The Experts below are selected from a list of 246 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Miguel A Altieri - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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agroecology versus input substitution a fundamental contradiction of sustainable Agriculture
Society & Natural Resources, 1997Co-Authors: P. Rosset, Miguel A AltieriAbstract:The central question posed by this essay is whether sustainable Agriculture will be able to rescue modern industrial Agriculture from its present state of crisis. To answer this question this article begins by outlining the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of the crisis, each of which must be addressed by an Alternative paradigm in order to pull Agriculture out of crisis. It then examines a persistent contradiction in the Alternative Agriculture movement: that of input substitution versus agroecologi‐calty informed transformation of farming systems. It is argued that the prevalence of input substitution, which emphasizes Alternatives to agrochemical inputs without challenging the monoculture structure of agricultural systems, greatly diminishes the potential of sustainable Agriculture. By only addressing environmental concerns, this dominant approach offers little hope of either reversing the rapid degradation of the resource base for future production or of resolving the current profit squeeze...
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agroecological foundations of Alternative Agriculture in california
Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 1992Co-Authors: Miguel A AltieriAbstract:Abstract Most agricultural regions of California enjoy long growing seasons, fertile soils and irrigantion, all conditions that favor a highly diversified cropping. In addition, the wide variety of vegetables, field and tree crops determined a high diversity and flexibility of agricultural enterprises. Despite these factors, Californian agroecosystems are dominated by monocultural cropping systems. Although productive, these systems lack the ecological features to ensure efficient nutrient cycling, water and soil conservation, and biotic regulation. Productivity is subsidized with chemical inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers, some of which caue undesirable environmental and public health hazards. Large-scale monocultures are also highly susceptible to wind erosion and are dependent on ground water for irrigation, leading in some areas to a considerable ‘ leading in some areas to a considerable ‘overdraft’. In other regions, poor field drainage and rising water are leading to unacceptable soil salinity levels. In summary, Californian Agriculture is very productive, but the environmental costs of such productivity is threatening the sustainability of Agriculture. The search for self-sustaining, low-input, diversified and energy-efficient agricultural systems is now a major concern of researchers, farmers, policy makers and the public in California. The long tradition in biological pest control in California, as well as the experience of a number of organic farmers who developed low-input systems through ‘trial and error’, provide the building blocks for the search for a more sustainable Agriculture. A key strategy is sustainable Agriculture is to restore the agricultural diversity of the agricultural landscape. Diversity can be enhanced in lime through crop rotations and sequences, and in space in the form of cover crops, intercropping, agroforestry crop/livestock,mixturee, etc. Vegetation diversification not only results in pest regulation through restoration of natural controls, but also produces optimal nutrient recycling, energy conservation and less dependence on cultural inputs. In California although this new approach to Agriculture is actively researched. realistically it will work only if it is economicically sensible and can be carried out within the constraints of a fairty normal agricultural system. Therefore, adoption of recommended diversification designs will procesd as these reduce costs and increase the efficiency and viability of farmers.
