Assessment of the effects of NPK fertilizer on edible yield and agro-biological parameters in a cowpea–amaranth intercrop
Introduction: Estimates indicate that food and nutritional demand in sub-Saharan African nutrient-poor soils will exceed the high population demand. Vegetables such as amaranth and cowpea are key in contributing to food and nutritional security. Fertilizers are used to mitigate low nutrient levels in soils. This study aimed to investigate the yield parameters of cowpea and amaranth vegetables.
Fire management for healthy rangelands in sub-Saharan Africa: A review
Prescribed burning is gaining attention as a vital tool for managing rangeland ecosystems in Sub-Saharan Africa, offering benefits for ecological restoration, biodiversity conservation, and overall land management. While fire is a natural and essential process that many ecosystems depend on, suppressing it can lead to the elimination of species and disrupt the ecological balance. Different ecosystems require varied approaches to fire management, with fire-sensitive ones needing protection and fire-dependent ones necessitating the right type and frequency of fire.
Discovering gender-related uncommon practices for improved nutrition of mothers and children through the Positive Deviance approach in rural Madhya Pradesh, India
The aim of the study was to discover uncommon practices among families with well-nourished mothers and young children living in equally low socioeconomic circumstances in rural Madhya Pradesh that lead to improved nutrition outcomes. A positive deviance (PD) inquiry was carried out with 23 families in seven villages, including semi-structured interviews with mothers and other household members and participatory observations.
Using technology to scale climate-smart agriculture, conservation agriculture, sustainable intensification, and nutrition interventions: Why use a GESI approach?
East and Southern Africa is a climate hotspot, with more than US$45 billion in agricultural production at risk from higher temperatures, shorter growing seasons, and more extreme droughts and floods. Women play a strategic role in agricultural development and food security, often in labor-intensive activities. Efforts to quickly address the current water and climate challenges through innovative ways have been underscored. One of such innovations emphasized has been production technologies, recognized as potentially effective in improving agricultural incomes for farmers.
Empowering smallholder farmers by sustainable fodder development for improved animal management in Odisha
Smallholder women farmers in the eastern Indian state of Odisha play a crucial role in the management of goat and backyard poultry. However, they face significant challenges due to fodder shortages, which adversely affect their livelihoods. This abstract highlights the efforts of Heifer International in addressing the fodder scarcity through sustainable farming practices, with a particular focus on smallholder women farmers in Odisha.
Excluding the marginalized? Exploring the livelihood and inequality implications of herbicide diffusion in eastern India
The increasing agricultural wages in rural India have lent significant R&D and policy support for laborsaving agricultural technologies. While some are heralded as ‘game changers’ in achieving food sufficiency goals, less research is devoted to understanding whether farmer adoption of these technologies worsens economic inequalities. We hypothesize that the rapid diffusion of laborsaving agricultural technologies could result in a reduction in employment and loss of a key source of livelihood for the nonfarming rural poor, especially women from socially marginalized groups.
Understanding women farmers’ empowerment in climate- stressed smallholder systems: Evidence from a climate-smart cropping system intensification initiative in Indian Sundarbans
Climate change poses a profound threat to the wellbeing and sustainability of farming and farm-based livelihoods in fragile socioecological systems. Climatic challenges to farming have often been addressed by diverse forms of sustainable intensification that aim to maximize farm outputs and resource-use efficiency through climate-smart innovations. However, climate change poses specific challenges to women farmers, who play important roles in agri-food systems, often in the absence of their male counterparts who recursively migrate from the climatically challenged regions.
Women and youth inclusive value- chain development: A case from Ziway-Shalla sub-basin of Ethiopia and Wegnia and Sourou of Mali
Inclusive value-chain development aims to empower small-scale farmers and strengthen the agriculture sector. This study explores the impact of livelihood assets, access strategies, and enabling and discouraging factors on women’s and youth’s inclusion in surplus agricultural production and off-farm activities in Ethiopia and Mali. It is based on an ecologically sustainable agricultural water management project that aims to make markets work for the poor through inclusive value-chain development in Ziway-Shalla Subbasin of Ethiopia and Wegnia and Sourou of Mali.
Gendered challenges and coping strategies of women smallholder farmers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal’s Tarai region: A feminist political ecology perspective
This study addresses the knowledge gap regarding the specific gendered challenges faced by women smallholder farmers and the coping strategies deployed by them during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigates how power dynamics, gender norms and sociocultural practices at the household and community levels affected the women farmers’ coping mechanisms from a feminist political ecology perspective.
Gendered division of family and hired labor and agricultural productivity in India
Studies on the gender gap in agricultural productivity rarely consider differences arising from the differential use of women workers on the farm. Yet, genderbased norms and frictions in the rural labor markets of women may lead to skill-based differences between hired and family labor—differences that are more distinct for women than men. This study examined agricultural productivity differences based on the differential use of hired and family women’s labor in India.