Climate smart agriculture: Investigation of integrated Organic farming system as an adaptation option to climate change in Kunduchi, Tanzania

An experimental study was carried-out to investigate the performance of the African eggplant-Solanum aethiopicum in an Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) at the teaching and research experimental site of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture located at Kunduchi, CoAF, UDSM. The objective of the study was to generate knowledge on performance of the crop in IOFS. Parameters assessed were plant height, number of flowers, number of leaves, leaf turnover, leaf area, number of fruits, chlorophyll concentration, total plant biomass and crop yield. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replicates. Three treatments, namely, Tap water, Chicken manure+Fish wastewater, and Fish wastewater alone were used to irrigate the crop. The data collected were run through an ANOVA using InStat 3 programme and the significant differences among treatment means were computed using Student Newmann-Keul Test at p<0.05. Before initiating the experiment, soil sample from the study area was tested and found to have N=148.72 ppm, P=33.37 ppm, and K=144.34 ppm. By the end of the experiment, total N, P, and K were found to increase. Tap water irrigated soil had N=156.44 ppm, P=36.95 ppm and K=149.1 ppm, Chicken manure+Fish wastewater irrigated soil had N=175.24 ppm, P=42.569 ppm and K=152.18 ppm while Fish wastewater irrigated soil was found to have N=167.02 ppm, P=39.5 ppm and K=150.31 ppm. The performance of Solanum aethiopicum crop was found higher in plots irrigated with Fish wastewater, followed by plots irrigated with Chicken manure+Fish wastewater and lastly Tap water. Data on number of flowers (476), number of leaves (2122), leaf area (21.98 cm2), number of fruits (535), total plant biomass (1.23 ton/ha) and crop yield (4.293 ton/ha) were found to be higher in plots irrigated with Chicken manure+Fish wastewater than Tap water alone. Statistically, there was no significant difference (p>0.05) in plant height and total leaf chlorophyll concentration between crop grown in plots irrigated with Chicken manure+Fish wastewater and Fish wastewater. The highest number of leaf turnover (869) was found in the crop irrigated with Tap water. Soil Organic Matter and Soil Organic Carbon were higher 3.93% and 2.28% in plots irrigated with Chicken manure+Fish wastewater respectively and showed significant difference at p<0.05. The study revealed stunted growth of the crop irrigated with Tap water only. Based on these results, it is recommended that wastewater from Fish ponds in IOFS be use as irrigation water since it is also a good source of soil nutrients.