Author: Publisher: CIMMYT
ISBN: 9706481834
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 78
Book Description
Characterization of maize producing households in drought prone Regions of Eastern Africa
Author: Drought-tolerant Maize in East Africa
Author: Laura Anne PaulPublisher:
ISBN: 9781392473337
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Crop failure from drought has severe economic and welfare consequences for farmers, particularly in Eastern and Southern Africa. The vulnerability of households without resources exacerbates the consequences of crop failure. Improved crop varieties, such as Drought-Tolerant (DT) maize, can increase yield levels while decreasing yield variability. Yet farmers are slow to adopt DT maize varieties despite the potential for increased yield stability and income security. Chapter 1 introduces the research questions, focused on why DT adoption is low, Chapter 2 provides a literature review on maize, drought, and DT technologies, and Chapter 3 describes the data from On-Farm Trials, weather data, and household survey data. These set up the analysis in Chapter 4 of DT maize yield outcomes, and in Chapter 5 on the role of availability bias in adoption decisions. Chapter 6 concludes the dissertation, suggesting the limitations of DT maize as a solution to food insecurity in East Africa. In the first of two analytical chapters, Chapter 4 identifies the unconditional and stochastic advantages of the DT trait using high resolution climate data, while also demonstrating heterogeneity among farms. DT maize has a significant unconditional yield advantage over comparison varieties in the On-Farm Trials. Further, there is a stochastic benefit, or protective effect, to the DT trait: it is indeed a more resilient variety under drought conditions. The DT maize has an average yield gain of 10% over comparison varieties under normal rainfall levels, and that benefit increases to 12% in drought conditions. There is significant heterogeneity in returns from the DT maize seed technology--lower-productivity farms experience the weakest unconditional and stochastic benefits. Variation in realized advantages might reduce the large expected benefits from the DT maize technology. Chapter 5 analyzes the adoption of DT maize in the context of expectations of the stochastic and heterogeneous benefits to the technology. A farmer's adoption decision is based on subjective beliefs about the likelihood of drought and the crop response to drought stress. Farmers' expectations of drought likelihood depend on experience and on common cognitive biases. The adoption decision model gives insight into the limited uptake of DT maize due to the role of information and expectations. Detailed household survey data combined with high-resolution climate and yield data show that adoption patterns indicate only a limited comprehension of how the DT trait actually works. Additionally, cognitive biases, such as recency and salience bias, might encourage adoption of DT among farmers.
Potential Impact of Investments in Drought Tolerant Maize in Africa
Author: An Analysis of the Bottlenecks affecting the production and deployment of maize seed in eastern and southern Africa.
Author: Climate Change and Food Security
Author: David B. LobellPublisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048129524
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400
Book Description
Roughly a billion people around the world continue to live in state of chronic hunger and food insecurity. Unfortunately, efforts to improve their livelihoods must now unfold in the context of a rapidly changing climate, in which warming temperatures and changing rainfall regimes could threaten the basic productivity of the agricultural systems on which most of the world’s poor directly depend. But whether climate change represents a minor impediment or an existential threat to development is an area of substantial controversy, with different conclusions wrought from different methodologies and based on different data. This book aims to resolve some of the controversy by exploring and comparing the different methodologies and data that scientists use to understand climate’s effects on food security. In explains the nature of the climate threat, the ways in which crops and farmers might respond, and the potential role for public and private investment to help agriculture adapt to a warmer world. This broader understanding should prove useful to both scientists charged with quantifying climate threats, and policy-makers responsible for crucial decisions about how to respond. The book is especially suitable as a companion to an interdisciplinary undergraduate or graduate level class.
