Agricultural intensification in the Sahel – The ladder approach

Agricultural intensification in the Sahel can be described as climbing a ladder. The capital, labour, management and institutional requirements increase when farmers climb the ladder, but the potential gains are also higher. The first step on this ladder are agricultural practices without any financial outlay but with increasing labour demand, such as organic fertilizer use, seed priming, water harvesting and harvesting grains at physiological maturity to improve fodder quality. The next step on the ladder is the use of micro-fertilising, popularly known as microdose, at the rate of 0.3 g NPK fertilizer per pocket in sorghum and millet. The following step is the development of improved crop/livestock systems characterized by use of higher rates of mineral fertilisers and manure, increasing cowpea density and improved animal fattening. The last step presented on the ladder is the development of more commercially orientated agriculture characterized by development of cash crops, milk production and/or agroforestry systems. Evidences from the field support the observation that farmers intensify their production in a sequential manner similar to the way described in this paper. The technologies presented can facilitate agricultural intensification by reducing the risks and minimising the cost in agricultural production.     

Poverty and biodiversity trade-offs in rural development: A case study for Pujiang county,China

Both, poverty reduction and preservation of biodiversity are high on the global agenda on sustainable development. The relationships between poverty, biodiversity of agro-ecosystems and agricultural development are complex and poorly understood. In this paper, we present an integrated framework for analysis of agricultural development and natural resource management options at agro-ecosystem level, using Pujiang county, in Zhejiang province, China as a case study area to perform the analysis. A regional linear programming (LP) model is applied, maximizing regional economic surplus, given production and labour market conditions in Pujiang. We use the model to examine the consequences for a set of regional poverty and biodiversity indicators, of four so-called poverty reduction strategies, i.e., (i) intensification of production, (ii) diversification towards livestock production, (iii) land expansion, and (iv) an exit from agriculture. The analysis indicates that diversification is the most promising poverty reduction strategy, but requires efficient use of animal manure in cropping systems to avoid environmental problems. Improved nutrient management in cropping systems is effective in reducing the regional nitrogen surplus, but less effective in increasing per capita income. The exit strategy is effective in reducing poverty and achieving biodiversity goals, but may have important social consequences that are not addressed in this study. Further reduction in rural poverty is hampered by labour constraints during the harvesting period in high value crops such as vegetables and fruits, which calls for research and development in the field of agricultural mechanization.     

Exploring changes in world ruminant production systems

In the past 30 years world production of ruminant meat and milk has increased by about 40%, while the global area of grassland has increased by only 4%. This is because most of the increase in ruminant meat and milk production has been achieved by increasing the production in mixed and landless production systems and much less so in pastoral systems. Pastoral systems depend almost exclusively on grazing, while mixed and landless systems rely on a mix of concentrates (food crops) and roughage, consisting of grass, fodder crops, crop residues, and other sources of feedstuffs. A model was developed to describe these two aggregated production systems for different world regions, each having typical production characteristics, such as milk production per animal for dairy cattle, and off-take rates and carcass weights for non-dairy cattle, sheep and goats. The energy needed by the animals for the production of meat and milk is calculated on the basis of requirements for maintenance, grazing and labour, pregnancy, and lactation. We implemented the FAO Agriculture Towards 2030 projection for crop and livestock production and assumed that the past trend in the area of grassland will continue in the coming three decades. This assumption implies a rapid intensification of grassland management with a 33% increase in global grass consumption, which will only be possible with increasing fertilizer inputs, use of grass-clover mixtures and improved grassland management.     

Evaluating crop-livestock-based farming systems: A village level study in the dry zone rainfed district of Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka cropping enterprises interact with livestock production on peasant farms. This analysis of the crop-livestock farming system aims at understanding the existing constraints and interactions between crops and livestock in these farms. The main objective of the study is to describe the crop-livestock integrated farming systems in three rainfed villages in the Moneragala district of Sri Lanka, and to evaluate these systems in terms of maximizing farm incomes from the different crop and livestock components of the systems. A field survey was conducted to collect data from 153 farming families for the Maha season of 1982/83. A linear programming model was formulated to test the hypothesis.The results show that in general the activities for lowland rice, highland rice, sugar cane, labour, farm cash cost, and MVP (compost) are higher in the optimal farm plan than in the actual farm situation. The livestock in the optimal plan is mainly confined to milch cattle. However, with the present high level of manutrition among rural livestock industry emphasis should be placed on the expansion of the rural livestock industry in the study villages. The optimal plan also suggests the use of crop residues as a substitute for compost for farm crops. Hence, in the context of escalating prices of chemical fertilizers, research is required to find the suitability of crop residues and household residues as substitutes for compost. Increases in supplementary irrigation may result in the expansion of the farm area and hence the farm income. Other methods of increasing farm income include: replacing hired labour with non-utilized family labour, increased agricultural research, and extension activity regarding the use of modern inputs by farmers on crops.     