Nicodemus Mandere - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Alternative Agriculture and rural development: A case study of sugar beet cultivation in Kenya
2020Co-Authors: Nicodemus MandereAbstract:Land use change has been observed to cause profound impacts on sustainability, particularly when the change is not well planned and co-coordinated. In Kenya the government is promoting diversification of crops to embrace high value crops and drought resistant crop varieties in efforts to reduce poverty in rural areas. Sugar beet is one of the crops considered as an option in this context. Adoption of new crops entails a land use change and hence potentially can affect the sustainability of the farming system if not rationally introduced. Therefore planning for rational shifts in crops cultivated is essential in promoting sustainable use of the natural and human resources. For this rational shift to take place a land evaluation is vital for assessing the potentials and constraints applying to different crops. The land evaluation should include the assessment of the physical and socio-economic potentials of the land. The aim of this thesis project was to assess the potentials and challenges for sugar beet cultivation in Kenya and its impacts on rural development and poverty reduction for the rural households. The outcome of the study indicated that there are prospects for sugar beet cultivation and adoption in the study area, the Nyandarua District in central Kenya. These prospects include not only physical land suitability – an adequate land area is suitable for sugar beet cultivation and a high sugar beet yield can be attained – but also socio-economic prospects, in the sense that farmers are aware of many positive properties of sugar beet cultivation and are willing to grow it. The analysis of sugar beet profitability indicated that if a local market with reasonable prices can be established, sugar beet can potentially increase and stabilize household net income. However some socio-economic factors, mainly the affordability of sugar beet production cost and the lack of appropriate farming technologies, may present challenges for widespread sugar beet introduction, particularly among farmers with low and medium incomes. The benefits of sugar beet cultivation, like that of any other crop with high start-up costs, are likely to be skewed towards the high income farmers. It is necessary for government and other stakeholders to intervene to ensure external support with affordable credit sources if sugar beet is to aid in pulling the many poor smallholder farmers out of poverty. Alternative Agriculture with introduction of new crops is thus not a sufficient strategy to address problems of poverty and unemployment. Any successful strategy must be broad, including Alternative Agriculture and other growth and development strategies. Provision for the entire necessary infrastructure is vital for any successful implementation. (Less)
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Alternative Agriculture and rural development: A case study of sugar beet cultivation in Kenya
2020Co-Authors: Nicodemus MandereAbstract:Land use change has been observed to cause profound impacts on sustainability, particularly when the change is not well planned and co-coordinated. In Kenya the government is promoting diversification of crops to embrace high value crops and drought resistant crop varieties in efforts to reduce poverty in rural areas. Sugar beet is one of the crops considered as an option in this context. Adoption of new crops entails a land use change and hence potentially can affect the sustainability of the farming system if not rationally introduced. Therefore planning for rational shifts in crops cultivated is essential in promoting sustainable use of the natural and human resources. For this rational shift to take place a land evaluation is vital for assessing the potentials and constraints applying to different crops. The land evaluation should include the assessment of the physical and socio-economic potentials of the land. The aim of this thesis project was to assess the potentials and challenges for sugar beet cultivation in Kenya and its impacts on rural development and poverty reduction for the rural households. The outcome of the study indicated that there are prospects for sugar beet cultivation and adoption in the study area, the Nyandarua District in central Kenya. These prospects include not only physical land suitability – an adequate land area is suitable for sugar beet cultivation and a high sugar beet yield can be attained – but also socio-economic prospects, in the sense that farmers are aware of many positive properties of sugar beet cultivation and are willing to grow it. The analysis of sugar beet profitability indicated that if a local market with reasonable prices can be established, sugar beet can potentially increase and stabilize household net income. However some socio-economic factors, mainly the affordability of sugar beet production cost and the lack of appropriate farming technologies, may present challenges for widespread sugar beet introduction, particularly among farmers with low and medium incomes. The benefits of sugar beet cultivation, like that of any other crop with high start-up costs, are likely to be skewed towards the high income farmers. It is necessary for government and other stakeholders to intervene to ensure external support with affordable credit sources if sugar beet is to aid in pulling the many poor smallholder farmers out of poverty. Alternative Agriculture with introduction of new crops is thus not a sufficient strategy to address problems of poverty and unemployment. Any successful strategy must be broad, including Alternative Agriculture and other growth and development strategies. Provision for the entire necessary infrastructure is vital for any successful implementation.
