What is it about?
We monitored the water use for each of the two important species Cordia africana Lam. and Albizia coriaria Welw. ex Oliv. in situ on a daily basis using the sap flow meters installed onto stems of trees and took measurements with the heat ratio method over 18 months. A significant difference was detected in the responses of C. africana and A. coriaria to seasonal changes including the period of leaf shedding, which then led to the possibility of different water use strategies.
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Why is it important?
With the knowledge of determined water use patterns and their impacts, it would be possible to develop long-term management programs in agroforestry systems.
Perspectives
The information given in this publication is foundational and i hope the subsequent studies will build on these findings to create lasting solutions to household food insecurity among smallholder farmers. Farmers should be able to use fertilizer trees as cheap alternatives to inorganic fertilizers, integrate the right tree species in their crops and appropriately manage the tree component for sustainable productivity of agroforestry systems. Just be on a look out for the subsequent publications, more coming out soon.
Dr. Joel Buyinza
National Agricultural Research Organisation
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Contrasting water use patterns of two important agroforestry tree species in the Mt Elgon region of Uganda, Australian Forestry, January 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/00049158.2018.1547944.
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