Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development
Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development

Author: Sieglinde Snapp

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 0128020954

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Agricultural Systems, Second Edition, is a comprehensive text for developing sustainable farming systems. It presents a synthetic overview of the emerging area of agroecology applications to transforming farming systems and supporting rural innovation, with particular emphasis on how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture. The inclusion of research theory and examples using the principles of cropping system design allows students to gain a unique understanding of the technical, biological, ecological, economic and sociological aspects of farming systems science for rural livelihoods. This book explores topics such as: re-inventing farming systems; principles and practice of agroecology; agricultural change and low-input technology; ecologically-based nutrient management; participatory breeding for developing improved and relevant crops; participatory livestock research for development; gender and agrarian inequality at the local scale; the nature of agricultural innovation; and outreach to support rural innovation. The extensive coverage of subjects is complemented with integrated references and a companion website, making this book essential reading for courses in international agricultural systems and management, sustainable agricultural management, and cropping systems. This book will be a valuable resource for students of agricultural science, environmental engineering, and rural planning; researchers and scientists in agricultural development agencies; and practitioners of agricultural development in government extension programs, development agencies, and NGOs. - Provides students with an enhanced understanding of how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture - Incorporates social, biological, chemical, and geographical aspects important to agroecology - Addresses social and development issues related to farming systems

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development
Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development

Author: Sieglinde Snapp

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2011-09-02

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 0080919774

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Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development is a comprehensive source for developing sustainable farming systems. With the inclusion of research theory and examples using the principles of cropping system design, students will gain a unique understanding of the technical, biological, ecological, economic, and sociological aspects of farming systems science for rural livelihoods. Editors Snapp and Pound provide a much-needed synthetic overview of the emerging area of agroecology applications to transforming farming systems and supporting rural innovation. A companion website for training and teaching features learning modules, student exercises, case studies, illustrative power point presentations, and reference links. The wide range of subjects, integrated references, and companion website, make this core reading for courses in international agricultural systems and management, sustainable agricultural management, and cropping systems. - Coverage provides students with an enhanced understanding of how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture - Incorporates social, biological, chemical, and geographical aspects important to agroecology - Addresses social and development issues related to farming systems - Companion Website for training and teaching: learning modules, student exercises, case studies, illustrative power point presentations, and reference links

Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development
Agricultural Systems: Agroecology and Rural Innovation for Development

Author: Sieglinde Snapp

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2017-03-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780128020708

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Agricultural Systems, Second Edition, is a comprehensive text for developing sustainable farming systems. It presents a synthetic overview of the emerging area of agroecology applications to transforming farming systems and supporting rural innovation, with particular emphasis on how research can be harnessed for sustainable agriculture. The inclusion of research theory and examples using the principles of cropping system design allows students to gain a unique understanding of the technical, biological, ecological, economic and sociological aspects of farming systems science for rural livelihoods. This book explores topics such as: re-inventing farming systems; principles and practice of agroecology; agricultural change and low-input technology; ecologically-based nutrient management; participatory breeding for developing improved and relevant crops; participatory livestock research for development; gender and agrarian inequality at the local scale; the nature of agricultural innovation; and outreach to support rural innovation. The extensive coverage of subjects is complemented with integrated references and a companion website, making this book essential reading for courses in international agricultural systems and management, sustainable agricultural management, and cropping systems. This book will be a valuable resource for students of agricultural science, environmental engineering, and rural planning; researchers and scientists in agricultural development agencies; and practitioners of agricultural development in government extension programs, development agencies, and NGOs.

Agricultural Innovation Systems
Agricultural Innovation Systems

Author: World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2012-02-21

Total Pages: 685

ISBN-13: 0821386840

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Managing the ability of agriculture to meet rising global demand and to respond to the changes and opportunities will require good policy, sustained investments, and innovation - not business as usual. Investments in public Research and Development, extension, education, and their links with one another have elicited high returns and pro-poor growth, but these investments alone will not elicit innovation at the pace or on the scale required by the intensifying and proliferating challenges confronting agriculture. Experience indicates that aside from a strong capacity in Research and Development, the ability to innovate is often related to collective action, coordination, the exchange of knowledge among diverse actors, the incentives and resources available to form partnerships and develop businesses, and conditions that make it possible for farmers or entrepreneurs to use the innovations. While consensus is developing about what is meant by 'innovation' and 'innovation system', no detailed blueprint exists for making agricultural innovation happen at a given time, in a given place, for a given result. The AIS approach that looks at these multiple conditions and relationships that promote innovation in agriculture, has however moved from a concept to a sub-discipline with principles of analysis and action. AIS investments must be specific to the context, responding to the stage of development in a particular country and agricultural sector, especially the AIS. This sourcebook contributes to identifying, designing, and implementing the investments, approaches, and complementary interventions that appear most likely to strengthen AIS and to promote agricultural innovation and equitable growth. It emphasizes the lessons learned, benefits and impacts, implementation issues, and prospects for replicating or expanding successful practices. The information in this sourcebook derives from approaches that have been tested at different scales in different contexts. It reflects the experiences and evolving understanding of numerous individuals and organizations concerned with agricultural innovation, including the World Bank. This information is targeted to the key operational staff in international and regional development agencies and national governments who design and implement lending projects and to the practitioners who design thematic programs and technical assistance packages. The sourcebook can also be an important resource for the research community and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Sustainable Intensification
Sustainable Intensification

