In mixed crop-livestock farming systems, smallholder farmers face the challenge of insufficient dry season livestock feed whilst crop production is mainly constrained by poor soil fertility and erratic rains. Conservation agriculture (CA) which is premised on three main principles namely minimal soil disturbance, crop rotations and mulching is being promoted as a potential solution to declining soil productivity. However, farmers implementing CA in mixed crop-livestock systems are conflicted by the use of crop residues either as livestock feed or as mulch under crop production. A study was carried from 2012/13 to 2014/15 season in Murehwa, a subhumid region of Zimbabwe, to evaluate the effects of maize-legume cropping systems on forage, maize grain yield and gross margins. In this context, forage refers to the plant material/biomass harvested for livestock feeding. The cropping systems involved one conventional tillage practice with continuous sole maize (CT), four CA treatments consisting of continuous sole maize, maize-mucuna intercrop, maize-cowpea intercrop and maize-groundnut/soybean rotations. The experiment was replicated on eight farmers' fields with each farmer treated as a replicate. Maize-mucuna (4 134 kg ha(-1)) and maize-cowpea (3 999 kg ha(-1)) intercrop systems significantly increased forage yield compared to CA sole maize (3 646 kg ha(-1)) and CT sole maize (3 076 kg ha(-1)). Among the rotations, maize-soybean rotation system performed better than the maize-groundnut system with respect to forage yield and maize grain. Intercropping and sole cropping systems however showed no significant maize grain yield difference. The highest and lowest gross margins/ha were obtained from the maize-mucuna intercrop (US$1395) and maize-soybean rotation system (US$507), respectively. The study thus suggests that farmers can grow legumes as intercrops with maize without any loss in maize grain yield. Maize-mucuna intercropping was the best of the tested cropping systems with respect to forage yield and gross margins in mixed crop-livestock systems of Murehwa.
Socio-economic factors that influence the adoption of management practices and technologies by farmers have received wide attention in the adoption literature, but the effects of socio-psychological farmer features such as perceptions and motivations have been analysed to a lesser extent. Using farm household survey data from three regions in northern Ghana, this study explores farmers' motivations and perceived adoption impediments for three sustainable intensification practices (SIPs): improved maize varieties, cropping system strategies, and combined SIPs (i.e. improved maize and cropping system strategies), and the effect of motivational factors on decisions to adopt SIPs. First, explorative factor analysis (EFA) was used in identifying factors of motivations and impediments for adoption of SIPs. Then, a multinomial logit model was used to analyze the effect of socio-economic farm characteristics and motivational factors on farmers' decisions to adopt SIPs. EFA identified three motivational factors: personal satisfaction, eco-diversity and eco-efficiency, which differed in importance between the three regions. Across these regions, higher scores for aspects of personal satisfaction were associated with lower interest in improved maize varieties compared to cropping system strategies, while the opposite was true for eco-efficiency which was related to a stronger preference for improved maize varieties. Uncertainty, absence of social support, and resource constraints were identified as impediment factors. The logit model demonstrated that extension services seemed to support the use of improved maize varieties more than the implementation of cropping system strategies. We conclude that motivational factors significantly influence farmer adoption decisions regarding sustainable intensification practices and should be considered systematically in combination with socio-economic farm features and external drivers to inform on-farm innovation processes and supporting policies.
Potato is a major food staple in the tropical highlands of Africa. However, its production is constrained by seed-borne diseases, with bacteria wilt (BW) being the most devastating and difficult to manage. Currently, there is no single e remedy for the disease. This paper uses Means-End Chain analysis to assess the psychosocial factors associated with the management of BW in potato production. It focuses on smallholder farmers in Central and Rift Valley regions of Kenya. The paper finds BW management is characterized by use of several practices, majority of which are ineffective in controlling the disease. They are, however, used mainly to increase yield, hence income and profits, and to achieve the personal values or life goals farmers aspire for. The paper concludes that BW management in smallholder potato farms is driven by both economic incentives (i.e., higher incomes and profits) and psychosocial factors. It discusses the implications of these findings for policy and practice.
Care-farms are increasingly utilized as a means of providing care, support, and therapy for a wide range of different populations, enabling people to cultivate social, physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This study explores the impacts of a care-farm intervention for traumatically bereaved individuals, a population at high-risk of poor physical and psychological outcomes. The study examines how a care-farming model can enable and encourage participants to cultivate healthy and sustainable lifestyles. Following their participation in a care-farming intervention, bereaved parents, siblings, and spouses described significant pivots toward healthier eating, improved sleep outcomes, and increased physical activity. Our results indicate that care-farming may have potential to influence positive changes to health and health behaviors that last beyond the intervention period.
