Sintiku Aybar BBM - Maresha Plow

The main problem farmers face while cultivating vertisols (black soils) in the highlands of Ethiopia is temporary stagnation of water (waterlogging), which makes it difficult to grow crops. Most of the area is unavailable for farming due to waterlogging during July and August. Farmers normally wait until the rain  stops to plant chickpea in September. As a result, land productivity is low, farmers are not self‐sufficient in food, the soil is lost through erosion. Moreover, saturated soil conditions favor the production of methane, which has several times more potent than carbon dioxide as a green house gas. Methane is released when the soil dries out. So, the wetting and drying cycle experienced in highland vertisols causes a significant amount of methane release contributing to global warming.

The solution to this problem is the construction of Broad Bed and Furrows (BBF), at planting, such that  the crop grows on the bed while the excess water is drained through the furrows.

Aybar Engineering