Farming systems that support locally diverse agricultural production and high levels of biodiversity are in rapid decline, despite evidence of their benefits for climate, environmental health, and food security. Yet, agricultural policies, financial incentives, and market concentration increasingly constrain the viability of diversified farming systems.
The adoption and use of climate-smart agricultural practices are critical for improving the productivity and sustainability of smallholder farming systems. However, the gendered dimensions of access to and use of climate-smart agriculture in common bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) production remain unexplored among smallholder farmers in Burundi. A mixed methods research design was employed to investigate gender dynamics in common bean production among smallholder common bean farmers in the communes of Kirundo, Bwambarangwe, and Muyinga in Burundi.
The main purpose of this study was to generate evidence on the factors influencing the adoption of diversified fruit tree systems and to assess rural consumers’ views and preferences for local fruits in Guinayangan, Quezon. The Municipality of Guinayangan in Quezon Province was used as the study site because of prior work undertaken by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), in partnership with the Local Government Unit (LGU), specifically the Municipal Agriculture Office, to promote fruit trees.
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a key role in improving agricultural production, enhancing socio-ecological resilience, and mitigating rural poverty. However, the use of ICTs for agricultural development among smallholder farmers, especially in the least developed countries, still lags behind. It is therefore critical to understand distinct attitudes among heterogeneous smallholder farmers that determine use of ICTs, such as mobile phones. Moreover, data-driven empirical studies on the use of mobile phones in smallholder settings are still scarce.
For the purposes of this short review, we will focus on CSA as it relates to decisions made at the farm level and may encompass single technological innovations (e.g., a more heat or drought tolerant crop variety), packages of innovations (e.g., a bundle of agronomic practices with climate information for decision-making) through to the design of farms and farming systems to cope with climate variability and extreme events. Examples from semi-arid farming systems in India are used.
Ghana is one of the world’s leading cocoa producers. Between 1994 and 2018, the area under cocoa production has nearly ripled. This has increased income, but it has also imposed costs. As rainforests have been converted into land for cocoa farming, habitat for species has decreased and become increasingly fragmented in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. Rainforest loss also has huge implications for the ability of land to capture carbon and mitigate climate change globally. Expansion of cocoa farming is expected to aggravate these issues further.
Agricultural mechanization in developing countries has taken at least two contested innovation pathways—the “incumbent trajectory†that promotes industrial agriculture, and an “alternative pathway†that supports small-scale mechanization for sustainable development of hillside farming systems.
This study was commissioned by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT to assess the viability of enhancing forage selection and dissemination and targeting breeding and selection efforts focusing on the specific needs of South-East Asian farming systems. The opportunity to be assessed is to strengthen the Alliance’s collaboration with the Thai government in the framework of improved Tropical Forages. The study aims to address bottlenecks for forage seed supply systems for:
a) the internal Thai market;