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assessing the contribution of Alternative Agriculture to poverty reduction and employment creation a case study of sugar beet cultivation in kenya
African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2011Co-Authors: Nicodemus Mandere, Stefan Anderberg, Frederick Ato Armah, Samson Wakuma AbayaAbstract:In Kenya, the government is promoting high-value and drought resistant crop varieties in an effort to reduce poverty in rural areas. Sugar beet is one such crop. This study was conducted with two objectives: 1) to assess the opportunities and challenges for sugar beet cultivation and adoption in the Nyandarua district of Kenya and 2) to assess whether sugar beet adoption can offer an opportunity for escaping poverty for smallholder farmers in the district. The factors favoring sugar beet cultivation and adoption in the district include: adequate land area suitable for sugar beet cultivation and the high sugar beet yield that can be attained per unit suitable land area, farmers' awareness of the positive aspects of sugar beet cultivation, and the willingness of many farmers to grow the sugar beet crop. Notwithstanding these favorable conditions, some socio-economic factors-mainly the affordability of sugar beet production and possible lack of appropriate farming technologies, will present challenges to widespread sugar beet adoption, particularly to those farmers in the low-and medium-income categories. The sugar beet profit analysis showed that depending on the market price, sugar beet can potentially increase household net income. However, since the majority of households are in the low-and medium-income categories, for sugar beet to pull the smallholder farmers out of poverty, interventions from government and other stakeholders is of vital necessity. The impact of sugar beet adoption and cultivation will vary from household to household. Those households within the high-income category who can raise the required start up capital are likely to benefit, while the low-and medium-income households may not, which is true for any new crop with high start up costs. Alternative Agriculture alone is therefore not a sufficient strategy to address the problems of poverty and unemployment. Any successful strategy to address these issues must be broad-based, and include Alternative Agriculture and other growth and development strategies. Provision for the entire necessary infrastructure should precede or accompany all of these strategies in order to optimize implementation benefits.
Andrew Flachs - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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development roles contingency and performance in Alternative Agriculture in telangana india
Journal of Political Ecology, 2018Co-Authors: Andrew FlachsAbstract:Paul Richards invokes the metaphor of performance in Agriculture to highlight the ways in which farmers improvise and draw on repertory knowledge to address new and unexpected problems in the field. This skillset helps farmers respond to shifting weather patterns or changing pest cycles, but it also helps farmers take advantage of new markets, technologies, and development interventions – a question of planning and context as much as improvisation in the moment. This article discusses two intervention failures and one success in Telangana cotton Agriculture, arguing that such agricultural interventions succeed when farmers can align development performances with their own visions of development and agricultural success. In doing so, it offers a political ecology of farmer performance on two levels. First, it brings attention to the ecological and socioeconomic factors that inspire performances and structure farmer improvisations. Second, it argues that development initiatives must recognize their efforts as embedded within local agricultural planning and contingent on local calculations of social capital. In two ultimately unsuccessful interventions, farmers withdrew from programs that required investments of time and agricultural methods but did not underwrite important social and agricultural vulnerabilities identified by participants. In one successful intervention, farmers found that an NGO's willingness to respond to their agricultural needs and provide a stage for the cultivation of a local celebrity more than compensated for the new demands of non-certified organic Agriculture. In a rural Indian context, where farming is a moral as well as agricultural process, the performance of a development identity is an integral part of performances and plans that guide farmer decision-making. Because these performances create a knowledge that cannot be separated from actors, roles, and stages present, these contingent performances ultimately have lasting impacts on the agrarian landscape. Key Words: India, Alternative Agriculture, performance, knowledge
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the economic botany of organic cotton farms in telangana india
Journal of Ethnobiology, 2016Co-Authors: Andrew FlachsAbstract:Organic Agriculture projects have advanced biodiversity as a key goal and outcome of their methods, in part by encouraging non-chemical inputs and non-genetically modified seeds. In India, organic cotton Agriculture has been marketed as a specific Alternative to genetically modified cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), India's only legal GM crop. However, previous work has shown that the same production pressures that drive GM Agriculture to lack biodiversity do not necessarily apply to Indian cotton farms. On organic farms in the Adilabad district of Telangana, India, organic farmers are growing nearly 100 semi-managed foods, trees, and medicines belonging to 37 botanical families. However, organic groups target farmers that may be more inclined to cultivate agrobiodiversity anyway. This paper draws on household surveys, field interviews, and ethnographic research among ethnic Gond farmers participating in a corporate organic program to suggest that such Alternative Agriculture schemes find ways to reward farmer...
