Water conservation can be done through practices such as mulching, shading and cover cropping.
Water conservation can also be done by preparing seedbeds that reduce loss of moisture.
Sunken beds
Preparation of a sunken bed. Requirements.
A tape measure.
A panga or a slasher.
A jembe.
A shovel.
A rake.
Well decomposed manure or farmyard manure.
Procedure
Measure a plot of land such that it is 1 metre wide and any length that you may wish.
Clear the vegetation on the measured plot.
Dig out the top fertile soil and keep it aside.
Dig out the subsoil and heap it on the edges to make an embankment or dyke.
Mix the topsoil kept a side with some well rotten manure. For every one wheelbarrow of topsoil, add one wheelbarrow of manure.
Return the mixture in the trench leaving a depression of about 10 centimetres.
Water the seedbed to make the soil moist.
The sunken bed is now ready to be used as a seedbed.
NOTE
Sunken beds can also be used as nursery bed to raise young vegetables seedlings before transplanting then to the seedbed.
Several sunken beds can be made and a path of about 50cm wide left between adjacent beds for walking while taking care of your crops.
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