12 pages, Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as a pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet despite decades of promotion, CA uptake in SSA remains sparse with only few analyses of its impacts on farming and rural livelihoods. This study, which focuses on areas in Central Malawi considered to have a relatively high uptake of CA, uses analyses of satellite images, field observations, interviews with farmers, extension workers and other people involved in CA promotion, as well as a household survey, to investigate how CA has been adapted. We find that the three CA principles – (1) continuous minimum tillage, e.g. no-ridging, (2) permanent ground cover, and (3) crop rotation/intercropping – were not practiced as intended. First, one-third of non-ridged land was tilled during the growing season, and half was again ridged in the following season. Second, unless crop residues were added, the soil’s surface of non-ridged plots was usually bare at planting, causing weed control problems, and an increased risk of erosion. Most farmers added large volumes of crop residues to their non-ridged plots. They collected these from the surrounding fields, but this practice severely restricted the size of these plots. Third, crop rotation/intercropping was practiced less when farmers stopped ridging. Thus overall, very few farmers practised all of the three CA principles simultaneously. CA promotion appeared to only increase yields on plots where mulch was added, but this practice is not scalable. CA promotiondoes not seem to have provided substantial benefits for overall farm productivity, labour-savings or soil cons
22 pages., In Tanzania, agriculture sector is known for employing more than 70% of the total population. Agriculture sector faces many challenges including climate change. Climate change causes low productivity in agriculture; low productivity is caused due to poor implementation of agricultural policies and strategies. This poor implementation of policies has also caused many farmers to be not competent in climate change adaptation. Over the years, provisions of agricultural advice and extension were provided by various approaches, including training and visit extension, participatory approaches, and farmers’ field schools. However, provision of agricultural advisory and extension service is inefficient. Also, in most cases the usage of most agricultural innovations and technologies developed is limited. A literature review indicates that the main reasons given by Tanzanian farmers for not using improved technology are not lack of knowledge or skill, but rather that the technologies do not contribute towards improvements (e.g., the technologies are not profitable or they imply to high risk). Thus, agricultural extension service needs to be geared towards teaching farmers how to develop innovative and cost effective technologies that are contextualized. Limited numbers of agricultural extension staff and less interactivity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as radio and television, have been mentioned to be among the factors limiting the provision of agricultural advisory and extension services to the majority of farmers in Tanzania. The advancements in ICTs have brought new opportunities for enhancing access to agricultural advisory and extension service for climate change adaptation. In Tanzania, farmers and other actors access agricultural information from various sources such as agricultural extension workers and use of various databases from Internet Services Providers. Also there are different web – and mobile – based farmers’ advisory information systems to support conventional agricultural extension service. These systems are producing bulk amounts of data which makes it difficult for different stakeholders to make an informed decision after data analysis. This calls for the need to develop a tool for data visualization in order to understand hidden patterns from massive data. In this study, a semi-automated text classification was developed to determine the frequently asked keywords from a web and mobile based farmers’ advisory system called UshauriKilimo after being in use for more than 2 years by more than 700 farmers.
USA: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1 Document Number: D01301
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, pages 1-9 in Proceedings of Farming System Research/Extension Symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas, October 9-12, 1988. Farming Systems Research Paper Series, Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
Peru: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00339
Notes:
Kerry Byrnes Collection, Pages 103-107 in Proceedings of the Farming Systems Research/Extension Symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas, October 9-12, 1988. Farming Systems Research Paper Series. Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
USA: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1 Document Number: D01307
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, pages 109-123 in Proceedings of Farming Systems Research/Extension Symposium hosted by the university of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas. farming Systems Research Paper Series, Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
Mexico: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00340
Notes:
Kerry Byrnes Collection, Pages 109-123 in Proceedings of the Farming Systems Research/Extension Symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas, October 9-12, 1988. Farming Systems Research Paper Series. Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
25 pages., Online via UI e-subscription, Researchers evaluated the role of media through qualitative feedback from smallholder farmers identified by Community Markets for Conservation through radio programming efforts involving sustainable agriculture. Results demonstrated the centrality of the radio programming alongside other forms of communication such as extension and farmer-to-farmer communication, as well as written and visual communication.
Stilwell, Ted (author), Van Rooyen, Johan (author), and Gouws, Leon (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
1988-10
Published:
Nepal: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00345
Notes:
Kerry Byrnes Collection, Pages 173-183 in Proceedings of the Farming Systems Research/Extension Symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas, October 9-12, 1988. Farming Systems Research Paper Series. Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
Stilwell, Ted; Van Rooyen, Johan and Gouws, Leon (author)
Format:
Proceedings
Publication Date:
1988-10-09
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes1 Document Number: D01312
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, pages 173-183 in proceedings of farming systems research/extension symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development. Farming systems research paper series, Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
International: University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D00338
Notes:
Kerry Byrnes Collection, Pages 85-102 in Proceedings of the Farming Systems Research and Extension Symposium hosted by the University of Arkansas and Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development, Fayetteville, Arkansas, October 9-12, 1988. Farming Systems Research Paper Series, Paper No. 17. 395 pages.
