Suchergebnisse

Chapter 1. Decades of cultivar development: a reconciliation of maize and bean breeding projects and their impacts on food, nutrition security, and income of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 2. From soil to fork: can sustainable intensification guarantee food security for smallholder farmers? -- Chapter 3. Sub-Sarahan Africa Smallholder Farmers Agricultural Productivity: Risks and Challenges -- Chapter 4. Integrated use of livestock manure and inorganic fertilizer for sustainable agricultural intensification on marginal soils in sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 5. In-field soil conservation practices and crop productivity in marginalized farming areas of Zimbabwe -- Chapter 6. Can organic soil fertility management sustain farming and increase food security among African smallholder farmers?- Chapter 7. Precision agriculture under arid environments: Prospects for African smallholder farmers -- Chapter 8. Challenges and opportunities for soil fertility and food security improvement in smallholder maize-tobacco production systems: A case study from Svosve area, Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe -- Chapter 9. On-farm research challenges for agronomic field trials in smallholder systems: A practical experience from Zanyokwe Irrigation Scheme, South Africa -- Chapter 10. Agricultural water resource governance for sustainable food production: Lessons from developing economies -- Chapter 11. Aquaculture and fisheries production in africa: highlighting potentials and benefits for food security -- Chapter 12. Medicinal plants: A perspective on their application in the African smallholder aquaculture farms -- Chapter 13. Application of Integrated Water Resources Management towards livelihood improvement: a case of smallholder farmers in Olushandja, Namibia -- Chapter 14. Climate Change Impacts on Food and Nutrition Security on Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa -- Chapter 15. Climate-smart agriculture: perspectives for subsistence crop farming in Namibia -- Chapter 16. Smallholder Farmers' Adaptation Strategies and Food security: Experiences from Zimbabwe -- Chapter 17. Building resilience to climate change by adopting conservation agriculture in the smallholder farming systems -- Chapter 18. Contribution of underutilised indigenous crops to enhanced food and nutrition security in the advent of climate change -- Chapter 19. Liquid gold: Harnessing the potential of digestate to enhance smallholder farmer food security and livelihood -- Chapter 20. Importance of Mushrooms for Food Security in Africa -- Chapter 21. Mushroom cultivation in Arid Namibia: Cultivation status, contribution to human health and future prospect -- Chapter 22. Can Women Own Land'? Land Inheritances Convolutions: Evidence from the Zimbabwean Resettlement Areas -- Chapter 23. The governance of aquaculture in Namibia as a vehicle for food security and economic growth -- Chapter 24. A decade of agronomic research impact on commercializing traditional homestead production of amadumbe in Umbumbulu kwaZulu Natal.

Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government's initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil. Therefore, this study examines the lack of interest among smallholder farmers to participate in establishing forest plantations, although they have a strong presence in the palm oil and rubber sectors. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among 12,895 smallholder farmers currently involved in palm oil, rubber and other tree-crop cultivation. The study found that this group has little knowledge and awareness of the forest plantation scheme available, and there is a prevailing perception that the establishment of forest plantations is not environment-friendly and leads to biodiversity loss. The poor economic return, small land holding, and poorly structured market and supply chain are perceived as the significant constraints faced that limit the interest among the target groups to participate in this sector. Any effort to reverse this trend and garner higher interest from the target group will necessarily require a new policy framework that boosts the economic outlook of forest plantations among smallholder farmers.

The 2021 UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) awakened the world to the critical need for food systems transformation. Several commitments were made during the summit, with the UN Secretary-General reiterating the need to support national mechanisms that develop and implement national pathways to 2030 that are inclusive and consistent with countries' climate commitments, building upon the national food systems dialogues. Much of the discussion in the post-summit era has mostly been high level and focused on how countries can be supported to transform pathways into strategies and to design and operationalise investment plans aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive food systems transformation. However, what has been missing in these discussions is what the envisaged transformation means for the smallholder farmer, and what it takes for smallholder farmers to embrace the transformative agenda and transition to more sustainable methods of production. In this article, reference is made to two of the Five Action Tracks, namely Action Track 3 (boost nature-based solutions) and Action Track 5 (build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses), whose central themes are anchored around resilience and sustainability. The paper discusses the underpinnings of nature-positive production systems and explores how these systems interface with smallholder farmers' circumstances and production goals, and how this might affect implementation of the envisaged practices at the farm level. The central argument in this article is that discussions around food systems transformation must include the smallholder farmers, their lived experiences, socio-economic circumstances, aspirations and production goals.