Changing climate patterns and increases in climate extremes pose new challenges to livelihoods of ethnic communities in the upland area in Thua Thien-Hue (TTH) province. Unpredictability and extreme events have had adverse effects on both farming and income of many ethnic minority households who are already more likely to be vulnerable due to socio-economic and cultural marginalization. Promoting household resilience to climate extremes has emerged as a key development priority for those living in this area. Using data from a household survey conducted in two upland districts of TTH province (Nam Dong and A Luoi), this study employed FAO's resilience framework to measure household climate change resilience of different ethnic groups and a Poison regression model to identify determinants of household adaptation. Results showed that ethnic minority households had relatively low resilience to climate change and variability with the resilience index only 0.428. Due to geographic isolation, agriculture-dependent ethnic minority households in A Luoi were least resilient to climate change. Results suggest that interventions aimed at promoting climate resilience for ethnic minority households should focus on increasing people's knowledge of climate change and associated impacts and risks; and improving household income, savings and strengthen household asset base. Almost all households in the study areas have adopted adaptation measures, such as adjusting the seasonal calendar for crop production; using local crop varieties; practicing mixed cropping; and mulching. Education level, climate change awareness and risk perception of the household head, household income source and ability to access credit were key elements of households' choice of adaptation strategies.
Public opinion is important for the success of a plant breeding practice. Currently, the relatively new practice of genomics-accelerated breeding is under development. From initial findings in research on consumer acceptance, it appears that people experience a strong link between genetic manipulation (GM) and genomics-accelerated breeding after hearing the name "genomics," leading to an unfavourable evaluation of genomics-accelerated breeding. There are indications that when genomics is presented with the purpose of enhancing food production, the negative link with GM is perceived more readily than when it is presented for other purposes. In the current article, we conduct experiments with the purpose of studying the transference of unfavourable attitudes from GM to genomics-accelerated breeding. The main focus is to investigate if this transfer is influenced by the presented purpose of plant breeding, resp. enhancing food or biofuel production. The results show that universally respondents use their attitudes towards GM to evaluate genomics. In a culture where GM is perceived as controversial (Ukraine), more favourable attitudes towards both practices result when presenting GM in relation to biofuel rather than to food.
Nitrogen fertilization has a significant environmental impact in Europe due to the problems of wide-spread pollution. This paper deals with a series of field experiments conducted in a semiarid region of Southeast Spain. Irrigated maize was grown under different N fertilizer rates: control as in no nitrogen applied (C; 0 kg N ha(-1)); conventional amount of nitrogen (Nc; 300 kg N ha(-1)); and theoretical optimum (No; 130 kg N ha(-1)) in a randomised block design with three replications. In 1999 and 2000, when 175 and 150 kg N ha(-1) were respectively applied to No treatment, no significant differences were found. With the Nc treatment, a grain yield of 17.6 Mg ha(-1) was obtained in 2001, being significantly higher than the yield obtained with the No treatment (15.8 Mg ha(-1)). This means that No rate was under the technical optimum, but both treatments were higher than C treatment (7.2 Mg ha(-1)). A fertilizer rate of 130 kg N ha(-1) was lower than necessary to obtain maximum yields, although the rate of 150 kg N ha(-1) did not show significant differences with regard to Nc treatment (300 kg ha(-1)) (2000). Studies about crop response to different N rates could be very useful for farmers. Regional Technology Transfer Centres are incorporating the results of these studies in a Decision Support System (DSS).
The use of ultrasounds for the extraction of extra-virgin olive oil is an emerging technology capable of improving both the efficiency of the process and the quality of the final product. However, this technology has not been introduced yet on the market mostly because of the uncertainty about consumers' acceptance. This study aimed to investigate consumers' preferences towards extra-virgin olive oil obtained through ultrasound-assisted extraction. For this purpose, a laboratory experiment was performed by combining sensory evaluation and experimental auction to elicit consumers' willingness-to-pay under different information scenarios. The results of the study suggested that extra-virgin olive oil extracted through ultrasounds may be, generally, accepted by consumers. Whilst, no empirical evidences emerged to support the hypothesis that consumers are also willing to pay a premium price for such innovative product.
