Pesticide Use and Fish Harvests in Vietnamese Rice Agroecosystems

Criticisms of the Green Revolution have focused on environmental and human health problems associated with pesticides. Pesticides may also have adverse effects on wild fish and other aquatic animals in rice paddies that supply an additional source of food and income for some farm households and provide natural pest control. We use survey data from the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam to estimate the impact of pesticides on fish harvests from rice fields. The results confirm findings of ecological studies that pesticide use harms fish populations. However, fish harvest losses are small enough that ignoring them is likely economically rational.     

精益管理在大米加工厂虫害防治中的应用实践

为探讨精益管理方法在控制大米加工厂害虫滋生中的应用价值.采用精益管理的方法与工具分析某大米加工厂原有的害虫防控工作流程中存在的问题,针对性地进行优化和持续改进.比较实施精益管理前后大米加工厂因生虫导致的退货和滞销生虫数量的变化.结果表明:实施精益管理后,大米加工厂生虫退货数量由原来的411.9 t/a,显著降低到145...     

Does IPM Have Staying Power? Revisiting a Potato‐producing Area Years After Formal Training Ended

Integrated pest management (IPM) potentially reduces pesticide use and costs of agricultural production. However, IPM is knowledge intensive and its spread may dissipate over time due to knowledge required for its effective implementation and to competing messages about pest control. We examine IPM spread and adoption several years after formal intensive IPM outreach efforts ceased in a potato‐producing region in Ecuador. We describe adoption patterns and sources of IPM knowledge in 2012 and compare them with patterns that existed when outreach ceased in 2003. Results show that IPM adoption continues in the area but with a lower proportion of farmers fully adopting all practices and a higher proportion adopting low to moderate levels as compared to 2003. Almost all potato farmers in the area use some IPM practices, reflecting a major increase in IPM use. Farmer‐to‐farmer spread has supplanted formal training and outreach mechanisms. IPM adoption significantly lowers pesticide use and saves production costs for adopters.     

On-farm biological control of the pearl millet head miner: realization of 35 years of unsteady progress in Mali,Burkina Faso and Niger

The pearl millet head miner became a major pest in the West African Sahel during the droughts of 1972–1974, and has since remained a threat to food security. Pesticide control is unrealistic for subsistence farmers. Furthermore, there are no cultural control methods or genetic sources of resistance. Biological control was a possibility, but the required ecological knowledge did not exist in the 1970s. A biological control programme could have been rapidly developed through sustained and coordinated funding using existing knowledge. Instead, it took 25 years to lay the scientific groundwork through occasional bursts of uncoordinated short-term activity using international scientists funded by large donors. There was little funding and few prominent roles for national scientists until 2000, when they were empowered by a different approach taken by the McKnight Foundation. An operational system was quickly developed and deployed in which trained farmers rear and release the parasitoid Habrobracon hebetor to effectively eliminate the head miner. The national programme scientists demonstrated admirably that, when trusted and adequately supported and empowered, African researchers can deliver real and effective solutions that are scientifically sound, meet the needs of smallholder farmers, and contribute significantly to improved food security, community resilience and reduced poverty.     

田间灌溉渠道有效管理的理论探讨

从目前田间灌溉渠道管理存在的问题,引出了如何加强土渠的建设管理以及土渠的日常管理模式.提出以加强参与主体的激励,明确各方责权利为原则建立田间灌溉土渠管理.从适应中国大部分相对独立,以村为单位田间灌溉渠道的特点,把供水者作为土渠管理的核心.     

湖南水稻主产区农户熟制选择行为分析

湖南是我国水稻主产区,其水稻熟制选择关系到我国粮食安全。该文通过对湘北、湘中、湘南3 个湖南水稻主产区熟制选择现状进行调查,并从水稻生产成本、生产效益及栽培技术几个方面对农户水稻 种植模式现状和影响其改种意愿的因素进行深入探讨分析。研究结果表明,与种植单季稻相比,种植双季 稻年产量、现金收入较高,但由于其资金投入量、劳动力投入量也较高,其产投比、利润率均低于单季稻。 受比较效益的影响,农户由双季稻改种单季稻的熟制选择意愿趋势明显。针对上述问题,该文提出了稳定 双季稻区双季稻种植比例,保障粮食安全的系列政策建议,包括政府应强化耕地保护措施、加强农业补贴 力度、政策引导提高劳动生产率等措施,增加农户种粮收益等。     

A meta-analysis of intercropping in Africa: impacts on crop yield,farmer income,and integrated pest management effects

Poverty and hunger in Africa are prevalent and will increase in absolute terms with population growth and continued land degradation. Therefore, there is a need for sustainable agricultural strategies, such as conservation agriculture (CA) and integrated pest management (IPM). Among CA practices, intercropping holds the promise of providing benefits to smallholders through increased crop yields and income as well as improved resource use. We review intercropping’s effects on crop yield, income, and output of IPM practices in Africa. On average, intercropping increases crop yields by 23% and gross income by 172 USD/ha, but effects vary significantly depending on management practices and agro-ecological factors. There was no evidence that yields and gross income for intercropping treatments increase when leguminous intercropping combinations, minimum/reduced tillage, pesticides, or fertilizers were utilized. Dual use of herbicides and intercropping practices garnered 1442 USD/ha more in gross income and yielded 1422 kg/ha more compared to those in conventionally managed fields, signifying the positive influence supplemental inputs can have on intercropping’s effects. Although IPM practices increased yields by 20%, on average, IPM systems integrated with intercropping yielded 24% less than IPM systems that did not. This meta-analysis indicates that intercropping is an advantageous sustainable agricultural practice, but that its effective implementation would depend on considering other factors such as adequate control of competing vegetation. There is a clear need for more scientific studies which examine intercropping’s role in complex sustainable agricultural systems, in order to understand its effects in differential environmental and socioeconomic situations and to optimize the practice’s transfer and benefits.     