Lost Crops of Africa
Author: National Research CouncilPublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309176891
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
Scenes of starvation have drawn the world's attention to Africa's agricultural and environmental crisis. Some observers question whether this continent can ever hope to feed its growing population. Yet there is an overlooked food resource in sub-Saharan Africa that has vast potential: native food plants. When experts were asked to nominate African food plants for inclusion in a new book, a list of 30 species grew quickly to hundreds. All in all, Africa has more than 2,000 native grains and fruitsâ€""lost" species due for rediscovery and exploitation. This volume focuses on native cereals, including: African rice, reserved until recently as a luxury food for religious rituals. Finger millet, neglected internationally although it is a staple for millions. Fonio (acha), probably the oldest African cereal and sometimes called "hungry rice." Pearl millet, a widely used grain that still holds great untapped potential. Sorghum, with prospects for making the twenty-first century the "century of sorghum." Tef, in many ways ideal but only now enjoying budding commercial production. Other cultivated and wild grains. This readable and engaging book dispels myths, often based on Western bias, about the nutritional value, flavor, and yield of these African grains. Designed as a tool for economic development, the volume is organized with increasing levels of detail to meet the needs of both lay and professional readers. The authors present the available information on where and how each grain is grown, harvested, and processed, and they list its benefits and limitations as a food source. The authors describe "next steps" for increasing the use of each grain, outline research needs, and address issues in building commercial production. Sidebars cover such interesting points as the potential use of gene mapping and other "high-tech" agricultural techniques on these grains. This fact-filled volume will be of great interest to agricultural experts, entrepreneurs, researchers, and individuals concerned about restoring food production, environmental health, and economic opportunity in sub-Saharan Africa. Selection, Newbridge Garden Book Club
Crop Selection
Author: Pradeep KurukulasuriyaPublisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 29
Book Description
Abstract: This paper examines whether the choice of crops is affected by climate in Africa. Using a multinomial logit model, the paper regresses crop choice on climate, soils, and other factors. The model is estimated using a sample of more than 7,000 farmers across 11 countries in Africa. The study finds that crop choice is very climate sensitive. For example, farmers select sorghum and maize-millet in the cooler regions of Africa; maize-beans, maize-groundnut, and maize in moderately warm regions' and cowpea, cowpea-sorghum, and millet-groundnut in hot regions. Further, farmers choose sorghum, and millet-groundnut when conditions are dry; cowpea, cowpea-sorghum, maize-millet, and maize when medium wet; and maize-beans and maize-groundnut when wet. As temperatures warm, farmers will shift toward more heat tolerant crops. Depending on whether precipitation increases or decreases, farmers will also shift toward drought tolerant or water loving crops, respectively. There are several policy relevant conclusions to draw from this study. First, farmers will adapt to climate change by switching crops. Second, global warming impact studies cannot assume crop choice is exogenous. Third, this study only examines choices across current crops. Future farmers may well have more choices. There is an important role for agronomic research in developing new varieties more suited for higher temperatures. Future farmers may have even better adaptation alternatives with an expanded set of crop choices specifically targeted at higher temperatures.
Drought Stress in Maize (Zea mays L.)
Author: Muhammad AslamPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319254421
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 79
Book Description
This book focuses on early germination, one of maize germplasm most important strategies for adapting to drought-induced stress. Some genotypes have the ability to adapt by either reducing water losses or by increasing water uptake. Drought tolerance is also an adaptive strategy that enables crop plants to maintain their normal physiological processes and deliver higher economical yield despite drought stress. Several processes are involved in conferring drought tolerance in maize: the accumulation of osmolytes or antioxidants, plant growth regulators, stress proteins and water channel proteins, transcription factors and signal transduction pathways. Drought is one of the most detrimental forms of abiotic stress around the world and seriously limits the productivity of agricultural crops. Maize, one of the leading cereal crops in the world, is sensitive to drought stress. Maize harvests are affected by drought stress at different growth stages in different regions. Numerous events in the life of maize crops can be affected by drought stress: germination potential, seedling growth, seedling stand establishment, overall growth and development, pollen and silk development, anthesis silking interval, pollination, and embryo, endosperm and kernel development. Though every maize genotype has the ability to avoid or withstand drought stress, there is a concrete need to improve the level of adaptability to drought stress to address the global issue of food security. The most common biological strategies for improving drought stress resistance include screening available maize germplasm for drought tolerance, conventional breeding strategies, and marker-assisted and genomic-assisted breeding and development of transgenic maize. As a comprehensive understanding of the effects of drought stress, adaptive strategies and potential breeding tools is the prerequisite for any sound breeding plan, this brief addresses these aspects.
Maize
Author: Akbar HossainPublisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 1838802614
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 158
Book Description
Maize is a staple cereal after wheat and rice. It is an important source of carbohydrate, protein, iron, vitamin B and minerals for many poor people in the world. In developing countries maize is a major source of income in resource-poor farmers. As maize is used both as silage and as crop residue and the grains of maize are usually used for food, starch and oil extraction industrially, the demand for maize is rising day by day. Therefore, it is imperative for improvement of maize to meet the increasing demand. This book entitled "Maize - Production and Use" highlights the importance of maize and the improved management approaches for improving the productivity of maize in the era of changing climate.
Climate-smart Agriculture Sourcebook
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
ISBN: 9789251077207
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
"Climate-smart agriculture, forestry and fisheries (CSA), contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals. It integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) by jointly addressing food security and climate challenges. It is composed of three main pillars: sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; adapting and building resilience to climate change; reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible. The purpose of the sourcebook is to further elaborate the concept of CSA and demonstrate its potential, as well as limitations. It aims to help decision makers at a number of levels (including political administrators and natural resource managers) to understand the different options that are available for planning, policies and investments and the practices that are suitable for making different agricultural sectors, landscapes and food systems more climate-smart. This sourcebook is a reference tool for planners, practitioners and policy makers working in agriculture, forestry and fisheries at national and subnational levels." -- Back cover.