| Droughts have significant economic,environmental,and social impacts,both direct and indirect.It is a severe constraint to crop production in rain-fed semiarid and arid regions throughout the world.This study seeks to explore the possibility of transferring the application of biodegradable plastic film mulching(PFM)as drought mitigation technology to Ghana and the Sub-Saharan African countries.The PFM whose use have increased dramatically in the last 10 years throughout the world due to its remarkable improvement in grain crop yield and water use efficiency through conserving water,maintaining soil moisture,suppressing weeds,increasing temperature and improving cold tolerance.The study was done through field observations in dryland areas of China,namely Gansu and Xinjiang Provinces,and data collection in Ghana.With the view to comparing on climatic data,crops and farming systems,socio-economic parameters and conducting a cost-benefit analysis between the two countries to identify if possible the PFM technology's transferability and applicability.The study reveal that though Ghana and China have different climatic conditions,there are temperature overlaps leading to periodic similar conditions in certain months within the year especially between June to September.In this period,temperatures range between 23 oC and 32 o C,which also falls within the growing season for maize crop in the two countries.Similarly,precipitation showed that the northern part of Ghana,which was used for the study is far in excess of rainfall with a minimum of 900 mm per annum whiles the northwest of China has less than 400 mm.However,within the months from January to March and then November to December,both countries shared similar patterns and intensities in rainfall,to as low as from 3mm to 38 mm per month.The sunshine hour for all three regions of Ghana showed a sinusoidal trend with their high peaks of sunny hours from the beginning and ending of the year.Whiles dimming due to clouding from the months of July to September.This was converse with the two provinces in China i.e.Gansu and Xinjiang.Generally,the three climatic parameters namely temperature,precipitation and sunshine hours present similarities in conditions which should further be researched into to support opportunities for agricultural technology transfer between the two countries.Although the growing seasons between the two countries are different,the study identified overlaps in certain months of the year particularly,from May to August and the period of crops growth and development between 0 – 160 days e.g.the maize crop.The cost-benefit analysis conducted for three options of application methods of the plastic film mulching technology namely 1)mechanized 2)semi-mechanized and 3)manual showed increases in yield for each option.The results of the cost benefit analysis showed increasing in gross margin of USD146.25 for mechanized application,USD296.25 for semi-mechanized and USD356.25 for manual application per hectare of biodegradable plastic film mulching.The used a judgement system comprising a decision matrix and suitability profile of maize crop growth and development periods that was super imposed with key factors such as climatic conditions,cropping system and cost-benefit analysis to arrive at its conclusion.The study concludes that the PFM technology can be adopted in Ghana.This must be piloted through an agricultural extension system in addition to other agricultural management practices with the focus and emphasis on crop water use efficiency(WUE)in the dry seasons of Ghana. |
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