Indigenous Knowledge
Indigenous Knowledge

Author: Paul Sillitoe

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2017-11-07

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1780647050

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Indigenous Knowledge (IK) reviews cutting-edge research and links theory with practice to further our understanding of this important approach's contribution to natural resource management. It addresses IK's potential in solving issues such as coping with change, ensuring global food supply for a growing population, reversing environmental degradation and promoting sustainable practices. It is increasingly recognised that IK, which has featured centrally in resource management for millennia, should play a significant part in today's programmes that seek to increase land productivity and food security while ensuring environmental conservation. An invaluable resource for researchers and postgraduate students in environmental science and natural resources management, this book is also an informative read for development practitioners and undergraduates in agriculture, forestry, geography, anthropology and environmental studies.

Africa's Gene Revolution
Africa's Gene Revolution

Author: Matthew A. Schnurr

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2019-11-07

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 0228000459

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As development donors invest hundreds of millions of dollars into improved crops designed to alleviate poverty and hunger, Africa has emerged as the final frontier in the global debate over agricultural biotechnology. The first data-driven assessment of the ecological, social, and political factors that shape our understanding of genetic modification, Africa's Gene Revolution surveys twenty years of efforts to use genomics-based breeding to enhance yields and livelihoods for African farmers. Matthew Schnurr considers the full range of biotechnologies currently in commercial use and those in development - including hybrids, marker-assisted breeding, tissue culture, and genetic engineering. Drawing on interviews with biotechnology experts alongside research conducted with more than two hundred farmers across eastern, western, and southern Africa, Schnurr reveals a profound incongruity between the optimistic rhetoric that accompanies genetic modification technology and the realities of the smallholder farmers who are its intended beneficiaries. Through the lens of political ecology, this book demonstrates that the current emphasis on improved seeds discounts the geographic, social, ecological, and economic contexts in which the producers of these crops operate. Bringing the voices of farmers to the foreground of this polarizing debate, Africa's Gene Revolution contends that meaningful change will come from a reconfiguration not only of the plant's genome, but of the entire agricultural system.

Genetically Modified Organisms in Crop Production and Their Effects on the Environment
Genetically Modified Organisms in Crop Production and Their Effects on the Environment

Author: Kakoli Ghosh

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 9789251055984

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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hosted an Expert Consultation on "Genetically Modified Organisms in Crop Production and Their Effects on the Environment: Methodologies for Monitoring and the Way Ahead" from 18 to 20 January in Rome. The main objective of the consultation was to review the scientific basis for, and procedures to establish, effective post-release monitoring of genetically modified (GM) crops and develop guidelines to strengthen member countries' capacities to design and carry out monitoring programmes. The consultation was a follow-up to the earlier FAO Expert Consultation on "Environmental Effects of Genetically Modified Crops", which had recommended the environmental effects of GM crops be assessed on a case-by-case basis and emphasized the need to monitor possible medium- to long-term environmental impacts. The main outputs of the meeting were: a review of the scientific criteria and procedures; strategies that could form the basis of efficient monitoring programmes; recommendations for both scientists managing the monitoring process and policy makers.

Integration of Insect-Resistant Genetically Modified Crops within IPM Programs
Integration of Insect-Resistant Genetically Modified Crops within IPM Programs

Author: Jörg Romeis

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-07-01

Total Pages: 451

ISBN-13: 1402083734

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Insect pests remain one of the main constraints to food and fiber production worldwide despite farmers deploying a range of techniques to protect their crops. Modern pest control is guided by the principles of integrated pest management (IPM) with pest resistant germplasm being an important part of the foundation. Since 1996, when the first genetically modified (GM) insect-resistant maize variety was commercialized in the USA, the area planted to insect-resistant GM varieties has grown dramatically, representing the fastest adoption rate of any agricultural technology in human history. The goal of our book is to provide an overview on the role insect-resistant GM plants play in different crop systems worldwide. We hope that the book will contribute to a more rational debate about the role GM crops can play in IPM for food and fiber production.

The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security: 2021
The impact of disasters and crises on agriculture and food security: 2021

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2021-03-17

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 9251340714

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On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people – most of them in low-income developing countries – and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously changing landscape. And agriculture continues to absorb a disproportionate share of the damage and loss wrought by disasters. Their growing frequency and intensity, along with the systemic nature of risk, are upending people’s lives, devastating livelihoods, and jeopardizing our entire food system. This report makes a powerful case for investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction – especially data gathering and analysis for evidence informed action – to ensure agriculture’s crucial role in achieving the future we want.