Large-scale agricultural land investments in Africa are often considered solely from the land perspective. Yet land, water and other natural resources are closely interlinked in agricultural production and in sustaining rural livelihoods. Such investments involving irrigation will potentially have implications for water availability and utilization by other users, making it imperative to regard water as an economic rather than a free good.

The overuse and misuse of chemical pesticides has widely been reported in vegetable cultivation in Sri Lanka. While safer and environmental friendly pest and disease management methods such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are popular around the world, only little effort has been taken to promote IPM in Sri Lankan vegetable cultivation. Furthermore, farmers have not shown much interest on practicing IPM in vegetable cultivation.

The participatory forest fire prevention programme of Forest Fire Prevention Management Project (FFPMP) aims at intensive fuel management and fire control with the integrated green belt on community land on the boundary of Berbak National Park, Jambi Province, Sumatra. It aims to motivate farmers to cultivate their land continuously, reducing fire hazards and risks through formation of fuel breaks around the forest. Participating farmers face technical limitations in seedling production, land preparation without burning, and crop planting and protection.

Cotton water productivity was studied in Fergana Valley of Central Asia during the years of 2009, 2010 and 2011. Data was collected from 18 demonstration fields (13 in Uzbekistan, 5 in Tajikistan). The demonstration field farmers implemented several improved agronomic and irrigation water management practices. The average values of crop yield, estimated crop consumptive use (ETa) and total water applied (TWA) for the demonstration sites were, respectively, 3700 kg/ha, 6360 m3/ha, and 8120 m3/ha.

In order to understand farmers’ perceptions of resilience

in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes

(SEPLS), a participatory field assessment was conducted in

Kenya. A tool developed by the United Nations University-

Institute of Advanced Studies and Bioversity International

was used to elucidate the range of perceptions of risk

faced by five communities living in different agro-ecological

and socio-economic conditions. This paper presents

the practical process of carrying out assessments at the