Farmers growing desire for no shade cocoa system has reiterated the scepticism about the impact of research on farmers' adoption of cocoa Agroforestry. In this study, we assess farmers' perception about shade trees and how that influences their adoption of cocoa Agroforestry. Five cocoa growing communities in the Eastern Region of Ghana and 91 cocoa farmers were purposively sampled and interviewed. The result showed that the most desirable shade trees among the farmers were Spathodea campanulata, Terminalia superba, and Terminalia ivorensis while Alstonei boonei was the least desirable. About 87 % of farmers introduced shade trees at different stages of cocoa farm establishment while 13 % of farmers had existing trees at establishment. Farmers with less than 11 years farming experience and those with Senior High education kept the recommended number (15-18) of shade trees ha(-1). Most farmers related the importance of shade trees to the good growth of cocoa associated crops (37 %) and as source of fodder (31 %), while higher cocoa yield and low education on the importance of shade trees were major reasons farmers removed shade trees. In conclusion, collaboration between farmers and other stakeholders in the cocoa sector is essential in reversing the growing hunger for no shaded cocoa system. This collaboration must focus on educating farmers on the importance of shade trees, and by providing money and agro-inputs support to farmers as impetus for the adoption of cocoa Agroforestry in Ghana.
Innovation and implementation of new technology in farming is considered important to meet challenges for agriculture to increase sustainability and improve efficiency in production. Less emphasise has been on how the farmers experience the new technology. This paper responds to this gap and explores how Automatic Milking Systems (AMS) influence farmers' job satisfaction. The research questions are: Are there differences in the experienced level of job satisfaction between AMS farmers and farmers applying Conventional Milking Systems (CMS)? Which factors determine the level of job satisfaction in dairy farming? Do these factors vary on AMS farms compared to CMS farms? The empirical data is based on a survey to a sample of dairy farmers with AMS and CMS. The results show that the most important factors which influence job satisfaction positively are common for AMS and CMS; Increased income, new cowshed, there is a successor present, farmer wants to continue farming. Contrary, higher education and being a male reduces job satisfaction. Further, the results show that AMS farmers are more satisfied with their working day, their occupational safety and their working environment. Other factors which influence job satisfaction for dairy farmers are; Less paper work, working together, considering technological competence less important, being appreciated, considering economic competence less important, increasing milk quota, loneliness and health worries. However, these factors can to a varying degree be explained from an AMS/CMS perspective, even though they differ between the two technologies.
Brazil is one of the leading countries in production and exportation of grains. However, most grain production regions in Brazil do not have an adequate storage capacity, which result in losses for the grain supply chain. A possible solution to increase storage capacity is the adoption of on-farm silos. We used the Reasoned Action Approach as a framework to identify the impact of attitude, perceived norms, and perceived behavioral control on farmers' intention to adopt on-farm silos and to identify the most important beliefs underlying their intentions to adopt it. A survey was conducted with 170 farmers in Brazil. Data was analyzed by means of Partial-Least-Square Structural Equation Modeling and MIMIC models. Results showed that attitude was the main determinant of intention, followed by perceived behavioral control and injunctive norms. Results also showed that "Sell grains at higher price", "Have independence in relation to grain storage firms", and "Have control over grain classification" are the most important beliefs that drive attitude; "Bank" is the most important belief that drive perceived norm; and "Have easy access to silos", "Prioritize other investments", and "Need skilled workers" are the most important beliefs that drive perceived behavioral control. These results revealed important implications to design public and private interventions aimed to stimulate the adoption of on-farm silos.
The Royal Netherlands Society for Agricultural Sciences (Koninklijke Landbouwkundige Vereniging, KLV, founded in 1886) took the initiative to publish the Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science (NJAS) in 1953. In 2002, NJAS broadened its scope and was titled: NJAS–Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences. After 134 years, the general assembly of members decided to dissolve the Society in 2020. The end of the Society will not be the end of its journal. This paper presents a brief history of the Society and the journal, which exposes how the Society’s journal, originally strongly anchored in the plant sciences and agronomic research in the Netherlands, evolved towards an international journal with an increasingly strong interdisciplinary scope. The brief history signifies the crucial role of special issues as a collaborative endeavour and learning environment for making interdisciplinary approaches work.
For many centuries, the indigenous agricultural and cultural systems of the Serer people of Senegambia ensured soil fertility, crop rotation, tree preservation, mixed farming and herding, yielding one of the highest population densities in the pre-colonial Sahel. In the 20th century, as population grew, soil fertility declined and climate change produced regular droughts, Serer farming systems changed to creatively combine many indigenous techniques with some modern practices. The Serer hybrid farming system that emerged especially after the late 1960s is demonstrably more productive than modern or indigenous techniques practiced in pure form (Faye et al., 2020). Given the productivity of hybrid farming techniques, this article asks: Who adopts them? And under what circumstances? Building on years of participant observation supplemented with a survey of 742 Serer farmers, I tested several competing explanations from neo-liberal, feminist, and cultural ecological approaches to understand why and among whom hybrid farming occurs. Multiple regression analysis shows a strong relationship between cultural syncretism and hybrid farming. Farming techniques are not just a matter of isolated, individual choice, but also work through the social and cultural systems that support agriculture. The more these systems reflect established patterns of mixing cultural elements, borrowing from outside and blending into and transforming Serer tradition, the greater the likelihood that farmers will use hybrid techniques. These findings have implications both for agricultural sustainability and for recognizing the sociocultural embeddedness of seemingly individual choices.