Legislation on plant breeders' rights – the Plant Breeders' Rights Act, 1976 (Act No. 15 of 1976) – currently is being reviewed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. This legislation provides for farmers' privilege, which is one of the exceptions to plant breeders' rights. It allows farmers to save seed of protected varieties for their own use. Farmers' privilege, and particularly its impact on smallholder farmers in developing countries, is a widely debated issue. During the public consultation process, several comments proposing amendments to the farmers' privilege provision were received from various stakeholders. However, no comments were received from the smallholder farmers who may be directly impacted by this provision. This pilot study was undertaken to assess the understanding of the farmers' privilege concept by smallholder farmers from the historically disadvantaged communities and their current practices with regard to seed saving. The results showed that the majority of the smallholder farmers were not aware of the existence of the legislation on plant breeders' rights and therefore do not understand the farmers' privilege concept and its implications. They also did not know whether the varieties they were using were protected by plant breeders' rights or not. Little information has been published on the impact of plant breeders' rights in South Africa in general. We hope that this study might inform policy decisions on matters related to plant breeders' rights and the farmers' privilege. ; http://www.sajs.co.za/ ; hb2015

Irregular rainfall pattern pose challenges to smallholder farmers in Ghana, especially, those in the Northern Region, who risk losing their major source of livelihood as a result of the devastating impacts of climate change. To ensure food and livelihood security, smallholder farmers adopt indigenous and modern soil and water conservation strategies. This study therefore examined the influencing factors of adaptation to irregular rainfall pattern and the challenges therein. A cross sectional data of 140 households from five (5) randomly selected districts in the Northern region of Ghana was used. Results of a Negative Binomial Regression showed that access to extension services and credit positively influenced the number of adaptation strategies to irregular rainfall pattern. Also, quantity harvested, gender and age negatively influenced the number of adaptation strategies adopted by a farmer. Consistently, lack of credit was the first major constraint to climate adaptation among the farmers. The study recommends that extension services, credit facilities as well as education of smallholder farmers should be intensified to promote adaptation to the rainfall patterns in the region. Also, government's effort is needed in developing irrigation facilities to aid smallholder farmers to offset the potential effects of climate change. Overall, this study provides suggestions to policy makers on how to improve climate adaptation in the region. Future studies should examine forms and effectiveness of climate change communication, since effective communication is imperative to the adoption of modern agricultural practices.

About seventy-seven percent of Zambia's citizens who are engaged in primary activity in the agriculture sector are poor (Economies, 2017). One of the ways in which the poverty levels can be reduced is by lessening constraints of access to finance in agriculture sector. The implications of the low access to credit in the agriculture sector is reduced productivity, high food insecurity and perpetual poverty particularly in Zambia's rural areas. Most of the studies conducted focused on identifying factors which limit participation in agriculture finance from the bank's perspective and not farmers. Therefore, this study sought to fill the gap and assess variables directly related to smallholder farmers access to finance. It further examines the dynamism of access to finance depending on location, gender and transport infrastructure. The data employed in the study was obtained from a survey conducted in 2013 by IAPRI and UNZA with a sample size of 1,231 households in six districts of Zambia. Agricultural credit for small holder farmers (SHFs) in rural areas is mostly provided in the form of cash or in kind through supply of inputs to these SHFs. This data was modeled based on the logistic regression. The results showed that 14.1% of the SHFs had access to finance. Among these farmers only 13% were female. In addition, secondary education, access to finance information, farm size, access to collateral and distance between the location of the farmer and the financial services, were significant factors in determining access to credit. A recommendation proposed to policy makers based on results presented include sensitization on various finance facilities available to rural farmers so that they are aware and can make necessary efforts to access the finance. Rural education is directly related to access to finance, therefore government should promote education for its citizens. Lack of collateral has been identified as a factor that gravely hinders access levels by most. Government should implement standardized policies that ensure availability of credit to farmers with little or no collateral. In conclusion, improved credit permeation in agriculture sector promotes sustainable and inclusive growth in Zambia and will eventually eradicate absolute poverty.

Plantation forests are perceived to be the supplementary source of wood material for the large wood products industry in Malaysia, amidst the steadily reducing supply from her natural forests. Despite the government's initiated plantation forests scheme, the participation of smallholder farmers has been limited. Smallholder farmers constitute the largest proportion of private farmers involved in all sectors of agricultural and plantation tree crop cultivation, including commodities such as rubber and palm oil. Therefore, this study examines the lack of interest among smallholder farmers to participate in establishing forest plantations, although they have a strong presence in the palm oil and rubber sectors. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted among 12,895 smallholder farmers currently involved in palm oil, rubber and other tree-crop cultivation. The study found that this group has little knowledge and awareness of the forest plantation scheme available, and there is a prevailing perception that the establishment of forest plantations is not environment-friendly and leads to biodiversity loss. The poor economic return, small land holding, and poorly structured market and supply chain are perceived as the significant constraints faced that limit the interest among the target groups to participate in this sector. Any effort to reverse this trend and garner higher interest from the target group will necessarily require a new policy framework that boosts the economic outlook of forest plantations among smallholder farmers.