The effects of land tenure policy on rural livelihoods and food sufficiency in the upland village of Que,North Central Vietnam

The paper documents how the implementation of the land tenure policy of the Vietnamese government has affected the agricultural system, livelihood strategies and food self-sufficiency of Thai farmers in a remote upland village, Que, in Nghe An Province, North Central Vietnam. It is shown that the enforcement of restrictions on the area under swidden agriculture has resulted in a strong reduction of swidden agriculture production and shortened fallow periods, not compensated for by the slow increase in paddy rice production. It is suggested that while the changes imposed on land use certainly lead to an increase in forest cover, it is likely that the shortened fallow cycle on the land allocated to swiddening will lead to declining yields and replacement of forest fallow by bush and grass fallow, and thus to decreases in labour productivity. It is discussed whether there are options open to farmers for changing their portfolio of income generating activities in order to maintain and improve food self-sufficiency, income and living conditions. Finally, new trends in Vietnamese land tenure policy are outlined, and their possible implications discussed.     

The impact of increasing farm size and mechanization on rural income and rice production in Zhejiang province,China

Economic growth in China’s agricultural sector lags behind growth in industry and services, creating an ever widening rural–urban income gap. Development of the non-agricultural sectors offers new opportunities for farmers in China’s more advanced provinces such as Zhejiang. Increased income in the urban sector creates markets for new products, and migrating farmers rent their land to those staying. Until now, the prevailing rice-based systems have been managed mainly using manual labour and animal traction, but the larger farms resulting from migration may facilitate, or even require mechanization. In this study, we use a simulation model of the farm household to analyse the effects of increasing farm size and the transition from rice to vegetable production, while also studying the effects of mechanization.     

Energy productivity: A measure of energy utilisation in agricultural systems

Energy productivity, the quantity of a given agricultural product per unit of energy required for its production, is proposed as a measure of the utilisation of energy in industrialised agricultural systems. It should replace energy ratio, which is shown to be inadequate as such a measure.     

The yield gap of global grain production: A spatial analysis

Global grain production has increased dramatically during the past 50 years, mainly as a consequence of intensified land management and introduction of new technologies. For the future, a strong increase in grain demand is expected, which may be fulfilled by further agricultural intensification rather than expansion of agricultural area. Little is known, however, about the global potential for intensification and its constraints. In the presented study, we analyze to what extent the available spatially explicit global biophysical and land management-related data are able to explain the yield gap of global grain production. We combined an econometric approach with spatial analysis to explore the maximum attainable yield, yield gap, and efficiencies of wheat, maize, and rice production. Results show that the actual grain yield in some regions is already approximating its maximum possible yields while other regions show large yield gaps and therefore tentative larger potential for intensification. Differences in grain production efficiencies are significantly correlated with irrigation, accessibility, market influence, agricultural labor, and slope. Results of regional analysis show, however, that the individual contribution of these factors to explaining production efficiencies strongly varies between world-regions.     

Systematic design and evaluation of crop rotations enhancing soil conservation, soil fertility and farm income: a case study for vegetable farms in South Uruguay

Rapid changes in the social and economic environment in which agriculture is developing, together with the deterioration of the natural resource base threatens sustainability of farm systems in many areas of the world. For vegetable farms in South Uruguay, survival in the long term depends upon the development of production systems able to reduce soil erosion, maintain or improve physical and biological soil fertility, and increase farmer’s income to socially acceptable levels. We propose a model-based explorative land use study to support the re-orientation of vegetable production systems in South Uruguay. In this paper we present a new method to quantitatively integrate agricultural, environmental and socio-economic aspects of agricultural land use based on explicit design objectives. We describe the method followed to design and evaluate a wide variety of land use activities for Canelón Grande (South Uruguay) and we illustrate the usefulness of this approach in an ex-ante evaluation of new farming systems using data from 25 farms in this region. Land use activities resulted from systematic combination of crops and inter-crop activities into crop rotations, different crop management techniques (i.e., mechanisation, irrigation and crop protection) and animal production. We identified and quantified all possible rotations and estimated inputs and outputs at crop rotation scale, explicitly considering interactions among crops. Relevant inputs and outputs (i.e., soil erosion, balance of soil organic matter and nutrients, environmental impact of pesticides, labour and machinery requirements, and economic performance) of each land use activity were quantified using different quantitative methods and following the target-oriented approach. By applying the methodology presented in this paper we were able to design and evaluate 336,128 land use activities suitable for the different soil types in Canelón Grande and for farms with different availability of resources, i.e., land, labour, soil quality, capital and water for irrigation. After theoretical evaluation, a large subset of these land use activities showed promise for reducing soil erosion, maintaining soil organic matter content of the soil and increasing farmer’s income, allowing improvement of current farming systems in the region and providing a widely diverse set of strategic options for farmers in the region to choose from. This method can be used as a stand-alone tool to explore options at the field and farm scale or to generate input for optimisation models to explore options at the farm or regional scale.     