Increasing demand for safe food in developing countries entails meeting stringent food safety requirements. Food retailers and regulatory bodies impose food safety measures related to production and handling of farm produce. For smallholders to remain competitive in such a system, institutional arrangements are necessary. We examine the role of producer organizations (POs) in influencing safe food production behaviours among farmers. Using data from 11 expert interviews and a quantitative survey involving 595 smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya, a propensity score matching estimation is employed to assess membership effects. We show that membership in POs positively and significantly influences smallholders' adoption of food safety measures related to milk storage and the milking area. We highlight the importance of social incentives in improving food safety adoption among farmers even when price incentives are absent. Our recommendation is that PO policies that alleviate barriers to food safety adoption among farmers will be helpful in scaling up adoption.
Innovation rests not only on discovery but also on cooperation and interactive learning. In agriculture, forestry and related sectors, multi-actor partnerships for 'co-innovation' occur in many forms, from international projects to informal 'actor configurations'. Common attributes are that they include actors with 'complementary forms of knowledge' who collaborate in an innovation process, engage with a 'larger periphery' of stakeholders in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) and are shaped by institutions. Using desk research and interviews, we reviewed, according to the Organisational Innovation Systems framework, the performance of 200 co-innovation partnerships from across Europe, selected for their involvement of various actors 'all along the process'. Many of the reviewed partnerships were composed of actors that had previously worked together and most interviewees believed that no relevant actors had been excluded. In almost all cases, project targets and objectives were co-designed to a great or some extent, and the mechanisms applied to foster knowledge sharing between partners were considered to be very effective. Great importance was attached to communication beyond the partnership, not simply for dissemination but also for dialogue, and most interviewees evaluated the communication/outreach performance of their partnership very highly. Most partnerships received external funding, most did not use innovation brokers during the proposal writing process and two thirds had access to information they needed. We discuss the implications of these findings and question whether the AKIS concept as currently interpreted by many policy makers can adequately account for the regional differences encountered by co-innovation partnerships across Europe.
Infectious diseases of food animals, such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD), pose severe impacts on animal trade, animal products and subsequently endanger global food security. FMD is endemic in many parts of the world and is associated with substantial economic losses, which require risk assessments, preparedness planning, and evaluation of the effectiveness of mitigation strategies that fit within a country's sociopolitical and socioeconomic constraints. Spatially-explicit stochastic simulation models (SESS) have become a common tool for estimating the spread and impact of FMD. SESS models incorporate uncertainty in the input and output parameters, heterogeneity in disease processes, and integrate geographic locations and spatial proximity of holdings that affect their relative exposure and transmission risk. An essential input to these models is locational data for holdings of animals and associated animal populations in each holding. Several efforts have been made to predict the location and population of livestock holdings or population density at different spatial resolutions. These methods or data cannot be used in developing countries because either the data is too coarse, or the inputs required for the methods are not available in resource-limited countries. As such, there is a need to adapt the practical and reliable existing methods to generate simulated datasets depicting the location and population of individual livestock holdings in developing countries for use in SESS models. We generated spatially-resolved simulated datasets for the location and population density of individual livestock holdings in Pakistan and Thailand. Firstly, we microsimulated and downscaled the census data to individual holdings based on statistical distributions. Second, geospatial probability surfaces were created based on a survey of expert veterinarians and empirical holding locations. Third, holdings were randomly placed on the probability surface based on a set of rules. These holdings were assigned population of livestock by joining downscaled data and random holdings. The combined dataset on the location and population of individual livestock holdings was, finally, used to generate the density of holdings. To our knowledge, this was the first attempt to estimate the locations and populations of individual livestock holdings in developing countries. These data pave the way for the application of SESS models in developing countries to understand the spread of FMD and evaluate mitigation strategies. The control of such an important animal disease would improve livestock health, improve economic gains for producers, and help alleviate poverty and hunger, which will complement efforts to attain the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Access to transport is essential for agrarian development in isolated rural areas. Over the last 20 years, most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have seen a dramatic change in farm-to-market transport following the introduction and spread of motorcycle taxis. So far, this has been a spontaneous and market-driven phenomenon. What kind of infrastructure development is needed to further support this local revolution in farm transport? Our study uses a technographic frame to describe and assess the socio-economic and technical impact of upgrading inter-village footpaths to render them usable by motorcycle taxis in off-road rural northern Liberia. We gathered pre-intervention baseline data and post-intervention impact data over a three-year period in villages benefitting from the intervention and in control villages. The quantitative data were supplemented with qualitative data gathered prior, during and after the intervention. We found that upgrading rural footpaths to motorcycle taxi-accessible tracks promotes market integration, improves access to education and health facilities, and creates jobs for rural youth, with few negative consequences. Since most motorised transport in deep rural areas takes place by motorcycle taxi in any case, track construction can complement or serve as an alternative to expensive feeder road improvement or construction.
