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This is a presentation made during the tackling climate change in agriculture training in Zimbabwe. It talks about different concepts and technologies for sustainable use of water and soil.

This resource is a presentation of the activities for knowledge sharing at CCARDESA. The main emphasis is on the Southern African Agricultural Information System (SAAIKS). SAAIKS is a system which is developed by CCARDESA to facilitate regional sharing of information in Southern Africa. The system exists to complement other initiatives which include the CCARDESA website and social media platforms.

This is a presentation by TechFeed Botswana during a dry season management workshop. The presentation presents methods of managing livestock and pastures during dry season with emphasis on supplementary feeding.

This is presentation by Moagi Letso during the dry season workshop. The presentation focuses on fodder production for use during the dry season.

This is a presentation by DR KABELO SENYATSO  during the Dry Season Management workshop in gaborone. The presentation hignlights experiences from ongoing UNDP/GEF-funded projects in Botswana

This is a presentation by Prof C. M. Tsopito during the Dry season management workshop in Gaborone Botswana. The presentation covers definitions of dry season and management. It goes on to explain animal nutrition and health issues during drying season and explains in detail how to manage different challenges.

This is a presentation by Mr A. Mutaure during the Dry Season management workshop. It introduces farmers to budgeting, margin analysis, break even analysis and cash flow statements.

This brochure gives a short overview of the Maize lethal necrosis disease and provides the most important information on it.

A study was conducted to determine the influence of climate variability on livestock population dynamics in Kgalagadi district. Data on NAO, ENSO and SSTs indices were regressed and correlated against regional rainfall for kgalagadi region and livestock populations. Regional rainfall data was also related to livestock population dynamics. The results suggested that NAO, ENSO and SSTs were not good predictors of regional rainfall variability and livestock population dynamics (P > 0.05). The regional rainfall was highly variable and accounted for fluctuations on cattle and goat populations (P < 0.05) but not sheep population. Goat population appeared more sensitive to rainfall variability than other livestock species. Cattle death rate was also strongly influenced by rainfall variability whereas other livestock performance indicators were not significantly accounted for by rainfall variability. The results suggest that management need to be improved to buffer impact of climate variability on livestock population.

The eastern communal conservancies are situated along the western fringe of the Kalahari basin. Under a very short rainfall gradient, the vegetation abruptly changes from microphyllous Acacia-dominated savannas to mesophyll savannas, dominated by Terminalia sericea and Combretum spp. We hypothesise that this is caused by changes in soil moisture availability brought about by changes in soil texture from loamy soils to deep sands (the ‘inverse texture effect’). For this analysis, we used vegetation and soils data derived from a recognisance survey of the natural resources of the study area. As the sites in the soil and vegetation surveys did not overlap, it was decided to use only synoptic data for the plant associations in the analysis. Non-metric multidimesional scaling ordination was utilised as ordination technique of the vegetation data and various environmental parameters, including soil texture, soil hydraulic parameters, climatic and fire regime parameters, were overlaid as biplots onto the resulting graph, as were various plant functional attributes particularly related to climatic conditions. The main environmental gradient identified within the study area is the rainfall gradient. This relatively short gradient, however, does not explain the marked change in vegetation observed within the study area. This change is attributed to the change in soil type, in particular, the soil texture and the associated soil hydraulic parameters of the soil. This gradient is closely correlated to leaf size, explaining the change from microphyll savannas to mesophyll savannas along the change from loamy to sandy soils. One of the lesser understood mechanisms for the survival of these mesophyll plants on sandy soils seems to be a deep root system, which is actively involved in water redistribution within the soil profile – by hydraulic lift, inverse hydraulic lift and stem flow.