Alexandra Heis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the Alternative Agriculture network isan and its struggle for food sovereignty a food regime perspective of agricultural relations of production in northeast thailand
Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 2015Co-Authors: Alexandra HeisAbstract:This paper uses the food regime analysis to visualize relations of domination and exploitation within the realm of food production and supply. Starting with an outlook on how the food regime plays out in the Thai context, the author goes on to elaborate its critical aspects fundamental for a food sovereignty critique: growing concentration of power on the side of transnational corporations, exploitative relations of production in agro-industry, and devastating effects for nature, small-scale producers, and increasingly also for consumers. In Northeast Thailand, the Alternative Agriculture Network Isan (AAN Isan) is struggling to secure income and subsistence Agriculture for its members. This is achieved through a number of activities, some of which are introduced here in detail. Producer cooperatives, organic farming, green markets, or a local herb medicine center all aim at empowerment within the present market situation by using aspects of the health discourse to support their arguments and at the same time reinforcing a specific local politics of identity, rooted in notions of culture and religion.
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The Alternative Agriculture Network Isan and Its Struggle for Food Sovereignty – a Food Regime Perspective of Agricultural Relations of Production in Northeast Thailand
Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 2015Co-Authors: Alexandra HeisAbstract:This paper uses the food regime analysis to visualize relations of domination and exploitation within the realm of food production and supply. Starting with an outlook on how the food regime plays out in the Thai context, the author goes on to elaborate its critical aspects fundamental for a food sovereignty critique: growing concentration of power on the side of transnational corporations, exploitative relations of production in agro-industry, and devastating effects for nature, small-scale producers, and increasingly also for consumers. In Northeast Thailand, the Alternative Agriculture Network Isan (AAN Isan) is struggling to secure income and subsistence Agriculture for its members. This is achieved through a number of activities, some of which are introduced here in detail. Producer cooperatives, organic farming, green markets, or a local herb medicine center all aim at empowerment within the present market situation by using aspects of the health discourse to support their arguments and at the same time reinforcing a specific local politics of identity, rooted in notions of culture and religion.
Bram Govaerts - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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long term consequences of tillage residue management and crop rotation on selected soil micro flora groups in the subtropical highlands
Applied Soil Ecology, 2008Co-Authors: Bram Govaerts, M Mezzalama, Ken D Sayre, Jose Crossa, Kelly Lichter, Veronique Troch, Katrien Vanherck, Pieter De Corte, Jozef DeckersAbstract:Abstract Densely populated and intensively cropped, the subtropical highlands of the world have agricultural sustainability problems resulting from soil erosion and fertility decline. In 1991, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) initiated a long-term field experiment at its semi-arid highland experiment station in Mexico (2,240 masl; 19.31° N, 98.50° W; Cumulic Phaeozem) to investigate the enduring effects of tillage/seeding practices, crop rotations, and crop residue management on the performance of maize and wheat grown under rainfed conditions. The aim was to identify practices that would promote high, sustainable maize and wheat yields in the target environment. A better understanding of soil ecology could lead to more precise management of soil organisms for beneficial purposes in Agriculture. The effect of Alternative Agriculture technologies on total bacteria, fluorescent Pseudomonas, Actinomycetes, total fungi, and Fusarium spp. were investigated. Residue retention induced higher population counts of total bacteria, fluorescent Pseudomonas, and Actinomycetes compared to residue removal under zero tillage and conventional tillage. The principal component analysis clustered the wheat treatments into three groups. Zero and conventional tillage with residue retention showed increased populations of total bacteria, fluorescent Pseudomonas, and Actinomycetes. Zero tillage without residue retention resulted in very low populations of micro-flora, while conventional tillage with residue removal resulted in the predominance of total fungi. For maize, the PCA biplot featured the same three clusters of treatments as for wheat. However, in contrast to wheat, maize under conventional tillage with residue removal induced reduced populations. These results, combined with earlier findings on soil quality, root rot, nematode populations, and yield, indicate that zero tillage with residue removal is clearly an unsustainable practice; zero tillage should therefore be combined with an adequate level of residue retention. Zero tillage with residue retention is a viable sustainable practice for smallholder farmers in the volcanic highlands of Mexico and comparable regions of the world.