Global support for Conservation Agriculture (CA) as a pathway to Sustainable Intensification is strong. CA revolves around three principles: no-till (or minimal soil disturbance), soil cover, and crop rotation. The benefits arising from the ease of crop management, energy/cost/time savings, and soil and water conservation led to widespread adoption of CA, particularly on large farms in the Amer...

The taungya system was introduced to the West African sub-region with the aim of addressing land hunger for forest fringe communities. In Ghana, teak (Tectona grandis) was adopted as the main tree species for the taungya system. However, there is a perception that teak degrades the land and excludes undergrowth vegetation. The aims of this study were to identify the extent of the adoption of ag...

This paper reviews constraints to crop production, the status of technology development and future research needs of the smallholder farms in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe. ZIMBABWE'S agricultural industry consists of two major sectors; the large-scale commercial and the smallholder (communal) sectors. Prior to 1980 production from the communal sector was largely for subsistence requirements....

the study investigated the effects of communal crises on selected crops production among farmers in langtang north local government area of plateau state, nigeria. multi-stage sampling technique was adopted; four local government areas were selected in each of the local government selected, four villages affected by communal crises were selected purposively. in two of the villages selected, 24 ...

Farm to School (FTS) programs are increasingly popular as methods to teach students about food, nutrition, and agriculture by connecting students with the sources of the food that they eat. They may also provide opportunity for farmers seeking to diversify market channels. Food service buyers in FTS programs often choose to procure food for school meals directly from farmers. The distribution p...

Food security and economic welfare strongly depend on agricultural production, the loss of this production can be a serious challenge for food security and economic welfare. Agricultural production is also influenced by environmental and climatic factors so that the variations of climatic parameters can trigger extensive fluctuations in agricultural production. This study classifies climate cha...

make verbatim copies of this document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Abstract Agriculture places a heavy burden on the environment in the process of providing humanity with food and fibres. It is recognized that agriculture has positive externalities such as the environmental services and amenities that it provides, for examp...

Maize is widely grown in Africa including in drier areas where alternate crops will often perform better. Although maize will fail in drought years, it produces substantially higher yields than alternates, such as sorghum and millet, in wet years. Although people tend to select which crops to grow based on recent experience with crop harvests and prices, there is a widespread preference for mai...

This paper examines how changes in major elements of the U.S. federal crop insurance program affect the structure of the agricultural insurance industry. We model interactions between farmers, insurance agents and insurance companies. Marginal changes in government policy (premium subsidy rate, A&O subsidy rate, and loading factor) affect the insurance premium rate, agent compensation rates, ag...

In response to this, an Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) project titled “Farmer-based Adaptive Rodent Management, Extension and Research System in Cambodia” (referred to as the FARMERS project in this paper) has been trialing a physical method of rodent control called the Community Trap Barrier System or TBS (ACIAR 2001). TBS consists of a lure crop and trapping...