Options for Improving Smallholder Conservation Agriculture in Zambia

Experiences from Paraguay CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COTTON FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

Farmer Research Networks as a Strategy for Matching Diverse Options and Contexts in Smallholder Agriculture

The agricultural research and development institutions in most developing countries are poorly equipped to support the needs of millions of smallholder farmers that depend upon them. The research approaches taken by these systems explicitly or implicitly seek simple, one-size-fits-all solutions for problems and opportunities that are extremely diverse. Radical change is needed to facilitate the...

Factors Limiting Smallholder Cattle Commercialization in Zambia

INTRODUCTION: Rapid urbanization and population expansion, coupled with sustained income growth and the emergence of an urban African middle class are triggering an increase in the consumption of animal protein in developing countries. The sustained increase in the consumption of animal proteins creates a host of new development opportunities to synergistically link smallholder livestock produc...

Conservation Agriculture Improves Soil Quality, Crop Yield, and Incomes of Smallholder Farmers in North Western Ghana

Conservation agriculture (CA) practices are being widely promoted in many areas in sub-Saharan Africa to recuperate degraded soils and improve ecosystem services. This study examined the effects of three tillage practices [conventional moldboard plowing (CT), hand hoeing (MT) and no-tillage (NT)], and three cropping systems (continuous maize, soybean-maize annual rotation, and soybean/maize int...

The use of conservation agriculture by smallholder farmers in central and northern Mozambique , 2010 / 11

Agricultural productivity levels depend on the adoption of (improved) agricultural technologies, among other aspects. However, the use of improved technologies in Mozambique is still very limited. Data from the National Agricultural Survey of 2012, known as Inquérito Agrícola Integrado, show that less than 3% of smallholder farmers used inorganic fertilizers, 6% used pesticides, 9% used improve...