping system (χ2 (2) = 1.726; p = 0...
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This work was part of the project on "Development of Soil Fertility Research Capability and Soil Sampling Protocols for Benchmark Soils in Tanzania"
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Fra Institutt for jord- og fannfag. Rapport nr. 5/1997 (55). Faggruppe: Jordfag. Geografisk omrade: Tanzania.
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Since the first documented soil survey in Tanzania by Milne (J Ecol 35:192–265, 1936), a number of other soil inventory exercises at different scales have been made. The main challenge has been the fragmented nature of the often outdated... more
Since the first documented soil survey in Tanzania by Milne (J Ecol 35:192–265, 1936), a number of other soil inventory exercises at different scales have been made. The main challenge has been the fragmented nature of the often outdated detailed soil maps and small-scale less-informative country-wide soil maps. Recent advances in information and computational technology have created vast potential to collect, map, harness, communicate and update soil information. These advances present favorable conditions to support the already popular shift from qualitative (conventional) to quantitative (digital) soil mapping (DSM). In this study, two decision tree machine learning algorithms, J48 and Random Forest (RF), were applied to digitally predict k-means numerically classified soil clusters to update a soil map produced in 1959. Predictors were derived from 1 arc SRTM digital elevation data and a 5 m RapidEye satellite image. J48 and RF predicted the soil units of the legacy maps with gr...
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The impact of the number of subcultures on the stability of yam genotype maintained in in vitro genebank was investigated. Six accessions of yam (Ala, Bagri Kogan, Kokoro, Sossou, and Tankpanou), belonging to the complex Dioscorea... more
The impact of the number of subcultures on the stability of yam genotype maintained in in vitro genebank was investigated. Six accessions of yam (Ala, Bagri Kogan, Kokoro, Sossou, and Tankpanou), belonging to the complex Dioscorea cayenensisrotundata were initiated on free-hormone MS medium and were micropropagated each four months during five subcultures. DNA was extracted both from mother plant and plantlets provided from the subcultures for each accession and was exhibited Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis using four selected primers to detect somaclonal variation. No phenotypic variation was observed during the fifth subcultures. From the RAPD analysis of both mother plants and in vitro plantlets, no significant variation of DNA profiles was observed with the highest of the coefficient of similarity (85% to 100%) for all accessions, thus ensuring the genetic stability of the plants and regeneration of true to type plants for at least five subcultures. Accepted: 22...
Fra Institutt for jord- og vannfag. Rapport nr. 5/1998 (67). Faggruppe: Jordfag. Geografisk omrade: Tanzania.
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Fra Institutt for jord- og vannfag. Rapport nr. 7/1998 (69). Faggruppe: jordfag. Geografisk omrade: Tanzania.
Research Interests:
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The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on... more
The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on groundnut production, use of inputs and cropping systems was conducted in Chisamba District, Zambia. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, 164 farmers from 20 villages within 11 agricultural camps in two agricultural blocks were randomly chosen for the study. Questionnaires were administered to only smallholder farmers who cultivated groundnuts. Results showed that the cropping systems used by smallholder farmers in Chisamba District were crop rotation (90%), mixed-intercropping (5%) and sole-cropping (5%). Groundnut production was mainly undertaken by female smallholder farmers (71%) on land averaging 1.68 ha. However, there was non-significant relationship between gender of the household head and adoption of cropping system (χ 2 (2) = 1.726; p = 0.414). Fifty-seven percent of the smallholder farmers perceived the groundnut variety Natal Common to be most suitable for the study area (χ 2 (4) = 9.745; p = 0.045). It was concluded that particular traits of varieties affected the perceptions and hence adoption decisions of smallholder farmers in Chisamba District.
Research Interests:
A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers' sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were... more
A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers' sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were collected from the fields of 18 randomly selected major groundnut producing villages. The soils were analysed for various chemical and physical properties. Then focused group discussions as instruments of data collection were used to capture information on market availability for groundnuts. The simple limitation method was used to compute land suitability. The results showed that most (63.63%) of the soils were strongly acidic, with the mean pH of 4.95±0.35. The mean of CEC was 3.63±2.73 cmol / kg. There was a highly significant and positive relationship between pH CaCl2 and the concentration of Ca (r = 0.653,
Research Interests:
A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers' sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were... more
A study was conducted to determine the soil fertility status and the suitability of land for the smallholder farmers' sustainable production of groundnut and maize in Chisamba District of Zambia. Composite soil samples (0 – 30 cm) were collected from the fields of 18 randomly selected major groundnut producing villages. The soils were analysed for various chemical and physical properties. Then focused group discussions as instruments of data collection were used to capture information on market availability for groundnuts. The simple limitation method was used to compute land suitability. The results showed that most (63.63%) of the soils were strongly acidic, with the mean pH of 4.95±0.35. The mean of CEC was 3.63±2.73 cmol / kg. There was a highly significant and positive relationship between pH CaCl2 and the concentration of Ca (r = 0.653,
Research Interests:
The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on... more
The inclusion of legume crops in cropping systems has been shown to improve soil fertility and productivity, but the adoption rate is low among many smallholder farmers. A study to determine the perceptions of the smallholder farmers on groundnut production, use of inputs and cropping systems was conducted in Chisamba District, Zambia. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, 164 farmers from 20 villages within 11 agricultural camps in two agricultural blocks were randomly chosen for the study. Questionnaires were administered to only smallholder farmers who cultivated groundnuts. Results showed that the cropping systems used by smallholder farmers in Chisamba District were crop rotation (90%), mixed-intercropping (5%) and sole-cropping (5%). Groundnut production was mainly undertaken by female smallholder farmers (71%) on land averaging 1.68 ha. However, there was non-significant relationship between gender of the household head and adoption of cropping system (χ 2 (2) = 1.726; p = 0.414). Fifty-seven percent of the smallholder farmers perceived the groundnut variety Natal Common to be most suitable for the study area (χ 2 (4) = 9.745; p = 0.045). It was concluded that particular traits of varieties affected the perceptions and hence adoption decisions of smallholder farmers in Chisamba District.