Integrated landscape approaches have been welcomed by scientists and development practitioners as a promising way to address commodity-driven deforestation and associated land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. They present cross-sectoral approaches to manage trade-offs between multiple land uses and environmental and socio-economic objectives through participatory multi-stakeholder planning and negotiation processes. The success of landscape approaches depends on the larger institutional systems of rules, regulations, and actor networks in which they are embedded.

Water scarcity is already set to be one of the main issues of the 21st century, because of competing needs between civil, industrial, and agricultural use. Agriculture is currently the largest user of water, but its share is bound to decrease as societies develop and clearly it needs to become more water efficient. Improving water use efficiency (WUE) at the plant level is important but translating this at the farm/landscape level presents considerable challenges.

The jurisdictional approach concept emerged in response to the widespread failure of sectoral forest conservation projects. Despite its increasing popularity, understanding jurisdictional approach outcomes is challenging, given that many remain in either the formation or implementation stage. Furthermore, diverse stakeholders hold different perspectives on what exactly a jurisdictional approach is intended to pursue. These different perspectives are important to unravel, as having a shared understanding of the outcomes is important to build the critical support needed for it.

At the end of the module participants will be able to: to identify and demonstrate the Challenges of Climate Change to Soils and Fertility Management; to explain and demonstrate the concepts of Landscape Approach for Achieving Climate Smart Agriculture through Nutrient Management; to demonstrate and apply the Concepts and Principles of Soil Health and Soil Fertility Management for Crop Production, and to demonstrate the Approaches in Nutrient and Water Management for Sustainable Crop Production.

This paper examines how resilience capacity mediates or moderates the relationship between weather shocks and household food security based on two waves of farm household survey and satellite-based weather data in northern Ghana and applying econometric models. Results show that resilience capacity moderate or mediates the negative effects of heat stress and drought on food security. However, the mediating role of resilience capacity in the shock-food security nexus is more stable and stronger than its moderating role.

Research since the 1990s highlights the importance of tenure rights for sustainable natural resource management, and for alleviating poverty and enhancing nutrition and food security for the 3.14 billion rural inhabitants of less-developed countries who rely on forests and agriculture for their livelihoods. Which rights or combination of rights an individual, household, or community has affects whether they have access to land and resources, as well as how those can be used and for how long. Equally important is the degree to which landholders perceive their tenure to be secure.

The phenomenon of feral crops, that is, free-living populations that have established outside cultivation, is understudied. Some researchers focus on the negative consequences of domestication, whereas others assert that feral populations may serve as useful pools of genetic diversity for future crop improvement. Although research on feral crops and the process of feralization has advanced rapidly in the last two decades, generalizable insights have been limited by a lack of comparative research across crop species and other factors.

Where and which countries should receive higher priority for improving inorganic fertilizer use in rice fields in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)? This study addressed this question by assessing the spatial variation in fertilizer use and its association with rice yield and yield gap in 24 SSA countries through a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed papers, theses, and grey literature published between 1995 and 2021.

Scientists have declared that the earth is now “well outside the safe operating space for humanity” as a result of our destruction of the natural world. A recent report was the first to assess all nine planetary boundaries and found that six have been transgressed.

Can farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) boost crop yields and improve food availability without using more mineral fertilizer? This question has been at the center of lively debates among the civil society, policy-makers, and in academic editorials. Proponents of the “yes” answer have put forward the “input reduction” principle of agroecology, i.e. by relying on agrobiodiversity, recycling and better efficiency, agroecological practices such as the use of legumes and manure can increase crop productivity without the need for more mineral fertilizer.

This manual was developed as a training guide to empower and equip members of the farmers’ cooperative with the essential knowledge, skills, and best practices required to adopt and implement CSA technologies and Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).