Participatory Approaches to Diversification and Intensification of Crop Production on Smallholder Farms in Malawi PDF Download
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Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463433211
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 153
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Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789463433211
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 153
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Book Description
Author: Agnes Andersson Djurfeldt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198799284
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286
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Book Description
This book contributes to the understanding of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa through addressing the dynamics of intensification and diversification within and outside agriculture in contexts where women have much poorer access to agrarian resources than men
Author: Aberman, Noora-Lisa
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 089629286X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 82
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Book Description
Although the Malawian food supply is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food crop production, Malawi’s decades-long focus on improving smallholder productivity has only moderately improved food security and nutrition outcomes. Country statistics indicate an estimated 36.7 percent of rural Malawian households failed to access sufficient calories between 2010 and 2011. During the same period, 47 percent of children under the age of five years were estimated to be stunted in their growth. These indicators imply that some Malawian diets are lacking in terms of quantity (total calories consumed), and most are lacking in terms of quality (sufficient calories derived from nutrient-dense foods, such as meat, fish, eggs, dairy, legumes, fruits, and vegetables). Good nutrition requires both enough total calories (quantity) and enough vitamins and minerals per calorie (quality). How can Malawi better leverage its smallholder agriculture sector to improve nutrition? This report provides a series of primary and secondary data analyses that examine different aspects of this question.
Author: Aberman, Noora-Lisa
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 62
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Book Description
Smallholder agriculture is the mainstay of Malawi’s economy. Its importance for livelihoods cannot be overstated. 94 percent of rural residents and 38 percent of urban residents engage in agriculture to some extent (Jones, Shrinivas, and Bezner-Kerr 2014), the vast majority as smallholder farmers with landholdings of less than one hectare. Smallholder crops are primarily maize—which accounted for nearly 80 percent of smallholder-cultivated land in 2011 —followed by cassava and other food crops (FAO 2008; IFAD 2011). These foods are grown for household consumption and for sale at local and regional markets. As such, the Malawian food supply, especially in rural areas where markets are thin with few buying or selling options, is shaped largely by trends in smallholder food-crop production
Author: Johnson, Michael E.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 52
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Book Description
The primary goal of the study is to investigate the potential to expand oilseeds, specifically soybeans,as an alternative commercialcrop to tobacco among Malawian farmers. A principal motivation for undertaking the study at the microeconomic level is to determine, in a theoretically consistent fashion, the type of policy and economic environment under which farmers begin to shift more of their scarce resources to oilseed production.The study aims to provide recommendations to a growing demand among policy makers and development partners for a greater diversification of exports and crop production systems of the majority smallholder farmers in Malawi. Using representative farm models, the study examinesthe potential for expanding production of soybeans among typical smallholder farming systems in Malawi. The results will help guide future policies and investments targeted at promoting greater crop diversification and incomes, in order to reduce poverty and malnutrition in Malawi. Given the amount of labor and land resources allocated to maize production for food security purposes, we also consider the policy challenges that emerge for crop diversification as a result
Author: Julius H. Mangisoni
Publisher: Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 36
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Book Description
Author: Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 50
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Book Description
The Government of Malawi is in the process of developing its National Agricultural Extension Strategy. Two rounds of national household and community surveys (2016, 2018), coupled with in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, were implemented to provide research evidence supporting the Strategy’s development. This paper summarizes emerging trends from these surveys and monitors progress in extension services provision, players and actors in extension services provision, and evidence on the coverage and effectiveness of extension approaches. Positive trends include (1) improvements in the percentage of men and women farmers accessing extension services; (2) consistently high ratings in the perceived quality of extension services; (3) more diversity in extension messages, including more information regarding market access and nutrition; (4) greater use of cost-effective tools, such as radio programming and community or group meetings, as sources of agricultural information; and (5) greater crop diversification, although diversification outside of agriculture remains low. Four areas remain weak and need further improvements. First, information sharing among farmers, friends, and neighbors is frequent, and the coverage of those officially trained “lead farmers” (those trained specifically to promote technologies to other farmers) remains low, with only 7 percent of households reporting getting relevant advice from them. Second, while there are more “model villages” and “village agricultural committees” present, we see decreasing participation and ratings for these. Third, we observe greater awareness of promoted technologies, including conservation agriculture, pit planting, and sustainable land practices, but adoption remains very low. Fourth, we observe greater crop diversification, but farm productivity and commercialization remain low. Although we have investigated many dimensions and factors in this paper, there remain challenges and puzzles that could be further addressed in future research. These include constraints on the adoption of minimal expensive inputs and low-cost management practices, constraints on the role of intensive training and labor, and understanding the drivers and factors affecting commercialization and diversification.
Author: Daniel Gerald TerAvest
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agricultural conservation
Languages : en
Pages :
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Book Description
Smallholder farmers in southeastern Africa are constrained by poor rainwater-use efficiency, soil degradation, and limited financial resources. Conservation agriculture (CA), based on the principles of minimal soil disturbance, year-round ground cover, and diverse crop rotations, is being promoted to sustainably improve crop production, food security, and smallholder farm income. Adoption of CA principles in the region has predominately been limited to eliminating tillage and retaining residues, with little adoption of crop rotations. In this study, three cropping systems---continuous no-till maize, CA rotation, and conventional tillage rotation---were established on smallholder farms in the Nkhotakota and Dowa districts, two distinct agro-ecological zones in Malawi. Three-year crop rotations of cassava, cowpea, and maize and cassava, soybean, maize were implemented in CA and conventional tillage, respectively, in Nkhotakota. In Dowa, a 3-year rotation of sweet potato, bean, and maize was implemented in both CA and conventional tillage. Cropping systems were analyzed for their impacts on crop production, soil-water relations, soil quality, and financial returns from 2011 to 2014. No-till maize and CA improved infiltration and the soil water balance compared to conventional tillage in Nkhotakota but did not affect soil-water relations in Dowa. No-till maize and CA increased exchangeable K, Ca, and Mg and reduced soil erosion compared to conventional tillage. In no-till maize, retention of low quality residue resulted in N immobilization. Conservation agriculture improved plant available N and nutrient cycling compared to no-till maize, but less residue cover increased bulk density compared to no-till maize and conventional tillage. Soils in conventional tillage had the most plant available N, which could lead to N leaching and reduced fertilizer-use efficiency. Tillage and residue management did not affect yields of cassava, sweet potato, cowpea, soybean, or bean. Crop rotation, regardless of tillage practice, increased maize yields compared to no-till maize. Net revenue was highest in no-till maize and labor productivity and gross margins were higher in no-till and conventional tillage than in CA rotation. Before widespread adoption of CA can occur, further research is needed to improve alternative crop production under CA management and identify the most appropriate agroecological zones for successful CA.
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251068712
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 116
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Book Description
The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.
Author: Benson, Todd
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN: 0896294056
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 206
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Book Description
