Project title:- Effect of small rain water harvesting structures on Survival and early growth

performance of some indigenous multipurpose trees/ shrubs in Northern Afar dry lands

Introduction

In-situ rain water harvesting, involves the use of methods that increase the amount of water
stored in the soil profile by trapping or holding the rain where it falls, and it involves small
movements of rainwater as surface runoff, in order to concentrate the water where it is required
(UNEP 1997). Water harvesting retains moisture in-situ, through structures that reduce runoff
from fields and hold water long enough to allow it to infiltrate. Improved in-field water
harvesting can increase the time required for crop moisture stress to set in and thus can result in
improved crop yields. Improved water harvesting may result in improved crop yields, food
security and livelihood among households. Water harvesting is nothing new but a revival of old
techniques that have received little attention since the modernisation of agriculture in the 1940s
(Rockström 2002). Water harvesting is believed to have originated from Iraq over
5000 years ago, where methods such as such as diversion of “Wadi” flow onto agricultural fields
were used (Hardan 1975; Hatibu and Mahoo 1999). This review will therefore evaluate current
in-field water harvesting practices in the smallholder farming areas located in the semi-arid
regions of Zimbabwe and other options that can be used for optimising in-field water harvesting
to improve the resilience against changing climate. The prolonged degradation of dry land areas
continues to affect the productivity and genetic diversity of forest, woodland and range land
resources. Exacerbated by the recurrent drought, the ultimate outcome of deforestation and
degradation of these resources may be desertification. Therefore, Sustainable conservation and
utilization of the remaining dry land vegetation resources and rehabilitation of those that have
already been degraded would provide economic, social and ecological benefits.

The most evident way to restore vegetative cover is to protect it from the causes of degradation
(Pohjonen and Pukkala 1990; Tekle 2001): mostly exploitation (harvesting and grazing) and
fires. Vegetation can spread naturally, even on bare lands, but the process is often slow.
Protection is not always easy as it has to be maintained carefully over a long period. In this case,
the process of rehabilitation can be accelerated through human intervention like plantation
of rapidly growing tree species (Jha and Singh, 1992; Sharma and Sunderraj, 2005). However,
Low moisture availability is a major stress for the establishment, survival and growth of woody
species in dry areas. Tree growing in these areas is almost impossible without some form of
water management() Therefore, techniques that ensure increased moisture availability,
reduced wind speed and evaporation should be used. Of the few options available, water
harvesting technology is currently the most economical means by which survival of
young seedlings can be enhanced (Hai, 1996). Rainwater harvesting is broadly defined as the
collection and concentration of runoff for productive purposes such as crop, fodder, pasture
or trees production, livestock and domestic water supply in arid and semi-arid regions (Fentaw
et al., 2002; Gould, 1999; Stott, 2001).

Rain water harvesting (RWH) devices may be useful in increasing water supply and facilitating
plant growth (Gupta, 1995; Prinz, 2001; Xiao-hui et al., 2005) and vegetation cover (Jia et
al., 2006; Singh et al., 2010) by improving infiltration rate and soil nutrients (Ludwig et al.,
2005; Liu et al., 2008; Vohland andBarry, 2009). After transplantation, rainwater harvesting can
be used to speed up tree establishment and deep root development, and to reduce the mortality
rate (Boers, 1994). According to Gatot (1999), water harvesting could increase crop productivity
and diversity, decrease soil erosion and rehabilitate degraded lands. Nevertheless, degree of
success of MCWH in soil improvement, plant growth and rehabilitation process can vary with
the environment depending on the rainfall, soils and shrub species. Bunch (2000) emphasized on
research need for MCWH conducive to specific agro climatic and socioeconomic environment.

Abaala wereda is located in the lowlands of the northern Afar, where pastoralism and agro-
pastoralism are the main land use systems and livestock is the main asset of the community. The
communities in these areas depend heavily on woody plants for multiple uses mainly for
medicine, food, forage, local construction, making of household implement, firewood and shade.
These days, however, some woody species in these areas have tended to disappear as natural
regeneration is disturbed by moisture stress and herbivory (Tsegaye et al., 2012)
Adequate information on the type of tree species adaptable to the hillside particularly
with respect to moisture stress and poor soil depth is not available. Knowledge of integrating
water harvesting with tree planting on hillsides is not well full-fledged though not new to the
area. Therefore, the existing hillside soil erosion and land degradation problems call for the
research task of identifying adaptable potential tree species through water harvesting under
the prevailing conditions of the study area. However, to ensure extension and conserving
genetic diversity, especially in areas where drought can be a very important environmental
factor which limit the increase of survival rate of transplanted seedlings; evaluating seedlings
responses to various degrees of water stress is the key to speed up forest restoration of
Argan. No specific information is available on the tolerance of seedlings to drought or on
variability of growth in the difficult conditions of their natural environment.

