We assessed the interplay of artificial and natural selection in rice adaptation in low-input farming systems in West Africa. Using 20 morphological traits and 176 molecular markers, 182 farmer varieties of rice (Oryza spp.) from 6 West African countries were characterized. Principal component analysis showed that the four botanical groups (Oryza sativa ssp. indica, O. sativa ssp. japonica, O. ...

Cassava genetic transformation capacity is still mostly restricted to advanced laboratories in the USA, Europe and China; and its implementation and maintenance in African laboratories has remained scarce. The impact of transgenic technologies for genetic improvement of cassava will depend largely on the transfer of such capabilities to researchers in Africa, where cassava has an important soci...

The US regulations for production of organic milk include a strict prohibition against the use of antimicrobials and other synthetic substances. The effect of these regulations on dairy animal health has not been previously reported. The objective of this study was to characterize disease detection and identify risk factors for selected diseases on organic (ORG) and similarly sized conventional...

in this  cross sectional s tudy carried out in s pring and s ummer, 79 farmers  working  in different  job  pos itions including agriculture, hus bandry and horticulture in north of iran were participa ted. evaluation of the heat s tres s was conducted us ing wet bulb glob temperature (wbgt) index according iso7243 and heat s train evaluation us ing  meas uring  the  individual  phys iological ...

the purpose of this study was to survey impacts of drought on socio-economic conditions of guilan paddy farmers. besides recognizing these impacts, it ranked them according to the viewpoint of the paddy farmers. it was of the descriptive- correlation type. questionnaire was the main tool of this study. to determine the validity of questionnaire used of comments of panel experts and reliability ...

This research sought to link Andean soil knowledge and farmer categorization of soil fertility to soil science characterization of soils, and use these to understand the impacts of phosphorus (P) fertilization of legumes using rock phosphate and soluble P fertilizer in 17 smallholder-managed sites with varying soil properties. We found that farmer high/low categorization of soils corresponded t...

(eds M.C.S. Wopereis et al.) 355 and innovation, and ways to build upon these processes or to integrate them with scientific technology development. Farmer technologies, such as farmer varieties, are the result of long innovation trajectories. These trajectories are shaped by interactions among agroecological, socio-economic and cultural factors and it is therefore essential to understand such ...

This article discusses ethical issues raised by automation systems in animal farming. These systems automatically collect various kinds of information about an animal and allow the farmer to monitor it remotely. It is argued that the relationship between the farmer and the individual animal is becoming increasingly distant and impoverished. Although this may protect the animal from some negativ...

South African agriculture is comprised of mainly two categories of farmers -the subsistence farmers in the former homeland areas and the large-scale commercial (mainly white) farmers. This is in contrast with the situation in many other countries in the world where one would find a whole range of farm sizes, ranging from the very small or subsistence farmer to the very large farmer/agribusiness...

Wheat is an important food security crop in central Asia but frequently suffers severe damage and yield losses from insect pests, pathogens, and weeds. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development, a team of scientists from three U.S. land-grant universities in collaboration with the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas and local institutions i...