Soil-water conservation and rainwater harvesting strategies in the semi-arid Mzingwane Catchment, Limpopo Basin, Zimbabwe

Various soil water management practices have been developed and promoted for the semi and areas of Zimbabwe. These include a variety of infield crop management practices that range from primary and seconday tillage approaches for crop establishment and weed management through to land forming practices such as tied ridges and land fallowing. Tillage methods evaluated in this study include deep winter ploughing, no till tied ridges, modified tied ridges, clean and mulch ripping, and planting basins. Data collected from the various trials since the 1990s show that mulch ripping and other minimum tillage practices consistently increased soil water content and crop yields compared to traditional spring ploughing. Trial results also showed higher soil loss from conventionally ploughed plots compared to plots under different minimum tillage practices. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.