The frequency and severity of uncertain rainfall and climate extremes are projected to increase across many parts of the world. Access to rainfall forecasting information becomes an essential and critical resource that smallholder farmers should use to take advantage of good rains and avoid its adverse effects. In many smallholder farming communities, the reliability and accuracy of the scientific information is questionable and therefore not adequately used to make informed farming decisions. Amidst this dilemma, smallholder farmers rely heavily on indigenous knowledge to comprehend rainfall patterns in their day-to-day and seasonal farming calendar. A study carried out among smallholder farmers in the Mt. Elgon region indicated that a large proportion of farmers used a wide range of indigenous indicators to predict rainfall patterns. The indicators used by farmers were largely celestial objects and/or animal/plant behaviour to forecast onset and cessation of rains. While this is true, the type of indicators used to forecast the rainfall patterns were site specific, made prediction over a short temporal scale (days to a few weeks) and did not provide adequate information on rainfall amount, intensity and distribution which are key parameters for making evidence-based farming decisions
Cette publication offre de nombreux exemples concrets détaillant différentes manières de réengager les jeunes dans le secteur agricole. Elle montre à quel point des programmes éducationnels sur mesure peuvent offrir aux jeunes les compétences et la perspicacité nécessaires pour se...
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security. To achieve...
This chapter tries to establish a connection between the low level of innovation and inventions in Africa and the absence of indigenous knowledge in teaching, learning and research across the continent. It starts by exploring the fundamental tenets of innovation...
This chapter demonstrates an experience of implementing an alternative approach, known as participatory communication with strong cultured-centered perspectives. A series of interactive extension or facilitation activities is described. The activities were aimed to conserve rare rice varieties and the unique...
This report provides a synthesis of all findings and information generated through a “stocktaking” process that involved a desk study of Prolinnova documents and evaluation reports, a questionnaire to 40 staff members of international organizations in agricultural research and development (ARD),...
