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Metadata only record Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs based on the Farmer Field School approach are being implemented in many countries. Their benefits have been recognized by a broad range of stakeholders, including farming communities, local and national governments, NGOs and donors, who are now supporting such programs. Substantial investment in this approach calls for comprehensive documentation of its impact and sustainability. This study reviews twenty-five impact studies and discusses the overall results. Most of the ongoing programs have conducted impact evaluations of a kind. These varied in focus, approach, methodology and robustness. Results, however, commonly remained buried in project reports. Impact evaluation of the IPM Farmer Field School has proven to be complex because of methodological obstacles, because of the range of immediate and developmental impacts, and because of different perspectives of stakeholders. Consequently, there is no agreed conceptual framework for measuring impact. Available in SANREM office, FS

Metadata only record The papers selected for this volume represent a wide range of perspectives on the nature of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). They explore the underlying concepts, provide case studies, and confirm once again the importance and, as yet, unrealized potential of TEK in resource and environmental management. The papers reinforce the conviction that TEK can make a major contribution to the delivery of Agenda 21 of the UN Earth Summit and to sustainable development. The papers also reinforce the point that indigenous and local peoples have themselves lived in harmony with their environments for many hundreds of years, a relationship which is evident in many of their activities today.

Metadata only record Within the last thirty years in the West African Sahel, farmers have started to implement agroenvironmental practices which have allowed them to improve the soil quality and increase crop yields. Using two examples of land rehabilitation in Africa, this paper examines the technical and institutional innovations and their impacts on the ability to meet food demand for the growing population. Agroenvironmental techniques incorporate trees into the agricultural landscape, which improves water retention in the soil, increases the supply of nutrients, reduces wind erosion, and provides other marketable tree products. This large-scale effort has created income opportunities for farmers, benefited women, and increased food supply for many African families.

Metadata only record This book examines the implications of adapting more ecologically sound agricultural practices, both at the level of individual farmers and at the level of larger-scale agro-ecosystems such as water catchments. The emphasis of the book is on human and social aspects, rather than on agronomic or economic considerations, focusing on the learning process necessary for changes to be implemented and, in turn, on the facilitation of that learning through participatory approaches and appropriate institutional support and policy structure. It covers agricultural development, sustainable development and extension science as a move towards more flexible, sustainable agricultural practices is increasingly being seen as the way to address or avoid environmental and economic problems associated with existing, predominantly intensive, farming systems. Through case studies taken from around the world, this book examines the implications of adopting more ecologically sound agricultural practices, both at the level of individual farmers and at the level of larger-scale agro-ecosystems such as water catchments. Available in SANREM office, ES

Metadata only record The book centers on an analysis of the options for the agronomic development of semiarid regions with winter rains (i.e. Mediterranean regions). Data obtained in the northern Negev desert in Israel serve as a starting point. On the basis of these data, crop and sheep husbandry systems were designed and integrated into agro-pastoral systems in which small-grain crops act as a buffer for feed production. These systems served as a basis for rational planning of regional agricultural development under alternative development objectives. In analyzing the possibilities, a three-step approach was developed: first the feasibility and robustness of selected innovative techniques at the farm level were investigated in relation to variability in weather and prices, then a matrix of production techniques for a region was formulated in terms of their physical inputs and outputs, and finally, this matrix was embedded into a dynamic multiple-goal linear programming model. In comparing the results for different goals, the consequences for goal achievement and desired production techniques can be made explicit, and in this way the book can be a guide for actual development planning in semiarid regions.