Author: Jules N. Pretty

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-06-25

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1136529276

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Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century
Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-07-25

Total Pages: 598

ISBN-13: 0309148960

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In the last 20 years, there has been a remarkable emergence of innovations and technological advances that are generating promising changes and opportunities for sustainable agriculture, yet at the same time the agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges. Not only is the agricultural sector expected to produce adequate food, fiber, and feed, and contribute to biofuels to meet the needs of a rising global population, it is expected to do so under increasingly scarce natural resources and climate change. Growing awareness of the unintended impacts associated with some agricultural production practices has led to heightened societal expectations for improved environmental, community, labor, and animal welfare standards in agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. It also explores how those lessons learned could be applied to agriculture in different regional and international settings, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on a systems approach to improving the sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this book can have a profound impact on the development and implementation of sustainable farming systems. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies.

Agroecological Transitions: From Theory to Practice in Local Participatory Design
Agroecological Transitions: From Theory to Practice in Local Participatory Design

Author: Jacques-Eric Bergez

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-02-28

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 3030019535

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This Open Access book presents feedback from the ‘Territorial Agroecological Transition in Action’- TATA-BOX research project, which was devoted to these specific issues. The multidisciplinary and multi-organisation research team steered a four-year action-research process in two territories of France. It also presents: i) the key dimensions to be considered when dealing with agroecological transition: diversity of agriculture models, management of uncertainties, polycentric governance, autonomies, and role of actors’ networks; ii) an operational and original participatory process and associated boundary tools to support local stakeholders in shifting from a shared diagnosis to a shared action plan for transition, and in so doing developing mutual understanding and involvement; iii) an analysis of the main effects of the methodology on research organisation and on stakeholders’ development and application; iv) critical analysis and foresights on the main outcomes of TATA-BOX, provided by external researchers.

Campesino a Campesino
Campesino a Campesino

Author: Eric Holt-Giménez

Publisher: Food First Books

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780935028270

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Campesino a Campesino tells the inspiring story of a true grassroots movement: poor peasant farmers teaching one another how to protect their environment while still earning a living. The first book in English about the farmer-led sustainable agriculture movement in Latin America, Campesino a Campesino includes lots of first-person stories and commentary from the farmer-teachers, mixing personal accounts with detailed analysis of the political, socioeconomic, and ecological factors that galvanized the movement. Campesino farmer leading a farmer to farmer training session in Mexico by Eric Holt-GimenezMany years ago, author Eric Holt-Gim�nez was a volunteer trying to teach sustainable agriculture techniques in the dusty highlands of central Mexico, with little success. Near the end of his tenure, he invited a group of visiting Guatemalan farmers to teach a course in his village. What he saw was like nothing he had known. The Guatemalans used parables, stories, and humor to present agricultural improvement to their Mexican compadres as a logical outcome of clear thinking and compassion; love of farming, of family, of nature, and of community. Rather than try to convince the Mexicans of their innovations, they insisted they experiment new things on a small scale first to see how well they worked. And they saw themselves as students, respecting the Mexicans' deep, lifelong knowledge of their own particular land and climate. All they asked in return was that the Mexicans turn around and share their new knowledge with others--which they did. CAC campo3_photo by Food FirstThis exchange was typical of a grassroots movement called Campesino a Campesino, or Farmer to Farmer, which has grown up in southern Mexico and war-torn Central America over the last three decades. In the book Campesino a Campesino, Holt-Gim�nez writes the first history of the movement, describing the social, political, economic, and environmental circumstances that shape it. The voices and stories of dozens of farmers in the movement are captured, bringing to vivid life this hopeful story of peasant farmers helping one another to farm sustainably, protecting their land, their environment, and their families' future.

Agroecological Practices For Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Applications, And Making The Transition
Agroecological Practices For Sustainable Agriculture: Principles, Applications, And Making The Transition

Author: Alexander Wezel

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2017-06-19

Total Pages: 502

ISBN-13: 178634307X

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Good agroecological practices are indispensable for the development of sustainable agriculture. In this book, principles, diversity and applications of agroecological practices for a range of systems are presented, transforming scientific research and participatory knowledge of production into practical application. It illustrates a broad range of research and teaching being used within the farming community to demonstrate best practice and current state-of-play within the field. Agroecological methods used in crop farming, grass-based livestock farming, fish production, and other complex farming systems are discussed. Conclusions are drawn from studies to provide an outlook on future trends of agroecological practices and on policies supporting implementation.Due to emphasis on real-life application, it is relevant not only to students of the agricultural sciences and public policy, but also to researchers, stakeholders and policy makers involved in the development of sustainable agriculture.