Some of the most promising and at the same time some of the most challenging areas of future food production are found in the savannas of South America. Integrating cropping, livestock, and forestry in these regions can increase the eco-efficiency of agricultural production. This chapter presents a case study of an integrated crop, livestock, and forestry system in Brazil. The study area is in Goiás State in the Cerrado region, a vast savanna covering almost one quarter of Brazil's land area.
Global climate change and food security are complex and closely intertwined challenges. A key requirement for dealing with them successfully is that agriculture becomes more eco-efficient. As researchers work toward this goal, they must always ask, “Efficiency for whom?” Finding answers to this question requires that research be conducted from a systems perspective in a broadly participatory manner involving complex collaborative arrangements.
The objective of this chapter is to describe the processes and experiences of forming country project teams, partnership models and approaches to reach farmers in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. This will improve understanding of methods of setting up sustainable partnerships that exist beyond donor-funded projects
This chapter assesses the potential of farmer-to-farmer extension (F2FE) as a low-cost approach for promoting CSA. It is based on surveys of extension program managers and farmer-trainers in Cameroon, Kenya and Malawi who are involved in promoting a wide range of agricultural practices, including CSA. In the F2FE approach, extension programs provide education for farmer-trainers, who in turn educate other farmers, typically 17–37 per year. Extension program managers find this approach to be effective in boosting their ability to reach large numbers of farmers.
In this chapter, it is applied the CGPE model to analyzing the performance of policy processes with respect to the production of efficient policy choices. Within the CGPE approach participation of stakeholder organizations is modeled in two ways. First, as classical lobbying influence and second as informational influence within a model of political belief formation.
This chapter proposes a network-based framework to analyze and evaluate participatory and evidence-based policy processes. Four network based performance indicators are derived by incorporating a network model of political belief formation into a political bargaining model of the Baron–Grossmann–Helpman type. The application of our approach to the CAADP reform in Malawi delivers the following results: (i) beyond incentive problems, i.e.
Successful cases of innovation invariably demonstrate a range of partnerships, alliances and network-like arrangements that connect together knowledge users, knowledge producers and others involved in enabling innovation in the market, policy and civil society arenas. With this comes the realisation that public agricultural research needs to strengthen links to a wider set of players from the private and civil society sectors and, of course, farmers themselves. Public agricultural extension services have traditionally played the role of linking farmers to technology.
This book highlights the important links between agriculture and nutrition, both direct and indirect, both theoretical and practical. It explores these relationships through various frameworks, such as value chains, programmes and policies, as well as through diverse perspectives, such as gender. It assesses the impacts of various agricultural interventions and policies on nutrition and profiles the up-and-down journeys of countries such as Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, India, and Malawi in integrating nutrition into agricultural policies and programmes.
Hacia el fin de la primera década del siglo xxi se han producido en el mundo alimentos más que suficientes para alimentar a una población mundial de cerca de siete mil millones de habitantes. Sin embargo, en los países en desarrollo alrededor de una de cada seis personas todavía padece hambre crónica, lo cual plantea una situación tan terrible, que de ninguna manera puede aceptarse.
This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by showing how aspiration, education, and migration are variously connected to a loss of agroecological knowledges for rural young people. It reviews a series of case studies from Vietnam, India, and China on the implications for rural youth of changed aspirations and ecological and economic stress. The economic and cultural pressures of globalization mean young people increasingly aspire for a life outside of agrarian- and natural resource-based livelihoods.