One of the main challenges for modern agriculture is closing nutrient cycles better since nutrient deficits as well as nutrient surpluses can cause severe ecological issues. Current efforts to improve nutrient management are mainly focused on the farm level. However, closing nutrient cycles is not only a farm management issue, but also a policy issue. Here the farm should be considered in interaction with other scale levels: regional, national, and international. To develop effective policy interventions a thorough understanding of this complex system and the effects of the policy interventions is needed. The Nutrient Cycle Assessment Tool (NCAT) was developed as a tool to perform ex ante evaluations of policy interventions aimed at closing nutrient cycles in agriculture. To contribute to meaningful change, active involvement of stakeholders in applying the NCAT is essential. This article describes the design of the NCAT, and explains why and how complexity and joint learning, single and double loop learning, and systems thinking approaches are used as the key elements of the design. The NCAT focuses on facts and stimulates participants to postpone value judgements. A case study indicated that the tool provided stakeholders with clear insights in the potential effects of policy interventions. Applying the NCAT can lead to shared and enhanced understanding of the effects and consequences of an intervention among participating stakeholders, which is an important prerequisite when developing implementable and supported policy decisions. Observations and evaluation interviews indicate that this process stimulates cognitive learning as well as relational learning. By reflecting on the case study and the resulting insights, the scientific status of the results from using the NCAT is discussed, as well as its value for policy processes.
Villagers in southern Sumatra collect a number of NTFPs for cash income and subsistence as a supplement to cultivated crops. Deforestation restricts the availability of NTFPs. The aim of the study was, with point of departure in Jernang, to investigate the transition between collection and cultivation of NTFPs. A village survey encompassing 57 households involved in collection, cultivation and/or trade of Jernang in two villages with high NTFP collection was carried out. The study revealed that more than 20 species or species groups of NTFPs were collected, albeit many of them only occasionally and by few people. In addition to Jernang, tree legume pods (Parkia and Archidendron) were the most collected products. Collection of most NTFPs was gendered. Jernang was almost entirely collected by men, since it implies trekking in forest and climbing. Albeit Jernang collectors found that both quantity and income from collection had declined, very few considered to abandon collection. A combination of economic incentives, poor regulations, and psycho-cultural motives for collection and connectedness to forest lead to intensive harvest. The harvest was less intense for other reported NTFPs, which was explained by shorter harvest season, non-marketable products, bulkiness and poor storability. To compensate for declining wild resources, villagers had started cultivation of some NTFPs, primarily Jernang and legume trees. For Jernang, shortage of planting material and fear of theft of fruits were seen as the greatest barriers to cultivation. The study showed that decreased availability of wild NTFPs, high prices and lack of replacement species may lead to cultivation. Adoptability was restricted by both technical problems (e.g. propagules), competition with domesticated crops, and cultural habits. The study gives an insight into the process of domestication of NTFPs at the interface between collection and cultivation.
The capacity of farmers to adapt to changing environments is critical for sustainable, economically viable and resilient rural development. The Farmer Field School (FFS) was developed by FAO in the late 1980s to build farmers' knowledge and skills for adaptive management. The FFS was subsequently implemented in over 90 countries by a multitude of stakeholders. We conducted case studies in Malawi and Indonesia to answer contemporary questions about the FFS, regarding its relevance at field level, its position in the institutional environment, and its contribution to rural development. We show that the FFS remains relevant at field level, helping farmers to adapt their agricultural practices and livelihood situation to changing circumstances. Differences in institutional arrangements between the two countries highlight the importance of a coordinated support for the FFS. Long-term impacts were found at farmer and institutional level. This study provides insight into the FFS, regarding the causal factors of change, institutional factors, and the role in continued development. As an approach that empowers rural people, the FFS thus contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
