Author: Bal Ram Singh Publisher: Springer Nature ISBN: 3030375374 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 624
Book Description
This book discusses knowledge-based sustainable agro-ecological and natural resource management systems and best practices for sustained agricultural productivity and ecosystem resilience for better livelihoods under a changing climate. With a focus on agriculture in Africa, the book assesses innovative technologies for use on smallholder farms, and addresses some of the key Sustainable Development Goals to guide innovative responses and enhanced adaptation methods for coping with climate change. Contributions are based on 'Capacity Building for Managing Climate Change in Malawi' (CABMACC), a five-year program with an overall goal to improve livelihoods and food security through innovative responses and enhanced capacity of adaptation to climate change. Readers will discover more about sustainable crop production, climate smart agriculture, on-farm energy supply from biogas and the potential of soil carbon sequestration in crop-livestock systems.
Author: J. M. Powell Publisher: ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD) ISBN: 9290532912 Category : Agricultural ecology Languages : en Pages : 54
Book Description
Conference summary; Summary of plenary sessins; Opening session; Interactions between animals and plants; Interactions between animals and soils; Interactions between plant and soils; Nutrient cycling in mixed farming systems; Modelling nutrient cycles; Closing session; Summary of focus group sessions; Introduction; Animal-plant interactions; Animal-soil interacions; Socio-economic dimensions in nutrient cycling.
Author: A. H. Kassam Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 56
Book Description
This is a story about how FAO assisted groups of farmers in five farming communities in the moist savanna zone of South Western Burkina Faso to enhance their crop-livestock systems through Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices, including crop diversification, using an innovative farmer discovery process, to bring about agricultural intensification and improvement in livelihoods. FAO worked with a range of stakeholders including the farmers and their communities to create convergence and enable a farmer-based discovery process to experiment with a set of fundamentally new principles and elements in their farming practices for integrated crop-livestock production intensification. The positive outcomes offer a real promise and an opportunity for bringing about a large scale impact on agricultural productivity and livelihoods in the moist savanna zone West Africa. This publication describes the multi-stakeholder process which led the successful outcomes, and the opportunity for a greater change that now exists and should be harnessed for sustainable agriculture development, nationally and regionally.
Author: John A. Dixon Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org. ISBN: 9789251046272 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 424
Book Description
A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.
Author: Descheemaeker, Katrien Publisher: IWMI ISBN: 9290907029 Category : Livestock Languages : en Pages : 45
Book Description
Focusing on mixed crop-livestock farming systems of sub-Saharan Africa, this review brings together the available knowledge in the various components of the livestock and water sectors. Through an analysis of livestock-water interactions, promising strategies and interventions to improve Livestock Water Productivity are proposed. In the biophysical domain, the numerous interventions relate to feed, water and animal management. These are interlinked with interventions in the socio-political-economic domain. The paper identifies critical research and development gaps in terms of methodologies for quantifying water productivity and integrating different scales, and also in terms of institutions and policies.
Author: Laura Anne German Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1136493700 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 342
Book Description
This book documents a decade of research, methodological innovation, and lessons learned in an eco-regional research-for-development program operating in the eastern African highlands, the African Highlands Initiative (AHI). It does this through reflections of the protagonists themselves—AHI site teams and partners applying action research to development innovation as a means to enhance the impact of their research. The book summarizes the experiences of farmers, research and development workers and policy and decision-makers who have interacted within an innovation system with the common goal of implementing an integrated approach to natural resource management (NRM) in the humid highlands. This book demonstrates the crucial importance of "approach" in shaping the outcomes of research and development, and distils lessons learned on what works, where and why. It is enriched with examples and case studies from five benchmark sites in Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, whose variability provides the reader with an in-depth knowledge of the complexities of integrated NRM in agro-ecosystems that play an important role in the rural economy of the region. It is shown that the struggle to achieve sustainable agricultural development in challenging environments is a complex one, and can only be effectively achieved through combined efforts and commitment of individuals and institutions with complementary roles.
Author: Nin-Pratt, Alejandro Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst ISBN: 0896291820 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 158
Book Description
West and Central African nations face major obstacles to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty and hunger in half by 2015, not least among them the fragile state of their agriculture. Although most regional economies depend on agriculture for employment, national income, and export revenues, farm productivity tends to be low, owing to relatively little use of chemical fertilizers, improved seeds, and other modern technologies. Yield Gaps and Potential Agricultural Growth in West and Central Africa responds to this problem by identifying potential areas of growth in the agricultural and livestock sectors. Using data on the soil, water availability, and weather in different parts of West and Central Africa, the authors find significant gaps in different locations between the potential and actual yield of various agricultural products. They then use an economywide multimarket model to simulate the future economic effects of closing these yield gaps. In coastal nations, crops such as cassava, cereals, and yams have the greatest yield gaps, whereas, in the Sahel, livestock, rice, coarse grains and oilseeds (groundnuts) have more room for growth. Although identifying these yield gaps does not guarantee that they can be closed, it does provide a focus for development efforts in the region. The authors conclude, moreover, that if such efforts involve transnational cooperation in agricultural research, marketing, and other areas, they could produce significant benefits across West and Central Africa. This study's findings will be of interest to policymakers, researchers, and others concerned with African development.