New soil research improves water retention in Tanzanian agriculture.
Pedotransfer functions were used to estimate soil water holding capacity at Sokoine University of Agriculture Farm in Tanzania. Existing PTFs underestimated or overestimated moisture retention, so new equations were developed using soil texture and organic carbon data. The new PTFs showed that clay and organic carbon levels affect soil moisture retention at different levels of water potential. The locally derived PTFs improved the accuracy of predicting soil moisture retention compared to existing models.