Soil Management for Optimized Productivity Under Rainfed Conditions in the Semi-Arid Tropics

The semi-arid tropics (SAT) are defined in the context of Troll’s (1965) vegetation zone delineation as the region within the tropics where the mean monthly rainfall exceeds mean potential evapotranspiration during 2 to 7 months of the year. Within this region the areas where this excess lasts for 2 to 4.5 months are characterized by thorn Savannah vegetation and those where it lasts for 4.5 to 7 months are characterized by dry Savannah; these are called the dry SAT and wet-dry SAT, respectively.