This study examines technical efficiency between Participatory & NonParticipatory farmers under Integrated Crop Management project (ICM) in the north-west region of Bangladesh. Sixty farmers of which 30 participatory & 30 nonparticipatory were selected following stratified random sampling technique from four villages under pirganj upazila in Thakurgaon district. ICM project participatory farmer...

Food security in the East African Highlands is dependent upon the productivity of lands managed by smallholders who face difficult challenges in maintaining the fertility of their soils. A study was conducted to identify indicators of soil fertility status that are consistent with farmers’ perceptions of soil fertility. Physical, chemical and biological properties of soils were measured from pa...

Technologies and management practices (TMPs) that reduce the application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer while maintaining crop yields can improve N use efficiency (NUE) and are important tools for meeting the dual challenges of increasing food production and reducing N pollution. However, because farmers operate to maximize their profits, incentives to implement TMPs are limited, and TMP implementa...

BACKGROUND Barley is the number one food crop in the highland parts of North Eastern Ethiopia produced by subsistence farmers grown as landraces. Information on the ethnobotany, food utilization and maintenance of barley landraces is valuable to design and plan germplasm conservation strategies as well as to improve food utilization of barley. METHODS A study, involving field visits and house...

Cassava (Munihor escuknra CrantE; Euphorbiaceae) is the only species in its genus that is cultivated as a food crop. In South America, where it originated. cassava was domesticated 2,0004,000 years B.c., yet only recently has it become distributed worldwide. The Portuguese began importing cassava into the Gulf of Guinea in Africa in the 16th century. In the 18th century, they introduced it to t...

Understanding indigenous knowledge of soils has come to be seen as essential in understanding the local realities of farmer and may be critical for the success or failure of agricultural development. However, little effort has been made to capture the indigenous knowledge of upland farmers in northern Laos where many projects are working to develop sustainable crop production systems as alterna...

This paper examines a participatory agriculture and nutrition program in northern Malawi that successfully improved child growth, crop diversity, food security through innovative educational strategies and sustainable agriculture. Malawi is a relevant case study, as a low-income country where the majority of people are rural smallholder farmers, and over the last decade the government has pursu...

The world population is estimated to be 9.2 billion in 2050. To sufficiently feed these people, the total food production will have to increase 60% 70%. Climate models predict that warmer temperatures and increases in the frequency and duration of drought during the present century will have negative impact on agricultural productivity. These new global challenges require a more complex integra...

Large scale application of chemical pesticides to reduce the crop losses caused by insect pests and diseases, valued at over US$250 billion annually, has not only led to serious environmental hazards, but has also resulted in development of resistance to pesticides in pest populations. It is in this context that crop varieties capable of resisting pest damage will play a vital role in reducing ...

Widely spread in the tropics, yams were introduced into Brazil during the colonial period and are currently grown throughout the country. Despite its importance as a pharmacological and food source, there is a lack of studies describing how and where this tuber is grown in Brazil. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the cultivation and distribution of Dioscorea alata in differen...