The shortage of water in arid zones represents the most serious obstacle to poverty reduction because it limits the extent to which poor producers of crops and livestock can take advantage of opportunities arising from emerging markets, trade, and globalization. Water shortage in arid zones limits the variety and quantity of crop and livestock products a smallholder can produce, thus narrowing their range of options.

Global food production has increased by 20% in the past decade – but food insecurity and poverty remain widespread , while the natural resource base continues to decline. International research centers, which have helped drive previous improvements, must continue to deliver new technologies to support sustainable growth in agriculture; and to work with other partners to accelerate the dissemination of these technologies.

Zambia’s small-scale farmers are even poorer today than they were 40 years ago. According to the 2010 Human Development Report, Zambia is one of just three nations whose development has fallen behind 1970 levels. And yet Zambia is one of Africa’s “lion states” with annual economic growth rates of more than 5 percent. It is not easy to explain such a contradiction, but a DIE study is drawing closer to ? nding an answer.

Cassava is the main staple crop in many African countries, but the crops are threatened by two major diseases, the cassava mosaic virus disease and cassava brown streak virus, which in the last years have destroyed almost 80 percent of cassava harvests in Africa.

Livestock intensification in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, may increase the incidence of epidemics that kill both humans and animals, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) warns. Livestock numbers are rising sharply due to population growth and the rise in affluence, as both factors lead to increased demand for milk, meat and eggs. 

Cattle are one of the main instruments for economic (e.g., milk, meat, and cattle sale) and social (e.g., marriage, death, dispute settlement, and gift giving) exchange in Uganda. They serve as the main source of livelihood for a large majority of rural Ugandans, especially in the cattle corridor. Recent statistics demonstrate that the livestock sector contributes 13.1 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and 5 percent of the national GDP.

Agricultural investments made by developing countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have declined in recent decades. This decline is associated with a slowdown in the growth of agriculture productivity. Most development institutions have recognized the damage caused by this past neglect, in part evident in rising food prices, and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging. But this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous.

This report will focus on results of 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons in which the conventional handmade microcatchment was compared to the mechanized one through research done at the Jordan University of Science and Technology site.

In relevance to the project objectives and expected outputs, the reported research aimed at introducing a mechanized transplanting technique to the WH system to reduce costs and time of establishment of fodder shrubs, thus improving overall system capacity and making large-scale implementation more feasible. Therefore, the expected output is to improve WH and re-vegetation techniques with less cost and time of establishment for fodder shrubs.

The literature identifies two common approaches for estimating technical efficiency. One approach is based on non-parametric, non-stochastic, linear programming. This suffers from the criticism that it does not take into account the possible influence of measurement error and other noise in the data (Coelli, 1995). The second approach uses econometrics to estimate a stochastic frontier function, and to estimate the inefficiency component of the error term. The disadvantage of this approach is that it imposes an explicit and possibly restrictive functional form on the technology.

Agriculture in Syria depends on a wide base of varied natural resources extending over five agro-ecological zones differing in total precipitation, soil structure, and water resources such as rivers, springs, dams, and groundwater which supplies water for about 851,000 ha (61% of the total irrigated areas). However, precipitation is considered as the main source of the water needed to establish the widespread rainfed system of agriculture, which occupies 70% of the cultivated area in Syria.

Wheat is the main cultivated crop in the LKRB (mainly the Dashte- Azadegan plain). Its average yield is 1500 kg/ha (Agricultural Statistics 2004). Irrigation management practices are traditional and the region suffers from poor water management, which is partly due to lack of modern irrigation infrastructure and improved on-farm activities. Therefore, sound and adoptive solutions are necessary to ameliorate this condition.