Domboshawa Training Centre Conservation Agriculture Long-term Trial
This experiment has been added by the GLTEN Curators using existing published sources.
- Local identifier
- DTC
- Years operational
- 2009—2019
- Objective
- To evaluate the long-term conservation agriculture systems to understand its effects on climate adaptation, productivity and sustainability over time.
- Description
- Part of a comparison trial. The research stations that hosted the experiments were this one Domboshawa Training Centre (DTC) in Zimbabwe, Henderson Research Station (HRS) and ; Monze Farmer Training Centre (MFTC), Msekera Research Station (MRS) in Zambia; Chitedze Research Station (CRS) in Malawi; and Sussundenga Research Station (SRS) in Mozambique.
- Data Access Statement
- Don't know
- Data license
- Don't know
- Data URL
- https://data.cimmyt.org/dataverse/cimmytdatadvn;jsessionid=55ee56c3d12f9821723e1dcf6954
- Data policy
- Don't know
- Organizations
- Domboshawa Training Centrefield partMAIZE CGIAR Research ProgramInternational Maize & Wheat Improvement Centreresearch organisation
- Person
- Dr Christian Thierfelderprincipal investigatorCIMMYT
Site: Domboshawa Training Centre (DTC) CIMMYT
- Local code
- DTC
- Location
- DombashaZimbabwe
- Geographic location
- -17.6091, 31.1377
- Elevation
- 1543 Metres
- Visits permitted?
- No
- Management
- Commercial medium maturing maize varieties are planted at each experimental site with different target plant populations according to the agro-ecological recommendations. Maize varieties changed every 3–5 years to keep track with genetic yield gain provided by the seed companies. This strategy follows farmer’s practice who also change varieties periodically. Legumes and non-leguminous varieties in all experiments were planted using local seed recommendations and plant populations. Mineral fertilizer was applied as both basal and top-dressing to the maize while weed control was achieved either through manual weeding or herbicide application.
- Soil type
- lixisol
- Soil description
- rhodic lixisol, sandy loam
Design period: Trial duration (2009—2019)
- Design Type
- Randomized complete block design
- Description
- The test crop maize (Zea mays L.) with different other leguminous and non-leguminous crops as rotations or intercropping under research.
- Number of replicates
- 4
- Crops
Crop Years grown maize sunflower legumes pigeon peas cow peas - Factor
- Factor name
- Factor levels
- tillage process
conventional tillage
direct seeding
basin planting
hand dibbler
direct seeding
with maize legume intercroppingdirect seeding
maize sunflower rotationdirect seeding
maize sunflower legume rotation
- Measurement
Variable Material Units Frequency Scale Comment yield trait Not specified
Related publications
- Short-term yield gains or long-term sustainability? – a synthesis of Conservation Agriculture long-term experiments in Southern Africa (2022) Thierfelder & Mhlanga Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment Vol 326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2021.107812 [In English]