Objectives:

To promote agricultural Mechanization.
Women and youth employment.
To overcome labour constraints in mixed farming systems.

Mixed farming is defined as agricultural production systems with the integration of crops, agroforestry, fisheries, and livestock in a system approach. Crops and livestock are critical components of the mixed farming system.

Food production and rural livelihoods' food security in Nepal face numerous threats for various reasons. Similar to global trends, the country contends with unpredictable weather patterns, including heat and drought stress on plants, as well as heavy precipitation. Around 80% of Nepal’s population is dependent on subsistence farming for their livelihood, while only 24% of all arable land is irrigated (Suhardiman et al., 2015).

In Ethiopia, much like in several other African nations, the availability of food relies significantly on a large number of smallholder farmers. These farmers, confronted with various environmental obstacles, are experiencing substantial pressure to maintain and improve food production in order to ensure a stable food supply, particularly in light of the anticipated population growth across the continent.

The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems (SIMFS) is a CGIAR initiative. This initiative ‘aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecological and socioeconomic settings. To achieve this, different methodologies, innovations, and practices have been implemented to understand and improve the agroecological/productive conditions to assess a benefit on nutrition, food security and welfare.

Temperate food legumes (faba bean, chickpea, field pea and lentil) are important food and feed crops in West Asia, north and East Africa regions. The productivity of legume crops is affected by Aphids (Acyrthosiphon pisum and Aphis fabae) and pod borer (Helicoverpa armigera). Due to climate and farming systems changes, the impacts of insect pests are increasing, and farmers are discouraged from including food legumes in their cropping systems. Besides direct economic damage, many aphid species play important roles as vectors of legume viruses like Pea seed-borne mosaic virus.

The highlands of North Shoa in Amhara region are dominated by cereals (wheat, barley and tef) followed by food legumes. The productivity of cereals and food legumes is low due to biotic and abiotic factors as well as insufficient input supplies like planting materials and other inputs. Farmers are trying to include vegetatively propagated horticultural crops (tubers, bulbs, and fruit trees) into the farming systems. Horticultural crops are very important to diversify diets, incomes and reduce risks of cereal and legume crop production.

The SIMFS initiative in Ethiopia is implemented under the scheme of sustainable intensification of crop-livestock mixed farming systems. Its purposes are to encourage the adoption and innovation of sustainable intensification technologies that improve crop, livestock, and water productivity, and conserve natural resources for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia.

Most people in Niger still rely heavily on agriculture as a source of income. However, low productivity, climate change, soil infertility, pests, and diseases are challenges faced by this sector. As a result, the nation suffers from a severe problem of food insecurity. Many investigations indicate that adopting improved crop varieties(ICVs) increases agricultural productivity. Using information gathered from 1784 farmers, this study assesses the effects of adopting improved crop varieties (ICVs) on household welfare.

Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) has degraded soils, epitomized by decades of loss of valuable topsoil caused by continuous cultivation, monocropping, excessive run-off, and the absence of effective conservation-based farming practices. Conservation Agriculture (CA) offers several opportunities to restore land and arrest soil degradation in smallholder farming systems of SSA. This study assessed labor productivity and farm returns associated with CA in Malawi and Zambia using household survey data collected from 500 and 616 farmers in Zambia and Malawi, respectively.