Due to the increasing gap between input costs and the final prices they receive for their produce, Indian farmers have been increasingly affected by the current agrarian crisis. It is within this context that Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) - a farming method promising low to zero input costs - has been gaining momentum.
Poverty is prevalent in the small-farm sector of many developing countries. A large literature suggests that contract farming —a preharvest agreement between farmers and buyers— can facilitate smallholder market participation, improve household welfare, and promote rural development. These findings have influenced the development policy debate, but the external validity of the extant evidence is limited. Available studies typically focus on a single contract scheme or on a small geographical area in one country.
The globalisation of agrifood systems is a mega-trend with potentially profound nutritional implications. This paper describes various facets of this globalisation process and reviews studies on nutritional effects with a particular focus on developing countries. Results show that global trade and technological change in agriculture have substantially improved food security in recent decades, although intensified production systems have also contributed to environmental problems in some regions.
In eastern Zambia, population growth has reduced per-capita land availability to such an extent that traditional bush fallows can no longer be practiced, and low soil fertility is a major constraint to crop production. Improved fallows (IF) based on leguminous trees are a low cash-input agroforestry practice to restore soil fertility. The objective of the study reported here was to assess the adoption of IF by farmers who tested the technology, including the extent to which the technology is practiced relative to its potential scale.
This paper addresses how co-producing knowledge can assist local farmers in reshaping their territories into sustainable farming systems. We describe the emergence and consolidation of an agroforestry system in an Eastern Amazon forest frontier, unpacking the co-production of a new farming system over recent decades. Instead of assuming pre-defined categories (e.g., traditional/technical, local/external), the analysis focuses on interactions among knowledge holders and how multiple knowledge sources are intercalated.
1. Many coastal communities depend on ecosystems for goods and services that contribute to human well-being. As long-standing interactions between people and nature are modified by global environmental change, dynamic and diversified livelihood strategies that enable seasonal adaptation will be critical for vulnerable coastal communities. However, the success of such strategies depends on a range of poorly understood influences. 2.
Fish is a key source of income, food, and nutrition in Zambia, although unlike in the past, capture fisheries no longer meet the national demand for fish. Supply shortfalls created an opportunity to develop the aquaculture sector in Zambia, which is now one of the largest producers of farmed fish (Tilapia spp.) on the continent. In its present form, the aquaculture sector exhibits a dichotomy.
Undernutrition and low dietary diversity remain big problems in many developing countries. A large proportionof the people affected are smallholder farmers. Hence, it is often assumed that further diversifying small-farmproduction would be a good strategy to improve nutrition, but the evidence is mixed. We systematically reviewstudies that have analyzed associations between production diversity, dietary diversity, and nutrition insmallholder households and provide a meta-analysis of estimated effects.
Dans le cadre du développement durable et des innovations dans les systèmes agroalimentaires, les systèmes mixtes horticoles (vergers et maraîchage) visent à répondre aux enjeux actuels auxquels l’agriculture est confrontée, à savoir une diminution de la pollution des sols, une meilleure gestion des ressources (eau, énergies) et un enrichissement de la biodiversité, tout en continuant d’assurer des fonctions alimentaires. Ils combinent des productions à la fois diversifiées et relativement intensifiées, leur permettant de s’insérer en périphérie urbaine.
The objective of this paper is to explore the extent to which systems approaches to innovation are reflected in the crop protection literature and how such approaches are used. A systematic literature review is conducted to study the relation between crop protection and systems approaches to innovation in 107 publications. The analysis of the crop protection literature demonstrates that only a small fraction is systems-oriented as compared to the bulk of publications with a technology-oriented approach.