Countries of semi-arid West Africa are experiencing growing populations, expansion of cultivated land and intensification of crop and livestock production an ever-increasing burden on the region's limited natural resources, consequently increasing degradation rates. A broad range of technologies combating degradation currently exist. This paper presents and discusses both traditional techniques as well as modern techniques which are derived from the traditional ones.

Fulani herder and farmer relationships in West Africa have always been troublesome as a result of farmers’ fundamental rejection of the herders’ inroads into their areas and also because of increased competition for available resources. In countries such as Ghana, local and even national campaigns have been launched to expel the herders but they persist.

In the recent past there has been increasing recognition that local knowledge of farmers can yield insight into soil quality. With regard to constraints and possibilities for the production of irrigated rice in the south of Brazil there is no documentation on local soil knowledge. The goals of this study were to answer the following questions: (1) Which soil quality perceptions do rice farmers have? (2) Which soil quality indicators are most important to them?

This paper evaluates, using logistic and multiple regression analyses, the socio-economic factors that influence farmers’ decisions to adopt rotational woodlot technology in the farming systems of Uganda, based on a household survey carried out between May and December 2004, involving 120 farmers in Kigorobya sub-county, Hoima district. The analyses demonstrate that farmers make decisions about woodlot technology based on the household and field characteristics.

Thai national irrigation systems, serving a large number of small paddy farmers, require water users' organization for effective and sustainable joint management; however, water users' organizations (WUOs) presently cover only 27% of the total irrigation area. This three-year action research investigated the difficulties in organizing water users in the Khlong Thadi Weir System in southern Thailand by immersion into the socio-economic conditions of Muslim farmers in farm turnout No. 4 of the 1L-4R-LMC canal and the conventional on-farm irrigation development there.

Land and agrarian reform has the potential to expand South Africa's rangeland commons and enhance their contribution to the livelihoods of the rural poor, yet to a large extent this has been an opportunity missed. Shifting policy agendas have prioritised private land rights and commercial land uses, seeking to dismantle the racial divide between the white commercial farming areas and the ex-Bantustans by allocating former white farms to black farmers. These agendas and planning models reflect class and gender bias and a poor understanding of common property.

This paper presents an assessment of smallholder farmers’ perceptions of climate change, its impacts on agricultural production and adaptive responses in the central highlands of Ethiopia. The findings show that increased temperature and decreased rainfall are widely held perceptions; all respondents stated that they had observed increase in temperature and decrease in annual and seasonal rainfall amounts.

Poor millet growth and yields in Niger are commonly attributed to rainfall deficits and low soil nutrient content. Land management by local farmers is done as a function of soil types, crops, and available resources. Farmer management practices in millet fields located on four different landscape positions were studied in a village in western Niger located near the 600 mm isohyet. Average distance from homestead to field was 980 m, with fields in the valley bottom much closer (average 225 m) and fields on the plateau much further (average 2300 m).

This article analysed farmers' perceptions of the effects of coconut mite in their livelihood and assessed crop diversification as a copping strategy for reduced coconut production. A socio-economic model of farmers' decisions on intercropping as an indicator for overall crop diversity was developed. The study was conducted between November 2009 and March 2010 in five districts in Tanzania, which were selected on the basis of the coconut's economic importance, using structured questionnaires which were administered to 200 household heads.

Large-scale irrigation schemes have not yielded the expected outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Mauritania, average land productivity of rice schemes lies between 3 and 3.5tha⁻¹ and irrigated land has progressively being abandoned. At the same time, there is new international attention towards interventions in large-scale irrigation in the Sahel. Spatial and temporal variability of production are main causes of low productivity of large-scale irrigation schemes in Mauritania and threats to their sustainability.

Game changers to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture are possible in the irrigation sector and they focus mainly on getting more with less. There is, however, still a long way to go to replicate, adapt and develop approaches to take such ideas to scale and increase productivity within existing agricultural water management contexts.