ABSTRACT The rapidly increasing global population, climate change and dwindling resources have made it very difficult to meet global food demand. To address the issue of food insecurity, sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA) has been proposed. However, the consequences of poorly managed agricultural intensification can negatively affect the ecosystem. Biochar and compost application has been widely recommended as a highly promising soil fertility replenishment option to promote sus...
Abstract Precision agriculture (PA) has a huge potential for growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), but it faces a number of social-economic and technological challenges. This study sought to map existing PA research and application in SSA countries following the methodology for systematic mapping in environmental sciences. After screening for relevance, the initial about 7715 articles was reduced to 128. Results show that most of the studies were conducted in countries with socio-economic and ...
The study sought to find out the climate change effects on food security, and the community coping strategies in Gikindu Division in Murang’a County. The study was in response to the profound climate change effects over the years leading to depressed rainfall and increased temperatures exposing the farmers to the risk of diminished returns from the production activities. Gikindu area sits on a low agro-ecological zone five and six which is prone to persistent crop failure attributed to the ...
ABSTRACT Agriculture is the mainstay of the Kenyan economy accounting for 24% of the GDP and accounting 18% of all formal employment in the country. Agriculture includes crop husbandly and animal production. The livestock sector in Kenya accounts for 10-15 % of the GDP. Au - 1BAR, Kenya livestock sector study .The sector employs about 50% of the total labor force in the agricultural sector. The sector contributes over 30% of the agricultural GDP, out of this the dairy sector accounting for 8...
ABSTRACT Efficiency has been considered as a means of enhancing the productivity of farmers, with most studies on production been geared towards that direction. The inability of farmers to efficiently use available resources has hindered the production of food in Ghana, hence resulting in a deficit in food supply. This study assessed the allocative efficiency of resource use in irrigated tomato production in the Upper East Region. The study was carried out in the key tomato growing districts ...
ABSTRACT Rural-urban migration is a major challenge in traditionally migration prone areas such as Nkoranza South Municipality in the Brong Ahafo region of Ghana. Food system and its related activities embedded in agriculture, for example, non-mechanized farming suffer the most as a result of labour shortage associated with out-migration from farming areas. Some specific objectives of the study were to identify community perception about rural-urban migration and to determine perceived effect...
ABSTRACTS Sub-Saharan Africa depends on agriculture for economic growth and the well being of its people. The sub-region, and indeed the whole of Africa, has been losing a running battle to make agricultural production meet the ever-increasing population. To make food production cope with the population growth and to achieve economic development, many extension models have been tried. Currently the pre-dominant extension system in Africa is the Training and Visit extension system. In Ghana th...
ABSTRACT Multi Stakeholder Platforms (MSPs) form an important initiative in bringing together multiple actors along a community value chain to address challenges and identify opportunities to generate innovations in agriculture. There is limited empirical information on the performance of MSPs in agricultural sector. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the existing stakeholders supporting agribusiness development; to evaluate the roles of stakeholder and to determine the fa...
ABSTRACT The study examined determinants of farmer participation in agriculture micro insurance in Zimbabwe specific reference to peri urban area in Harare. The study was promoted by low uptake of agriculture insurance products being experienced by companies offering agriculture micro insurance. There was need in the market to develop a product that is affordable due to the informalised nature of the Zimbabwean sector. There is need to reach to the poor households and mitigate their level of ...
ABSTRACT In modern agriculture, inorganic fertilizers are commonly being used to supplement soil nutrients, to promote plant growth, to increase crop productivity and also improve food quality. Fertilizer adoption in Uganda in small holder agriculture is among the lowest in comparison with other Sub-Sahara African countries. This study was carried out to investigate the adoption of inorganic fertilizers for crop production in Soroti district by identifying the common types of inorganic fertil...
ABSTRACT Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have been used as one of the intervention strategies in the reduction of loss along the agricultural value chains in the developing countries. ICT has been used in Malian agriculture in general as an intervention strategy to acquire information in agriculture sector, but not necessarily in dairy sector alone. In recent years, there has been an improvement in the dairy sector due to the development of peri-urban dairy farming. This has res...
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of women small-scale farmers on rural household‟s poverty reduction. Specifically, the study aimed to get a better understanding on the roles, contributions and constraints of women smallscale farming in rural areas and their implications on poverty reduction and food security at household level. The study was undertaken in Dodoma Region, Tanzania, whereby Mpwapwa District with the predominantly small-scale subsistence agric...
ABSTRACT The South West Upper Tana Basin, Kiama, Chania, Kimakia and Thika sub basins, located in the central region of Kenya has been experiencing increased water abstraction and river diversions. However, the causes of this increased water abstraction have not been fully investigated. Several factors that could be responsible to these abstractions; climate change, land cover/land use changes, agricultural practices and changes in streamflow. Previous studies in the region have not determine...
ABSTRACT Fadama farming has contributed significantly to Nigeria’s agriculture in particular and the country in general, but the contributions have remained largely unmeasured. As a result, this study examined the influence of the National Fadama Development Project on Fadama farmers in Kano State. Primary and secondary data were sought. A set of questionnaires was developed and information was collected from 108 respondents who were randomly selected from the three agricultural zones in t...
Agriculture is the backbone to Kenya’s economy. This fact justifies the need to integrate agriculture in the school curriculum, in order to equip the learners with problem- solving skills for self-sufficiency. Low performance of students in agriculture subject has become an issue in Rachuonyo North District, and therefore, factors influencing performance of the students needed to be understood, in order to seek practical ways of supporting the students to improve in their performance i...