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Agricultural water management
Published in Lyla Mehta, Theib Oweis, Claudia Ringler, Barbara Schreiner, Shiney Varghese, Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice, 2019
Lyla Mehta, Theib Oweis, Claudia Ringler, Barbara Schreiner, Shiney Varghese
Such an approach to food security also seeks to protect available natural resources, including water. Farming techniques with fewer inputs protect water from degradation due to chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and agroecological methods maximize the productivity of available resources through context-specific soil, water and biodiversity management regimes informed by traditional knowledge. Agroecology’s focus on maintaining crop diversity also allows farmers to appropriately utilize available water resources (Altieri et al., 2012a). An example of such approaches in more drought prone and marginal environments are water and land management practices that make use of indigenous technology, such as water harvesting, micro-irrigation, mulching and the construction of hill-side terraces lined with shrubs and trees which enhance the ability of the soil to catch and store water. While agroecology is rooted in the rationale of traditional peasant farming systems (Altieri et al., 2012b), agroecological transition processes include innovative forms of collaboration between farmers and researchers, building primarily on functionalities given by ecosystems and traditional knowledge and know-how but combining it with the best use of modern agroecological science (Parmentier, 2014).
Ethics of agricultural water use
Published in David Groenfeldt, Water Ethics, 2019
One of the most important features of agroecology is diversity of crop species and multiple varieties of a single species, often growing together in the same field. In contrast to the Green Revolution’s emphasis on reducing the number of crop varieties and focusing on just a few high yielding improved varieties, agroecology depends on genetic diversity of many different crops and multiple varieties of the same crop as insurance against pests and vagaries of weather (Brookfield et al. 2003). Crop diversity is a form of risk management, providing a hedge against increasingly uncertain weather patterns due to climate change, while monocropping reflects a strategy of maximizing yields when all other conditions can be optimally controlled.
Food Supply
Published in Cameron La Follette , Chris Maser, Sustainability and the Rights of Nature, 2017
Cameron La Follette , Chris Maser
At first, the Foundation met with much resistance—even disbelief—from multinationals and university scientists, but they persevered. They held seed fairs after harvest, so farmers could swap stories and practices, and learn about such things as crop diversity. The Foundation eventually became an umbrella organization that trains and serves more than 30 sustainable agriculture operations. From the outset, women were, and continue to be, big supporters of the seed bank and the return to sustainable, local agriculture.39
Crop diversity for mixed first and second generation ethanol production
Published in Biofuels, 2018
Unlike in industrial nations, the food–fuel competition in developing countries is subject to controversy [3]. Hence, lignocellulosic biomass and biomass containing non-food fructan/starch, such as triticale or Jerusalem artichoke bulbs, seem attractive [4,5]. Corn [6,7,8], wheat straw [8,9] and sugar cane [10,11] have all been researched. However, such a low number of potential biofuel crops increases the risk of monocultures. In 2013, more than 55% of the farmland in Germany was used for grain farming [102].Only a few investigations on a lab scale have been carried out on other lignocellulose sources (Figure 1) [12], such as straw from Jerusalem artichoke [13,14], hemp [15,16], Miscanthus [17,18], bamboo [19,20] or flowering plants [21,22] that can be grown in central Europe. Use of such plants has the potential to increase crop diversity and biodiversity.
Post-water political-economics
Published in International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2023
What about the silver linings of climate change? Higher CO2 concentrations are increasing net primary productivity. As growing seasons lengthen at high latitudes, farmers are already migrating to new lands in Canada and Russia (Lustgarten, 2020). But a few seasons (perhaps decades) of trial and error will be needed to adapt to different soil conditions, even where these are favourable. Even if farmers succeed, there will still be a loss of crop diversity as farmers adapt to changing micro-climates, invasive species, climate conditions, and so on.
Agricultural Production, Traditional Foods and Household Food Insecurity in Rural Kenya: Practice, Perception and Predictors
Published in Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2023
Constance Awuor Gewa, Bonnie Stabile, Phil Thomas, Agatha Christine Onyango, Frederick Obondo Angano
Mothers believed that an over-reliance on a small number of crops contributed to hunger in the study area. The negative association that was shown between crop diversity and HFIAS scores supported this belief. Low levels of crop diversity may account for the loss of statistical significance in the multivariate regression models as our results show that households planted a median of 2–4 crops across seasons. Crop diversity was shown to be a strong predictor of increased food security in other studies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.10 When looking at specific crops, the bivariate analysis showed the negative association between cereal/grain production and HFIAS score. However, this association lost significance in the multivariate regression models. Maize was the most common type of crop cultivated in study households. The study’s FGD respondents noted that maize was a more preferred cereal. However, they did not perceive maize as the type of crop that could help prevent hunger in the study area. Despite this perception, our analysis showed that households that produced cereal/grains were likely to experience less food insecurity. As the main staple food, production of maize is likely to lead to increased food availability and source of income. Higher maize yields have been shown to be associated with increased household food security.10 Results from the quantitative data analysis did not support mothers’ belief that traditional grains and tubers (millet, sorghum and cassava) could help prevent hunger in the study area. It is possible that households did not produce enough of the traditional grains to influence household food security. Only one-tenth of the households that produced cereals/grains in the non-harvest season had planted sorghum or millet, and less than half households that produced cereals/grains in the harvest season had planted sorghum or millet. Such low levels of production of sorghum in Seme could be attributed to a lack of preference as reported by the FGD respondents, among other factors.