AN agricultural research information day was held at Picadilli’s restaurant in Middelburg recently.
Professor Nikolaus J. Kuhn from the faculty of natural sciences at the University of Basel in Switzerland gave a presentation on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones).
Presenting a case study performed in the Sneeuberg rangelands, Kuhn explained how UAVs, when paired with technological diagnostic programmes, can be used to monitor badland erosion in order to determine whether the badland is still growing in size or depth.
“Although other methods of field study can also be used to study erosion patterns, UAVs can shorten field mapping time while identifying soil degradation in surprisingly fine detail,” Kuhn shared.
Local researcher Lisa Hebbelman, currently working on her PhD with the University of the Witwatersrand, shared some insights on the effect of grasses on Karoo shrubs. According to Hebbelman’s findings, most Karoo shrubs do not flower in specific months or seasons as usually indicated by textbooks, but rather flower whenever they can. At the same time, seed production seems quite bad, but further research will have to be done to determine the factors causing this phenomenon.
Justin du Toit, researcher at the Grootfontein Agricultural College, gave some insights on the history of drought and rainfall patterns in the eastern Karoo, based on data recorded from 1888 to present day.
If rainfall continues to follow the pattern set over the past 130 years, the Karoo can expect at least moderate rainfall in the coming rain season. Du Toit did, however, warn that it would be wise to prepare for a more extreme world in general, since the Copernicus Climate Change Service, a programme of the European Union, calculated July 2019 to be the hottest month the world has experienced since record-keeping began.
Attendees went on a field trip to the agricultural college, where Du Toit gave a short talk on the ecological effect of Karoo fires.
“Grasses are, in general, super tolerant of fires, almost always resprouting afterwards,” Du Toit said, “while field studies have shown areas further west in the Karoo to be much more fire sensitive, with large areas of aloe and kokerboom entirely wiped out by fire, never to recover from the devastation.”
Du Toit also warned that the increase in fires in the Karoo is most probably linked to human activity, and that better fire preparedness needs to be cultivated among Karoo agricultural communities.
