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Video
Animals, trees for a better crop
In semi-arid West Africa, farmers and herders explain why and how trees and livestock play a crucial role in obtaining a productive soil and crop. In Niger and Ghana this is one of the strategies of integrated striga and soil fertility management that has a positive effect across agroclimatic zones....
Niger
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Composting to beat striga
Compost is more powerful than manure. What is less known is that the micro-organisms in compost attack striga seeds in the soil. Compost also decreases the amount of striga that will sprout, and reduces its negative effect on cereal crops. Let us look at how farmers in northeast Mali make...
Mali
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Grow row by row
Farmers in northern Nigeria are changing the way they intercrop their sorghum and millet with cowpea. By planting both crops at higher densities and in separate rows, and by applying some organic fertilizer, they harvest more and reduce damage by the parasitic weed striga. It is one of the strategies...
Nigeria
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Integrated approach against striga
The parasitic weed striga causes more damage to cereal crops in poor soils, so both problems have to be tackled together. In this video we will learn why it is important to combine at least three control methods to reduce striga and obtain a good yield of sorghum, millet, maize...
United Republic of Tanzania
2016 - Access Agriculture
Practices
Enfermedades de las abejas: Nosemosis
La nosemosis es una enfermedad de las abejas adultas causada por hongos unicelulares pertenecientes a la Clase: Microsporidia, Familia: Nosimatidi, Género: Nosema. Existen dos subespecies diferentes de Nosema que afectan a Apis mellifera con diferente prevalencia dependiendo de la zona: Nosema apis y Nosema ceranae, responsables de dos formas diferentes de la enfermedad. Ambos...
2016
Video
Storing cowpea seed
Intercropping or rotating cereal crops with legume crops are two of the strategies of integrated striga and soil fertility management. But keeping quality legume seed has two major challenges. First, the seed easily loses its ability to germinate. And second, we are not the only ones who love legumes. Let’s...
Ghana
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Striga biology
One of the major parasites is striga, a weed that sucks the juice and nutrients from cereal crops such as millet, sorghum and maize and causes great yield losses. A single striga plant can produce hundreds of thousands of seeds. The seeds are so tiny that most farmers do not...
United Republic of Tanzania
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Well dried seed is good seed
Farmers face great difficulties with drying their seeds because seed absorbs moisture from the soil. As a result, seed quality deteriorates, and no-one can expect good yields by using poor quality seed. In this video you can see how farmers of Maria village solved this problem. Now they are no...
Bangladesh
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Reviving soils with mucuna
In the coastal savanna of West Africa, farmers explain how a mucuna cover crop helped to revive their highly degraded soil, and suppress the noxious weeds Striga and Imperata. They show how to grow it to benefit your maize and cassava, and why discussing land tenure in your community really...
Togo
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Contour bunds
In the semi-arid savannas where rainfall is limited and highly unpredictable, retaining more water in the soil can make the difference between a poor and a good harvest. You can slow down the runoff water by establishing contour bunds. Contour bunds are permanent ridges of earth that follow positions located...
Burkina Faso
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Fanya juu terraces
Fanya juu means "throw the soil up" in Kiswahili. The terraces formed are ideal for fodder grasses and help prevent soil erosion. Cultivation becomes easier as the terraces spread out to make the land more level and when combined with manure/fertilizer yields increase.
Kenya
2016 - Access Agriculture
Practices
Beneficial insects and the cotton pests they control
This technology gives an overview of the beneficial insects that might appear in cotton fields in Western Africa. Knowing the pests and beneficial insects present on a cotton plant is a crucial decision-making tool for applying Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
Cameroon
2016 - The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO TECA
Video
Integrated approach against fruit flies
Fruit flies inject their eggs in fruit. A single fruit fly can lay hundreds of eggs, which turn into white worms that eat the inside of fruit. If no action is taken, fruit flies quickly increase in numbers and can destroy your entire crop. Always combine different methods: • Place...
Benin - Ghana
2016 - Access Agriculture
Video
Collecting fallen fruit against fruit flies
One fruit fly can lay a few hundred eggs during her life. Fruit flies puncture the skin of fruit to lay their eggs, which cause the fruit to drop prematurely and rot. The worms that hatch from these eggs leave the spoilt fruit after one week and crawl into the...
Benin - Ghana
2016 - Access Agriculture
Manual
Plantwise Diagnostic Field Guide
A tool to diagnose crop problems and make recommendations for their management
The Plantwise Diagnostic Field Guide is intended for all plant doctors and other plant health advisors around the world. The job of being a plant doctor is not an easy one. Since farmers can bring any crop with any type of problem to a plant clinic, there are many different...
2015 - Plantwise
Magazine article
Examples of European agricultural practices playing a part in environmental protection
Protection and improvement of soil functionality: Cover crops in the Czech Republic, with European support, to prevent soil erosion European soils are wealth providing us with essential services, including water purification and food production. In fact, our soils fulfil important carbon storage functions, playing an essential part in climate regulation...
Czechia
2015 - Romanian Rural Development Network
Working paper
Scaling up best practices for managing Awassi dairy sheep to small scale sheep farmers in West Asia
This working paper presents an overview of the results of an ICARDA project to provide Awassi sheep farmers in Syria and Lebanon with the latest knowledge on best practices for managing sheep to improve their income. The project provided ICARDA the opportunity to actively convert scientific knowledge generated over many...
Lebanon - Syrian Arab Republic
2015 - International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)
Magazine article
Editorial - Soils: where the roots of agroecology and family farming lie
Healthy soils contribute to resilient food production. Soil carbon is a key to healthy soils but, today we see the long-term consequences of agricultural management that has neglected soil carbon – degraded soils, polluted waters, and unprecedented rates of hunger and malnutrition. There are good examples of agroecological practices that...
2015 - ILEIA, Center for Learning on Sustainable Agriculture
Case study
From slash and burn to ‘slash and mulch’
In semi-arid cropping regions of West Africa, fallow periods are getting shorter. As land becomes more scarce, farmers are not able to give their soils enough time to rest. This is leading to depletion of soil organic matter, severely threatening soil fertility and damaging soil structure. In the worst cases,...
Burkina Faso
2015 - ILEIA, Center for Learning on Sustainable Agriculture
Book
Crops, Weeds and Pollinators: Understanding Ecological Interactions for Better Management
This publication looks at managing agricultural systems through an ecological approach, building upon beneficial biological interactions and finding positive synergies between pollination and weed management. These two aspects of agriculture consist of a multitude of interactions, both beneficial and harmful for the farmer and agriculture in general. If the practices...
2015 - FAO
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