Food safety begins on the farms and farmers play a crucial role in producing healthy food. Several factors were investigated here including water quality, labor health, health facilities, packaging and storage, transportation, fertilizers and solid organic materials, and field sanitation to reach more comprehensive results. So, 380 farmers were selected from 77 villages of rural areas of Gonbad...

West Africa (WA) is among the most food insecure regions. Rapid human population growth and stagnating crop yields greatly contribute to this fact. Poor soil fertility, especially low plant available phosphorus (P) is constraining food production in the region. P-fertilizer use in WA is among the lowest in the world due to inaccessibility and high prices, often unaffordable to resource-poor sub...

This study used the C4.5 data mining algorithm to model farmers’ crop choice in two watersheds in Thailand. Previous attempts in the Integrated Water Resource Assessment and Management Project to model farmers’ crop choice produced large sets of decision rules. In order to produce simplified models of farmers’ crop choice, data mining operations were applied for each soil series in the study ar...

Agricultural production in the Koutiala region, southern Mali, is based on cash sources (cotton and groundnut), cereal sources (maize, sorghum, millet), and a store of wealth (livestock). In these low-input farming systems, crop production is seriously constrained by soil fertility decline. Research is being conducted in the region to investigate the potential of improved fallows planted to leg...

The health and wellbeing of future generations will depend on humankind's ability to deliver sufficient nutritious food to a world population in excess of 9 billion. Feeding this many people by 2050 will require science-based solutions that address sustainable agricultural productivity and enable healthful dietary patterns in a more globally equitable way. This topic was the focus of a multi-di...

Tef, Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter, is the most important cereal in Ethiopia. Tef is cultivated by more than five million small-scale farmers annually and constitutes the staple food for more than half of the population of 80 million. The crop is preferred by both farmers and consumers due to its beneficial traits associated with its agronomy and utilization. The genetic and phenotypic diversi...

The storage root crop cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the most important source of dietary calories in the tropics after rice and maize [1]. It plays a central role in food and economic security for small-holder farmers and holds unrealized potential as a cash and commodity crop. In Africa, cassava production is constrained by three major diseases: cassava mosaic disease (CMD), cassava brown str...

Smallholder farming systems form unique ecosystems that can protect beneficial soil biota and form an important source of useful genetic resources. They are characterized by high level of agricultural diversity mainly focused on meeting farmers' needs. Unfortunately, these systems often experience poor crop production mainly associated with poor planning and resource scarcity. Soil fertility is...

the purpose of this study is identify the most distinguishing factors of farmers' attitudes and behaviors regarding food security. the research method was survey and correlational research. the population was 25435 farmers of shush, shooshtar and dezful district. 379 farmers were selected based on the table of takman and morgan. finally, 237 questionnaires were collected. data collection w...

In situ conservation of crop genetic resources is an important complement to ex situ conservation, yet little is known about how small-scale farmers perceive diversity in their own fi elds. In this study, we investigated the role of farmers from a community in the Sierra Juárez, Oaxaca, Mexico, in managing Phaseolus bean diversity in their fi elds. We collected seeds from 287 plants in 10 fi el...