甘蔗生产全程机械化技术

随着甘蔗作物种植面积日益扩大,以传统人工、畜力种植、手工收获为主的生产方式已经不能满足农业发展的需要。该文介绍了甘蔗生产全程机械化所涉及的整地种植机械、田间管理机械和收获机械等,从4个方面提出了发展甘蔗生产全程机械化的保障措施。      

农机“黑车”存在的原因及对策分析

随着农业机械化的发展,农用机具已成为农村主要生产、交通运输工具之一,给农民的生产和生活带来了极大的便利,对农业增产、农民增收发挥了巨大作用。但农机监理失管失控面较大,农机无牌无证、酒后驾驶、违章载人等严重违章现象较为突出,危害极大。对农机＂黑车＂的现状进行深刻分析,指出＂黑车＂产生的原因,提出对农机＂黑车＂的整治对策。     

南部非洲的保护性农业

可持续性和可盈利性 保护性农业以实现可持续的和可盈利的农业为目标,实现该目标要通过以下三方面：最小土壤扰动,永久土壤覆盖和作物轮作。这种方法对于不同规模的农田和农业生态系统都有巨大的使用潜力,但是最迫切需要采取这个方法的还是小农户,尤其是那些劳动力严重短缺的农户。这是一个结合可盈利农业生产、环境保护和可持续生产的方法,     

Multicriterion decision making in irrigation planning

Selection of the best compromise irrigation plan is examined in the multi objective context. The study deals with three conflicting objectives: net benefits, agricultural production and labour employment. Three-stage procedure is adopted combining multi objective optimisation, cluster analysis and multicriterion decision-making (MCDM) methods. Two MCDM methods, namely, PROMETHEE-2 and a newly developed method EXPROM-2, are employed in the evaluation. Spearman rank correlation test is used to assess the correlation between the ranks. The above methodology is applied to a case study of Sri Ram Sagar Project, Andhra Pradesh, India. Sensitivity analysis studies indicated that ranking pattern is quite robust to parameter changes as far as the first two positions are concerned. It is found that net benefits, agricultural production and labour employment per hectare on average for the culturable command area are 8980 rupees ($225), 3.73 tonnes and 242 man-days, respectively, in the best compromise plan.     

Agricultural water productivity assessment for the Yellow River Basin

Agricultural water productivity (WP) has been recognized as an important indicator of agricultural water management. This study assesses the WP for irrigated (WPI) and rainfed (WPR) crops in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) in China. WPI and WPR are calculated for major crops (corn, wheat, rice, and soybean) using experimental, statistical and empirically estimated data. The spatial variability of WPI and WRR is analyzed with regard to water and energy factors. Results show that although irrigated corn and soybean yields are significantly higher than rainfed yields in different regions of the YRB, WPI is slightly lower than WPR for these two crops. This can be explained by the seasonal coincidence of precipitation and solar energy patterns in the YRB. However, as expected, irrigation stabilizes crop production per unit of water consumption over space. WPI and WPR vary spatially from upstream to downstream in the YRB as a result of varying climate and water supply conditions. The water factor has stronger effects on both crop yield and WP than the energy factor in the upper and middle basin, whereas energy matters more in the lower basin. Moreover, WP in terms of crop yield is compared to that in terms of agricultural GDP and the results are not consistent. This paper contributes to the WP studies by a basin context, a comparison between WPI and WPR, a comparison of WP in terms of crop yield and economic value, and insights on the water and energy factors on WP. Moreover, policy implications based on the WP analysis are provided.     

