Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A Systems Approach to Agroecology
As agroecology gains momentum in the international research-for-development arena, there is an urgent need for methods and tools to support the codesign and evaluation of agroecological systems and their transitions. The social and ecological complexity of agroecosystems, their dynamics, uncertainties and sustainability, calls for a holistic, systemic approach to agroecology. As such, several questions arise for example: how do we deal with heterogeneity, landscapes, biodiversity or learning processes in agroecosystems analysis? How do we categorise diversity or analyse trade-offs in social-ecological interactions? How do we conceptualise, codesign and monitor agroecological transitions? This book sets out to answer these questions by building on the valuable ‘classics’ in agroecology. The book presents a systems perspective that underpins a combination of methodologies, ranging from participatory tools and field observations to mathematical simulation modelling. Researchers, advanced students and transdisciplinary practitioners will find in this book insights and methods to design research and (co-) innovation processes to foster agroecological transitions.
Agroecology in Policy and Practice
In the past years, there has been steady growth in work relating to agroecology. People-centred, knowledge-intensive and rooted to sustainability, it is now well established that agroecology matches the transformative approach called for by the 2030 Agenda; a transition to sustainable food and agriculture systems that ensures food security and nutrition for all, provides social and economic equity, and conserves biodiversity and the ecosystem services on which agriculture depends. Although not a new concept, agroecology is today gaining interest worldwide among a wide range of actors as an effective answer to climate change and the interrelated challenges facing food systems, finding expression in the practices of food producers, in grassroots social processes for sustainability and the public policies of many countries around the world.
Take it or Leave it?
In the last decade, the increased interest in bioenergy production has led to the need for improved crop residue management. Crop residues have historically been used for many other purposes: to sustain healthy soils for food production, as feed and bedding for livestock, and as raw material for heating and cooking. As the link between crop residue management and food security is evident, one needs to decide whether or to which extent the removal of crop residues for bioenergy production is possible. Building science-based decision support tools can guide stakeholders in this decision process. The study presents a first attempt in designing such a decision support tool for soil residue manag...
Handbook of Rural Development
Rural development policies have historically focused primarily on increasing agricultural productivity, but this volume demonstrates the need for a much broader approach as rural producers become increasingly integrated into the global economy. Followi
Food for All
This book assesses the prospects for achieving the sustainable development goals, and the role of international organizations in achieving them, in light of recent economic, medical, and environmental developments.
Understanding the factors that influence cereal-legume adoption amongst smallholder farmers in Malawi
Although sustainable intensification (SI) practices such as intercropping of cereals with legumes are believed to offer productivity benefits to farmers, the adoption of cereal-legume intercropping remains low in Malawi. We use dynamic programing to assess the impact of four key constraints that smallholder farmers face. These constraints are i) land, ii) labor, ii) input market access and iv) output market access. We use the model to evaluate farmers’ optimal production plans across six scenarios in which these constraints are relaxed and compare their production plans across these scenarios. The farmer’s decision process given these alternative scenarios is modeled to assess the impact of these constraints on SI adoption decisions. Our model preliminary results suggest that both resource (land and labor) and institutional constraints (access to input and output market) play a key role in influencing smallholder farmers’ SI adoption decisions. The model results help to illustrate how labor constraints, land constraints and limited access to input and output market affect smallholders’ adoption of cereal-legume intercropping in Malawi.
Africa's Pulse, No. 23, October 2021
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa has been severe; however, countries are weathering the storm so far. Real GDP is estimated to contract by 2.0 percent in 2020—close to the lower bound of the forecast range in April 2020, and less than the contraction in advanced economies and other emerging markets and developing economies, excluding China. Available data from the second half of 2020 point to rebound in economic activity that explain why the contraction in the region was in the lower bound of the forecasts. It reflected a slower spread of the virus and lower COVID-19-related mortality in the region, strong agricultural growth, and a faster-than-expected re...
Sustainable Agricultural Development
This book provides a non-technical, accessible primer on sustainable agricultural development and its relationship to sustainable development based on three analytical pillars. The first is to understand agriculture as complex physical-biological-human systems. Second is the economic perspective of understanding tradeoffs and synergies among the economic, environmental and social dimensions of these systems at farm, regional and global scales. Third is the understanding of these agricultural systems as the supply side of one sector of a growing economy, interacting through markets and policies with other sectors at local, national and global scales. The first part of the book introduces the ...
Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique
Inclusive co-design of system innovations incorporates diverse perspectives and bodies of knowledge that can generate solutions that fit well in a local context and over time influence the socio-technical regime. In operationalizing system transformation-oriented co-design processes, research and development actors have experimented in recent decades with the role of multistakeholder approaches. A specific application of such approaches in the agrifood system context are Agricultural Innovation Platforms (AIPs). Despite the growing application of AIPs and similar approaches, documentation of AIP achievements and assessment of their outcomes beyond the lifetime of the program are rare. We pre...