Conservation agriculture (CA) in Tanzania: the case of the Mwangaza B CA farmer field school (FFS), Rhotia Village,Karatu District,Arusha

This project was initiated to promote conservation agriculture (CA) in Tanzania so as to improve the food security and rural livelihood of small- and medium-scale farmers through the scaling-up of CA as a sustainable land management (SLM) tool as well as increasing the numbers of SLM-CA farmer field schools (FFS) in communities. The project had two phases from 2004 to 2010. It was funded by a Government of Germany trust fund and implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania. The project pilot districts include Arumeru (Arusha and Meru Councils), Karatu, Babati, Hanang and Moshi districts. CA has been shown to offer positive elements that could contribute to fighting hunger and poverty.     

小农体系的现代价值

小农经济虽饱受贬抑却广泛存在.在现代社会,小农经济的存在仍然根植于农业的自然特性之上,它是愈益重视的传统农业文化活态保护和传承的载体.在城市化工业化进程中,小农经济更突显了其社会功能、文化功能和生态功能.     

陕西省农民收入增长问题研究

当前,在我国经济下行压力下,陕西省农民收入增长出现趋缓,收入结构发生较大变化。如何确保农民增收取得新的突破是一个值得研究的重要问题。文章利用文献分析与统计的方法,对陕西农民收入增长情况进行分析,结果显示:2001~2007年农民收入持续增长,2008年后开始回落。而在对农民收入结构特征分析中表明,家庭经营性收入仍是陕西省农民家庭收入的主要来源,但2012年以后有所下降,取而代之的是工资性收入成为农民收入最重要动力因素,农民转移性净收入呈逐年上涨趋势,财产性收入增长幅度波动较大。同时分析目前新常态下影响陕西省农民增收的关键因素,并从大力发展特色农业,建立农业品牌优势;促进农民就业,推动工资性收入增长;加快城乡统筹建设,促进农民转移性收入;深化农村产权改革,推动财产性收入有序增长;提高农村经济质量,完善农民增收长效机制等方面提出了促进农民增收的对策措施。     

明晰各方职责 加强流域管理

针对我国目前水资源管理条块分割,流域管理的权威地位没有真正确立的现状,建议:我国应在区域管理服从流域管理的前提下,通过明晰水利部、流域机构和地方水管部门的职责,建立事权划分清晰的新型流域管理体制。     

Effects of intercropping rice and water spinach on net yields and pest control: an experiment in southern China

Strategies encouraging the use of fewer agrochemicals while maintaining high yield are highly demanded for smallholder rice farmers. Intercropping helps to suppress pests and disease in upland farming systems. However, information on the role of intercropping in pest suppression and crop productivity in irrigated rice farming systems is sparse. To explore the possibility of establishing diversified agriculture management strategy that requires lower agrochemical inputs, a field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of rice and water spinach intercropping on the occurrence of pests, disease, and land-use efficiency. Results demonstrated that the occurrence of rice blast disease, sheath blight disease, and Cnaphalocrocis medinalis was substantially lower than pure stands. Compared with rice monoculture, the tiller number, net photosynthetic rate, and leaf chlorophyll content were significantly increased in rice at the edge rows adjacent to water spinach in intercropping. Intercropping increased the per unit area yield of rice without significant reduction in that of water spinach. Land equivalent ratio (LER) was 1.13, showing that intercropping was 13% more productive than rice monocropping. Net income for intercropping was 5.04 times higher than for rice monocropping. These findings suggest that rice and water spinach intercropping is a viable alternative for sustainable rice production with a small farming scale in southern China.     

Do Farmers and the Environment Benefit from Adopting Integrated Pest Management Practices? Evidence from Kenya

We estimate the impacts of a bundle of integrated pest management (IPM) practices on mango yield, mango net income, insecticide use, human health and the environment, using recent household survey data of mango growers in Kenya. We employ a multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression model with an ordered probit selection rule to establish counterfactual outcomes. Our results indicate that IPM‐adopting farmers have higher mango yields and mango net income, and also use lower quantities of insecticide and cause less damage to the environment and to human health. In addition, switching from one IPM to multiple IPM practices generates greater economic, environmental and human health benefits. These results suggest intensification of IPM‐adoption efforts and encouragement of the use of multiple IPM practices. These positive outcomes could be achieved through greater provision of technical support and extension services to farmers.     

Greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation potential from fertilizer manufacture and application in India

Crop management research is increasingly involving farmers in evaluating new technologies, identifying adoption constraints and opportunities for improving farm performance to produce more sustainable impact. ICRISAT and its partners worked with farmers in Malawi and Zimbabwe during the 1999/2000 and 2000/2001 seasons to evaluate a range of ‘best bet’ soil fertility and water management technologies and evaluate the impact of farmer participatory research. Although there was some variation in methods implemented at different sites, the study found that there is a basis for a comparison of methods. Community entry and participatory approaches that engage farmers in decision making throughout the research-development-diffusion-innovation process have higher setup costs compared to traditional ‘top-down’ approaches. But they improve efficiency, both in technology development and in building farmers' capacity for experimentation and collective learning. This results in the development of more relevant technologies, joint learning among farmers, researchers and extensionists and better impact. To make farmer participatory research projects more sustainable and introduce them on a wide scale, the study recommends that public and NGO investments be targeted to building district and village-level innovation clusters.