The term agroecology refers to ecosystems. Ecosystems are characterised by aspects such as nutrient cycling, population regulation, energy flows and a dynamic equilibrium. These characteristics apply to natural ecosystems, and, in a much altered form, also to manmade or agricultural ecosystems. The magnitude of the differences between natural and agricultural ecosystems depends mainly on the hu...

This study focused on the income generating capacity of farm family’s own resources and examined the vulnerability to financial risk among the remote and peri-urban farming systems of Imo state. Primary data was collected using the farming and rural systems approach to randomly select and interview 120 households. Descriptive statistics and Mann whitney test were used in assessing between group...

Female farming systems draws attention to women’s (re)productive roles in agriculture, with particular attention to questions of power, equity, and empowerment. Female farming systems as an organizing concept highlights what was a surprisingly neglected field of study until the 1970s and provides insights into the gendered nature of agriculture. In the past and the present the term “farmer” pre...

The sustainability of breeding activities in 15 pig farming systems in five European countries was evaluated. One conventional and two differentiated systems per country were studied. The Conventional systems were the standard systems in their countries. The differentiated systems were of three categories: Adapted Conventional with focus on animal welfare, meat quality or environment (five syst...

Farming systems for pest control, based on the stimulo-deterrent diversionary strategy or push-pull system, have become an important target for sustainable intensification of food production. A prominent example is push-pull developed in sub-Saharan Africa using a combination of companion plants delivering semiochemicals, as plant secondary metabolites, for smallholder farming cereal production...

Rice-duck farming system is one of the means of organic rice farming, in which the weeds, diseases and insects could be effectively controlled with minimal or no pesticide and herbicide application. Whereas in conventional rice-duck farming system the controlling effect on diseases, insect pests and weeds was slowly disappeared after the rice heading stage at which ducks were driven out of the ...

Organic farming has become increasingly popular in the world. This is mostly attributed toescalating consumer concerns over the impacts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers on humanhealth as well as growing concerns over environmental pollution derived from modernagricultural practices, such as rising greenhouse gas emissions and water contaminations. Butdoes organic farming actually displace...

The debate on the relative benefits of conventional and organic farming systems has in recent time gained significant interest. So far, global agricultural development has focused on increased productivity rather than on a holistic natural resource management for food security. Thus, developing more sustainable farming practices on a large scale is of utmost importance. However, information con...