The Experts below are selected from a list of 20724 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform

Aude Ridier - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

J-e. Bergez - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

Ruth S. Defries - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • Synergies and tradeoffs between Cash Crop production and food security: a case study in rural Ghana
    Food Security, 2014
    Co-Authors: Tal Lee Anderman, Roseline Remans, Stephen A. Wood, Kyle Derosa, Ruth S. Defries
    Abstract:

    Despite dramatic improvements in global Crop yields over the past half-century, chronic food insecurity persists in many parts of the world. Farming Crops for sale (Cash Cropping) has been recommended as a way to increase income that can, in turn, improve food security for smallholder farmers. Despite long-term efforts by development agencies and government to promote Cash Cropping, there is limited evidence documenting a relationship between these Crops and the food security of households cultivating them. We used a mixed methods approach to build a case study to assess these relationships by collecting quantitative and qualitative data from cacao and oil palm farmers in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Three dimensions of food security were considered: food availability, measured by the months in a year households reported inadequate food; food access, indicated by the coping strategies they employed to secure sufficient food; and food utilization, gauged by the diversity of household diets and anthropometric measurements of child nutritional status. We found significant negative relationships between each of these pillars of food security and a household’s intensity of Cash Crop production, measured by both quantity and area. A qualitative assessment indicated community perception of these tradeoffs and identified potential mechanisms, including increasing food prices and competing activities for land use, as underlying causes. The adverse relationship between Cash Crop production and household food security observed in this paper calls for caution; results suggest that positive relationships cannot be assumed, and that further empirical evidence is needed to better understand these tradeoffs.

Jaime C. Piñero - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • The 'Botanical Triad': The Presence of Insectary Plants Enhances Natural Enemy Abundance on Trap Crop Plants in an Organic Cabbage Agro-Ecosystem.
    Insects, 2019
    Co-Authors: Binita Shrestha, Deborah L. Finke, Jaime C. Piñero
    Abstract:

    Habitat manipulation through the incorporation of non-Crop plants such as trap Crops (to lure pests away from the Cash Crop) and insectary plants (to provide resources for natural enemies) into agro-ecosystems is an ecological approach to pest management. In a field-scale study, we quantified the effects of integrating the use of trap Crops with insectary plants as a novel method to control pest herbivores in an organic cabbage agro-ecosystem. We hypothesized that pests would be concentrated in the trap Crop habitat and suppressed by insectary-subsidized natural enemies in situ. We documented arthropod abundance (both adults and immature stages) associated with (1) two insectary plant species (sweet alyssum, Lobularia maritima, and buckwheat, Fagopyrum esculentum) either alone or in combination; (2) a trap Crop mixture of mighty mustard (Brassica juncea), red Russian kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala), and glossy collards (Brassica oleracea var. italica), and (3) cabbage Cash Crop (Brassica oleracea var. capitata). Trap Crops were more attractive to pests than the Cash Crop. On a per-plant basis, densities of the herbivores Evergestis rimosalis, Trichoplusia ni, and Plutella xylostella were 154, 37, and 161× greater on the kale trap Crop than on the cabbage Cash Crop, and 54, 18, and 89× greater on the collards trap Crop than on the Cash Crop. Insectary plants contributed to the consumption of pests that aggregated on the trap Crop. Parasitism of E. rimosalis by the braconid wasp Cotesia orobenae was significantly increased, and the abundance of eggs and larvae of the predatory coccinellid beetle Coleomegilla maculata was greater on the trap Crop in the presence of insectary plants compared to trap Crops that lacked insectary plants. The ‘Botanical Triad’ of Cash Crop, trap Crop, and insectary plants represents a new type of agro-ecosystem manipulation that integrates ecosystem service providers (e.g., predators and parasitoids) within the Cropping system.

Ali Almoussawi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.

  • direct seeding associated with a mixture of winter cover Crops decreases weed abundance while increasing Cash Crop yields
    Soil & Tillage Research, 2020
    Co-Authors: Ali Almoussawi, Fabien Spicher, Frederic Dupont, Deborah Clossetkopp, Boris Brasseur, Ahmad Kobaissi, Olivier Chabrerie, Jonathan Lenoir, Frederic Dubois
    Abstract:

    Abstract In this study, we aim to evaluate the respective and combined effect of soil tillage reduction and winter cover Crops (CCs) on both weed species recruitment and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) yields. By controlling the species composition and propagule pressure of weeds, we tested four soil cover rotation treatments with winter CCs (either Camelina sativa or a winter CC-mix of Leguminosae-Brassicaceae) or nothing (control) followed by a sunflower culture or nothing (control) in combination with two soil preparation treatments (reduced tillage vs. direct seeding) in a randomized complete block design with three replicates per treatment. Our experiment thus comprised 24 experimental units (4 m × 1 m). In each experimental unit, seeds of 40 weed species were sown in May 2017 and seedling emergence was subsequently monitored in mid-July, August and September 2017. We used generalized linear models to analyze the effect of soil cover rotation, soil preparation and the two-way interaction term on species richness, abundance (i.e. number of individuals) and sunflower yield. We additionally used generalized linear mixed-effects models to analyze species relative abundance changes throughout the monitoring period and relative to an exhaustive vegetation survey performed at the beginning of the experiment. Our results show that reduced tillage may increase weed species richness under some circumstances, as well as the abundance of two annual species (i.e. Viola arvensis and Fumaria officinalis). Winter CC-mix reduces the abundance of the most dominant weed species (i.e. the grass Echinochloa crus-galli) while increasing the average weight of sunflower seeds per stem. Irrespective of the tillage treatment, we found that C. sativa favors the presence of patrimonial weed species at the expense of noxious species. We conclude that direct seeding associated with winter CC-mix allows controlling weed abundance while increasing Cash-Crop yields, and thus meets criteria for a sustainable agriculture.