General objective

The main objective of the project is to find out the best combination of tree/shrub species and
small water harvesting structures with potential to rehabilitate degraded lands in northern Afar

Specific objectives

• To evaluate the performance of some indigenous tree/shrub species planted on degraded

land;

• To evaluate the impact of small water harvesting technologies on seedling growth and
survival of each species;

• To recommend the best combinations of methods for a better rehabilitation the degraded
areas in the study sites.
Materials and methods

Description of the Study area

The experiment is proposed to be conducted in Koneba and Abaala weredas, northern Afar arid
and semi arid lands. Both areas are characterized by bimodal type of rain fall with an average
rain fall of 450 mm to 1000 mm per annum and an altitude of 1,212 m. The vegetation in the
area is mainly grassland dominated by Eragrostis spp and Digitaria spp used grazing and shrubs
of Aloe vera, and Acacia spp. It is characterized by small farm sizes (averaging less than
1 ha) and low agricultural potential due to low and erratic rainfall and low arable land. The
site has high levels of poverty and serious environmental degradation, including declining
tree cover, serious soil erosion and declining soil fertility (Hijmans et al., 2005)

Plant material and growth conditions

Seeds of eight selected trees of Argania spinosa were collected from three geographical
origins; that is, Ait Melloul Argana and Ait Baha with ecological characterization (Bani-
Aameur and Zahidi, 2005; Zahidi et al., 2013). Before germination, fruit were kept in
cold for one month, and then scarified as described by BaniAameur and Alouani (1999)
before sowing (March 20 first season) in vats containing sand in a mini-greenhouse. After
emergence, seedlings were transplanted (May 20 first season) in pots containing 1/3 of
peat, 1/3 of sand and 1/3 of Argan loam and placed in open air at the Faculty of
Sciences, Agadir. Transplantation was done with five seedlings per pot reduced to two
seedlings per pot after two months of seedling growth. In early summer (June 6th first season),
seedlings were irrigated daily by five water regimes [1 field capacity (1 FC= 200 ml), 3/4 FC

(150 ml), 1/2 FC (100 ml), 1/4 FC (50 ml) and 0 FC (0 ml)].

Experimental design and treatments

The experiment was set up in March 2007. Sesbania sesban, Grevillia robusta, Eucalyptus
grandis, Gliricidia sepun and Casuaria equisitifolia were planted in different micro
catchments viz: sunken pits, micro-basins, v-shaped bunds, semi-circular bunds and a
control (where conventional planting hole was used) were laid down and replicated three
times in a split plot design. For each treatment, 8 seedlings of for each species were
planted. Therefore, a total of 120 seedlings for each species were planted in each treatment.
One shovel full of manure was added and mixed with the soil before filling back the
holes. The plots were fenced off to avoid browsing by animals, spot weeding and micro-
catchment maintenance was done after every 2 months during data collection.

The species will be selected depending on the Pastoralists/agro pastoralists preference in

the area and were randomly allocated to the various treatments by use of random numbers
derived from random number tables.

Construction of micro-catchments

The area for each micro-catchment was calculated, and then delineated on the ground
and cleared of vegetation. The planting pits were prepared as follows:
Sunken pits

The pits were dug 40 cm deep, with a top opening of 60 by 60 cm and gradually narrowing
towards the bottom, effectively forming a cone-shaped pit. The seedlings were then planted
below ground level. Top soil was filled back only to the level of the seedlings root collar, leaving
the plant in protected hole, with the root collar approximately 25 cm below ground level.

Micro-basins

The basins had a diameter of 30 cm and a depth of 20 cm (Fig. 1B).

V-shaped bunds

The V-shaped micro-catchments had a top opening of 1m and a height of 1m. The pit size
was 30 cm by 30 cm while the bund had a height of 20 cm with a base width of 20 cm and crest
width of 10 cm

Semi circular bunds

Semi-circular bunds were constructed with their tips along the contour. The heights of the
bunds decreased from the center to the tips. The semicircles were 30 cm in radius with
height of 40 cm; the bund had a base width of 20 cm and crest width of 10 cm. The planting
hole of the semi-circular bund was 20 cm by 20 cm (Fig. 1D).

Control pit

This consisted of pits with dimension of 40 by 40 by 40 cm. For the planting, virtually all the soil
removed

was filled back in to the planting hole, thus establishing the seedling at ground level.

3.2. Selection of tree species

It is known that there are a considerable number of species of indigenous origin whose
environmental requirements may match with the study area. However, the following five
indigenous tree species have been selected for assessment based on two environmental
requirements i.e. total annual rain fall and temperature. Basically the natural growing
zone of the species has been taken as a basic selection criterion. Careful attempts have
been made to reconcile the environmental requirements of the species with the conditions
of the testing site and all of them could qualify as multipurpose trees and shrubs with
relatively high tolerances to environmental stress. All the species can grow from the agro
ecological ranges of dry Woyna Dega to Wet Woyna Dega zone according to the
traditional (Ethiopian) agro ecological zone classification. Very strictly speaking the study
area is in the Dry Woyna Dega agro ecological zone that is characterized by annual
rainfall of less than 900mm and altitude range between 1500and 2300.

Based on the above mentioned selection criteria the following tree species are considered for
evaluation of their adaptability on the hillside:

Data collection

Parameters measured included; survival rate (%), height (cm) and root collar diameter
(cm). Measurements were taken at time of planting as well as the number of seedlings recorded
and subsequent data collected after every two months for nine months where all saplings
were systematically measured. All the surviving seedlings planted were counted and
considering survival is not always a clear-cut parameter; it was taken to refer to the
presence of living trees, even if it is not completely healthy (Wood et al., 1991). The
height (cm) was directly measured at the highest point above ground attained by the main stem
of the seedling (Wood et al., 1991) by use of a height stick. RCD (cm) was measured on
the stem at the point close to the ground level by use of a venier caliper.

Data analysis

Data was analyzed by use of GENSTAT 5.0 and the significant means were separated
using LSD at P ≤ 0.05.

Expected out put

Degraded hills reclaimed

Small rain water harvesting structures demonstrated

Bio diversity of the area improved