Y.G. Beletse

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation | CSIRO · Agriculture and Food

Ruminant red meat production systems around the world often include a grain feeding phase. The role of red meat in the food system is therefore often discussed in terms of the food vs feed debate, as well as invoking the comparatively poor feed conversion efficiency of ruminants and climate impacts from enteric methane. The concept of net protein c...

Modelling and multiple linear regression were used to explore the reason for low maize yield in the Atebubu-Amantin and West Mamprusi Districts of Ghana, West Africa. The study evaluated maize yields on twenty farms against measures of soil fertility, agronomic attributes and soil water availability. Correlations between yield, soil fertility, rain...

Agriculture in South Africa sustains about 70% of the region’s population for food, income and employment, playing an important role for food security and the local economy. The focus of the study was the commercial maize farms of the Free State Province given their importance in the National economy. The Regional Integrated Assessment (phase I) wa...

Productivity of non-heading Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa L. subsp. chinensis) was evaluated at Roodeplaat over two winter seasons (2012 and 2013). Agronomic factors considered were plant density, nitrogen level, irrigation frequency and planting date. Irrigating thrice or once a week with 50 kg N ha⁻¹ at 50 000 plants ha⁻¹ produced tall plants wi...

Amaranthus cruentus, Corchorus olitorius and Vigna unguiculata are traditional leafy vegetables with potential to improve nutritional security of vulnerable people. The promotion of these crops is partly hindered by the lack of agronomic information. The effect of plant spacing on growth, physiology and yield of these three leafy vegetables was eva...

The aim of this research is to examine the impact of climate change in maize farmers’ livelihood in Zambezi region, Namibia and benefit of adaptation. Trade-off analysis–multidimensional (TOA-MD) model was presented as a method for evaluation with a combination of simulated baseline production and future simulated yield using Decision Support Syste...

Promotion of taro, a neglected underutilised crop, as a possible future crop under water-limited conditions hinges on availability of information describing its yield responses to water. Therefore, AquaCrop was calibrated and validated for the first time for an eddoe type taro landrace from South Africa, using data from pot, field and rain shelter...

The aim of this study was to parameterize and test the generic crop model AquaCrop for a local bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc] landrace. Such a model should be water driven and assist in the promotion of neglected and underutilized species as possible future crops under water-limited conditions. AquaCrop was parameterized for a Sou...

Crop, climate and economic models coupled together are usually used to project future food production and assess the potential impact of climate change. In the last three decades, global climate circulation models (GCM), crop models and economic models have been used to assess the impacts of climate change on the production and prices of food crops...

Research trials that evaluated response of orange fleshed sweet potato to three irrigation treatments were carried out on a sandy loam soil under a rain shelter at ARC-Roodeplaat Vegetable and Ornamental Plant Institute, Republic of South Africa. The crops were irrigated using a sprinkler irrigation system in the summer season of 2008/09 and 2009/1...

No information is available on responses of South African taro landraces to water stress. The objective of this study was to evaluate the responses, and mechanisms thereof, of taro to water stress under controlled and field conditions. Taro landraces were collected from rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A pot trial was planted in tunnels...

Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is an underutilised crop in sub-Saharan Africa due to lack of agronomic research on it. There is no information describing water-use and drought tolerance of local taro landraces. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate growth, yield and water-use of three South African landraces of taro under v...

Bambara groundnut is a protein-rich legume, with food-security potential. Effects of irrigation levels and seed coat colour on growth, development, yield and water-use efficiency of local bambara groundnut landrace selections were evaluated under a rain shelter. Emergence was slow, although variation was indicated between landraces. Limited water a...

The worldwide agricultural sector faces the significant challenge of increasing production to provide food security for a population projected to rise to nine billion by mid-century, while protecting the environment and the sustainable functioning of ecosystems. This challenge is compounded by the need to adapt to climate change by taking advantage...

Historically, traditional cropping systems are based on diversification, thus making a significant contribution to food security for the household. Intercropping may offer farmers the opportunity to mimic this diversity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the productivity of a taro-bambara intercrop. The intercrop combinations were 1:1 and 1:2,...

AquaCrop is a crop model that simulates yield response to water developed by FAO and is appropriate to consider effects where water is the limiting factor for crop production. AquaCrop was calibrated for amaranthus (Amaranthus cruentus L. ex Arusha), a leafy vegetable, and taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott.), a wetland perennial, with an edible...

A simulation modelling exercise, followed by field trials was carried out to assess the suitability of sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) rich water obtained from dewatering for extraction of methane gas from coal beds in the Limpopo Province, Republic of South Africa. This water has a very high EC of 750 mS m−1, which according to FAO water quality guide...

The sustainability of irrigation with mine water was investigated on sites that offer a range of soils, crops, water qualities and weather conditions in the Republic of South Africa. Results indicate that neutralized acid mine drainage can be used successfully for irrigation of a large variety of crops. Gypsiferous waters do not seem to have any de...

Vegetable amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus), also called morogo or imifino in South Africa, is a fast growing, annual, green-colored, summer season plant. Two field trials were conducted at the ARC-Roodeplaat to determine optimum spacing, transplanting time and harvesting methods for Amaranthus cruentus. The first trial compared performance of seedlin...