Identification and selection of technology for a specific agricultural region: A case study of sheep husbandry and dryland farming in the northern Negev of Israel

The chances that innovative technology will succeed in a given agricultural region are difficult to determine in advance. Information that would point to the likely or optimum course of development would be very useful for development planning and applied agricultural research administration. An approach is presented whereby the diffusion of new technology can be analysed in the context of a developing region. The development of sheep husbandry and wheat cultivation systems in a semi-arid agropastoral region in the northern Negev of Israel is used as a case study. The approach employed involves defining the input/output relations of a set of technologies based on wheat cultivation and on an increasingly intensive range of sheep production systems. The region is defined by its borders, land classes, physical and financial capital, available labour, plant and animal genetic stock and climatic conditions. An optimum mix of technologies over a development period is determined by using a multiperiod linear programming routine. The technology assessment is then conducted by varying the future socio-economic scenarios of the region and analysing the response of the model.The results indicated that the most fertile sheep breed, the Finn cross, would be selected only if labour were plentiful and cheap. It would also be selected whenever the demand for sheep created high shadow prices—especially at the beginning of a development period. The local, relatively extensive, breed of sheep (Awassi) is maintained over a long period even when meat: grain price ratios are high. Eventually, it tends to phase out in favour of a more intensive breed, the German Mutton Merino. The high price ratio did not result in massive transfer to confined, intensive husbandry but increased the use of improved pasture on cultivable land.     

基于STC89C52单片机的猕猴桃滴灌系统自动控制装置设计

摘要：猕猴桃在生长过程中对水分需求十分敏感，普通的滴灌系统过分依赖人力资源。本文基于STC89C52单片机设计了一种自动控制装置，可用于猕猴桃固定式滴灌系统。通过传感器采集土壤湿度及环境不同的参数，单片机做出相应决策对水泵进行控制，使滴灌系统可以实现精准高效作业，节约了人力成本并提高产量，具有一定的推广价值和应用前景。     

Timeliness of irrigation

Despite considerable discussion of the importance of timeliness as a key dimension of irrigation performance, few studies have assessed how well irrigation systems deliver timely water supplies, nor the magnitude of the effect on agricultural production. This paper lays out indicators of timeliness of irrigation supply which distinguish between deliveries which meet crop needs, and surplus water supplies which cannot be used by crops. These indicators are then applied to empirical data from the Sone Irrigation System of Bihar, India. Using these indicators in an analysis of the contribution of irrigation to rice production shows that incorporating measures of timeliness explains much more of the variability in agricultural production than do simple measures of total water applications over a season. Results of production functions show that if water deliveries cannot be matched with crop requirements, they have a negative, rather than a positive, impact on yields. Water scarcity has the greatest adverse impact in production in the middle of the season, while surpluses are most damaging at the beginning and end of the season. Temporal redistribution from surplus periods to times of water scarcity therefore offers considerable scope to increase productivity without increasing water use.An earlier version of portions of this paper was presented at the IFPRI/ICAR Workshop on Agricultural Growth in India: A Review of Research Findings, 1–6 May 1994 in New Delhi.     

Paper submitted for the nineth international drainage workshop (ICID)

The environmental benefits of water table management (WTM), as a method to reduce nitrate pollution, are well known. However, there are few published studies on the effects of WTM on water use efficiency (WUE). This paper highlights the agronomic interest of WTM for increasing WUE of irrigated grain corn production. A field study was conducted in 2001 and 2002 at a large scale WTM research facility in Québec, Canada. The region experienced periods of drought during the two growing seasons. This study shows that, by keeping the water table at 0.80 m below the soil surface, there were on average 35% increases in grain corn yields, compared to conventional free drainage. The WUEs obtained with WTM (5.1 kg m⁻³ in 2001 and 7.1 kg m⁻³ in 2002) indicate that the method is generally more water efficient than conventional sprinkler and furrow irrigation. The WUE of WTM also compares well with that of water conservation methods such as alternate furrow irrigation and deficit sprinkler irrigation. Moreover, WTM requires low inputs in terms of equipment, energy, and labour, because it makes use of existing subsurface drainage systems, which are widespread in Eastern Canada due to the region's soils and climate, and because of its design, which does not necessitate high-pressure pumps and allows for automated management. Hence, WTM appears to be an interesting alternative to conventional irrigation methods due to its combined environmental and agronomical benefits.     

油菜免耕机播质量及节本效益对比试验与分析

由于我国产业结构的调整,越来越多的农民外出务工经商,农业劳动力不足,制约了油菜产业的发展。油菜机械化生产是解决这一问题的最好办法。但是,机械化播种方法多种多样,哪种方法最具优势,目前尚无定论。该课题通过三种油菜机械化播种方法的田间对比试验与分析,得出科学结论,以至为油菜机械化生产及装备的优选提供相关依据,以推动油菜生产全程机械化。     

发展大功率拖拉机复式作业装备的重要性

与大功率拖拉机配套的复式作业装备是我国农机发展的重要方向,也是现阶段我国农业发展需要攻克的重大课题。结合黑龙江省农业生产的实际情况,探讨发展大功率拖拉机复式作业装备对促进农业生产和粮食增产的重要意义。