Familiar mixed dairy sheep farm is the most widespread system in the Mediterranean basin, in Latin America and in developing countries (85%). There is a strong lack of technological adoption in packages of feeding and land use in small-scale farms. To increase competitiveness, it would be of great interest to deepen the knowledge of how innovation was selected, adopted, and spread. The objective of this research was to select strategic feeding and land use technologies in familiar mixed dairy sheep systems and later assess dairy sheep farms in Spain.
The potential beneficial and harmful social impacts generated by the introduction of novel technologies, in general, and those concerning nutrient recovery and the improvement of nutrient efficiency in agriculture, in particular, have received little attention, as shown in the literature. This study investigated the current social impacts of agricultural practices in Belgium, Germany and Spain, and the potential social impacts of novel technologies introduced in agriculture to reduce nutrient losses.
Coffee production is the main economic activity for smallholder farmers in Rwanda; it is also a major export crop. However, Rwandan coffee production has been facing structural changes with a significant decline in production. Considering the importance of the coffee sector to rural livelihoods and its potential role in export earnings, there is a need to ensure that small-scale coffee farmers efficiently use scarce resources in their production activities.
El objetivo central de esta tesis, es diagnosticar el rol del INTA Concordia en la participación de un proceso de desarrollo de la localidad de Los Charrúas, en el Departamento de Concordia, Entre Ríos, en diálogo con los actores de la comunidad.
La conférence sur « Agriculture écologique : atténuer le changement climatique, assurer la sécurité alimentaire et l’autonomie pour les sources de revenus ruraux en Afrique » s’est tenue à Addis – Abéba (Ethiopie) du 26 au 28 novembre 2008.
The Sanjiang Plain Wetlands Protection Project (SPWPP) supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), focuses on integrating conservation and development needs in the Sanjiang Plain, Heilongjiang Province of the People’s Republic of China. The project comprises 5 main components: watershed management, wetland nature reserve management, alternative livelihoods, education and capacity building and project management.
Swedish agricultural companies, especially small farms, are struggling to be profitable in difficult economic times. It is a challenge for Swedish farmers to compete with imported products on prices. The agricultural industry, however, supports the view that through business model innovation, farms can increase their competitive advantage. This paper identifies and describes some of the barriers Swedish small farms encounter when they consider business model innovation. A qualitative approach is used in the study. Agriculture business consultants were interviewed.
El Programa de Innovación Agropecuaria Local (PIAL) posee una amplia diseminación de acciones en cientos de fincas, buscando alternativas locales que le den solución a las necesidades de prácticas sostenibles con carácter agroecológico, para ello se hace necesario demostrar la efectividad económica del desarrollo a nivel de finca. Este artículo desarrolo un análisis de costo-beneficio que es una herramienta de toma de decisiones para desarrollar sistemáticamente información útil acerca de los efectos deseables e indispensables.
Improvements in the sustainability of agricultural production depend essentially on advances in the efficient use of nitrogen. Precision farming promises solutions in this respect. Variable rate technologies allow the right quantities of fertilizer to be applied at the right place. This helps to both maintain yields and avoid nitrogen losses. However, these technologies are still not widely adopted, especially in small-scale farming systems. Recent developments in sensing technologies, like drones or satellites, open up new opportunities for variable rate technologies.
Con el propósito de apoyar y facilitar el monitoreo y evaluación (M&E) de la producción integrada de alimentos y energía en Cuba, se diseñó BiomaSoft, un sistema informático para el M&E de la producción integrada de alimentos y energía en municipios cubanos. El objetivo del presente artículo es brindar una descripción de los principales aspectos en la implementación y el desarrollo de dicho sistema, para lo cual se describen textualmente sus casos de uso y se brindan los diagramas de clases del diseño específicos para cada uno.