Search results for "Agroforestry"
showing 10 items of 275 documents
Ethnographic context and spatial coherence of climate indicators for farming communities : a multi-regional comparative assessment
2015
Accurate seasonal predictions of rainfall may reduce climatic risks that farmers are usually faced with across the tropical and subtropical zones. However, although regional-scale seasonal amounts have regularly been forecasted since 1997/98, the practical use of these seasonal predictions is still limited by myriad factors. This paper synthesizes the main resultsof a multi-disciplinary ethnographic and climatic project (PICREVAT). Its main objective was to seek the climatic information ? beyond the seasonal amounts ? critical for crops, both as an actual constraint to crop yields and as identified by the current and past practices and perceptions of farmers. A second goal was to confront t…
Unnamed Soils, Lost Opportunities.
2019
Have you ever read a scientific article about brown bear referred to as “an animal with long, thick brown fur and a shoulder height up to 150 cm” instead of using its scientific name, Ursus arctos? Or one where Oryza sativa is defined as “a plant that may grow to 1.8 m and produce pendulous inflorescences 50 cm long with edible caryopses”? Science employs as much as possible simple, stable, and widely accepted international classification systems for naming beings and things. The best known of such systems is the Linnaean system for naming organisms by two Latin terms, which refer to genus and species. Classifications are used in other fields, such as astronomy, chemistry, metallurgy, physi…
Agroecology and Strategies for Climate Change
2012
; Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion.Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanisms of processes that occur fro…
Cropping system dynamics, climate variability, and seed losses among East African smallholder farmers: a retrospective survey.
2014
Abstract Climate variability directly affects traditional low input and rain-fed farming systems, but few studies have paid attention retrospectively to the cropping system’s ability to mitigate climate risk. This study analyzes the impacts of rainfall variability on farmers’ seed variety losses over time, considering changes in smallholder farming systems. The cropping system dynamics, in favoring maize at the expense of sorghum and pearl millet, have induced an increasing risk of seed loss during drought. Combining ecological anthropology and climatology, a retrospective survey asking farmers about the period 1961–2006 was carried out at three altitudinal levels (750, 950, and 1100 m) on …
Soil, pasture and animal products quality
2013
The management of pasture, through the use of appropriate stocking rates and grazing systems, influences the feeding behaviour of the animals. The impact of animal behaviour on vegetation can be of great importance for the sustainability of pastures and mantaining their biodiversity. Indeed, a different response in terms of quality of animal products is mediated by the ability of animals to concentrate or transform grass components, according to the characteristics of the soil. The herbage ingested by animals provides them with compounds with aromatic characteristics, such as terpenes, and with functional properties beneficial for human health, such as carotenoids, vitamins, polyphenols and…
Urbanization and forest degradation in east Africa - a case study around Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
2016
In this paper we examine the impact of the growing urbanization of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the forest areas around the city. Since 1990 the city has seen an annual population growth rate of over 4%. We document the expansion of the city over the last 30 using the Global Human Settlement Layers, derived from the global Landsat archive. At the same time we show the depletion, of the surrounding forests that has occurred to meet the growing demand for agricultural land, fuel wood and construction material over the same period. The impact on these forests as a result of the demand from an expanding urban conglomeration is higher than would be expected from a dispersed population increase. T…
Bird assemblages in isolated Ficus trees in Kenyan farmland
2006
Over the last few decades a rapid and extensive conversion of tropical forests to agricultural land has taken place resulting in mosaics of fragmented forest patches, pastures and farmland. While the effects of forest fragmentation on biodiversity have been intensively studied within the remaining forests, relatively little is known about the biodiversity in tropical farmland (Daily et al. 2001, Pimentel et al. 1992). Frugivorous birds are an important group of species in tropical farmland ecosystems. Frugivorous birds are significant seed dispersers and can play a prominent role in transporting seeds into disturbed areas and setting the stage for the regeneration of these systems. Isolated…
Responses of polypore fungi following disturbance-emulating harvesting treatments and deadwood creation in boreal Norway spruce dominated forests
2019
ABSTRACTThe emulation of natural disturbances in harvesting has become a widely accepted approach to reach ecologically sustainable forest management. The purpose of this study was to examine the r...
Giant reed as energy crop for Southern Italy: An economic feasibility study
2016
Abstract Among renewable sources giant reed has attracted a growing interest as energy crop especially in Southern Europe, thanks to its low agronomic input requirements. This paper aimed at evaluating the economic feasibility of introduction of giant reed plantation as energy crop in the Southern Italy. In particular, an economic and financial analysis was performed by comparing giant reed (both for woodchip and chopped forage production) with traditional crops (pluriannual and annual) that are currently cultivated in the same area, such as wine grape, melon and tomato. Results showed the highest profitability of giant reed respect to other crops with current market prices. In particular, …
Invasive Alien Plants in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Review and Synthesis of Their Insecticidal Activities
2021
Despite the cornucopia of agricultural, economic and ecological ramifications of invasive alien plant species (IAPs) in sub-Saharan Africa, studies on their potential use as bio-insecticides have not received adequate attention compared to the burgeoning plethora of literature on their use in ethnomedicine. In the current study, we review the existing, but scattered literature on the insecticidal activity of different parts of some IAPs; specifically those invasive in sub-Saharan Africa but with published literature from Africa and elsewhere. From our literature survey, we found that 69 studies from four continents (Africa, Asia, North America and South America) reported the insecticidal ac…