The present study aimed to assess the extent of knowledge and understanding of brucellosis in smallholder dairy farmers and identify practices at the farm and household level that might pose a risk for humans contracting brucellosis. Between February and June 2015 a cross-sectional study was conducted among smallholder farms (n = 420) in five districts of Punjab and two districts of Sindh provi...

Striga hermonthica (witchweed) is a parasitic weed that attacks and significantly reduces the yields of maize, sorghum, millet, and sugarcane throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Low cost management methods such as hand weeding, short crop rotations, trap cropping, or conventional biocontrol have not been effective. Likewise, Striga-tolerant or herbicide-resistant maize cultivars are higher yielding,...

Offa Local Government Area is one of the major sweet-potato growing areas of Nigeria. Sweet potato is grown mainly on smallholder farms and concentrated particularly in communities in Offa Local Government Area. This study randomly selected 90 small scale farmers purposively from 9 communities to investigate constraints to production, processing and marketing of sweet-potato. Data were collecte...

Proper use of climatic forecast information in planning and implementing agricultural activities is critical for the improvement of the wellbeing of smallholder farmers whose livelihoods depend on rain-fed agriculture. This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional design involving 12 focus group discussions and 255 household interviews to determine the extent to which smallholder farmers in...

The objective of this study was to determine the financial efficiency of health and pig management education intervention in reducing the incidence rate of porcine cysticercosis to smallholder pig farmers in Mbulu District, northern Tanzania. We used investment appraisal analytical method (a simple form of cost-benefit analysis) in an Excel spreadsheet model. Sensitivity analyses were also cond...

A dedicated investment in smallholder farmers to enable them to improve their land use and productivity is critical to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth in African countries. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (‘New Alliance’) focuses on public-private partnership (PPPs) with local investors and multinational corporations (MNCs) to produce food. However, this is unlikely to...

Information asymmetry has traditionally constrained smallholder farmers' access to markets. Past studies indicate that it inhibits adoption of modern technologies that have the capacity to enhance productivity of smallholder farms. Hence, farm productivity and agricultural transformation has been stifled, leaving smallholder famers in grinding poverty. Improved smallholder farmers' access to ma...

This study examines the impact of contract farming with Farmer Organizations on farmers’ income. Contract farming with farmer organizations is a smallholder farmer-inclusive contract farming system. Field surveys were conducted in August 2010 with 75 farmers (including 39 contract farmers) in Kampong Thom province, Cambodia. The analysis—i.e., using a treatment effects model—indicates that cont...

Agricultural economists have long debated the efficiency and viability of smallholder agriculture. While much research has shown that small farmers in developing regions are often more efficient than larger farmers, some have challenged the validity of that evidence, citing potential problems that come with farmers' selfreporting of land size. If smaller farmers systematically under-report the ...

Conservation agriculture (CA) is promoted as a cropping system that has potential to alleviate poor crop yields in smallholder farming while protecting the environment. It involves maintenance of permanent soil cover, diverse crop rotations and/or interactions; and minimum soil disturbance. CA is associated with crop residue management challenges due to low crop biomass yields and crop-livestoc...