Journal articles on the topic 'Adoption; sustainable agricultural practices; integrative approach'

AbstractImproving nitrogen (N) fertilizer management in agricultural systems is critical to meeting environmental goals while maintaining economically viable and productive food systems. This paper applies a farm systems framework to analyze how adoption of N management practices is related to different farming operation characteristics and the extent to which fertilizer, soil and irrigation practices are related to each other. We develop a multivariate probit regression model to analyze the interdependency of these adoption behaviors from 966 farmers across three watersheds and diverse cropping systems in the Central Valley of California. Our analysis demonstrates that farmers adopt varying combinations or portfolios of practices, with the most common portfolio featuring a core set of fertilizer-focused practices. Irrigation infrastructure is an especially important farm operation characteristic for encouraging adoption of innovative practice portfolios that integrate water and fertilizer management. These findings highlight the ability for a farm systems approach to improve our understanding of farmer decision-making across diverse agricultural landscapes.

Sustainable marketing is a holistic approach that puts equal emphasis on environmental, social equity, and economic concerns in the development of marketing strategies. The purpose of the study is to examine and discuss the sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives practiced throughout the World and Turkey, and to put forth suggestions to further improve the performance of agricultural marketing initiatives in Turkey. Some of the sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives practiced around the world are carried out through civil organizations. Furthermore; some of these initiatives have also launched by farmers, consumers, food processors and retailers. The long-term strategies to increase these initiatives should be determined due to the fact that examples of successful sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives are inadequate and cannot be spread in Turkey. In this context, first of all, the supports provided by the government to improve agricultural marketing systems, such as EU funds for rural development should be compatible with the goals of sustainable marketing. For this purpose, it should be examined whether all proposed projects related to agricultural marketing meet the social, economic, and environmental principles of sustainable marketing. It is important that supporting organizations, especially civil society organisations, should take an active role for faster dissemination and adoption of sustainable agricultural marketing practices in Turkey. These organizations may provide technical assistance in preparing successful project proposals and training to farm groups. In addition, the other organizations, such as local administrations, producers' associations, cooperatives, can contribute to the success of sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives. The use of direct marketing strategies and vertical integration attempts in sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives that will likely be implemented in Turkey is important in terms of the success of the initiatives. It's also essential to bring to the fore the various themes, such as regional delicacies, safe production methods, human and environmental health, regionalism, regional artisanship, and biodiversity to cultivate a successful marketing strategy in promotional activities of sustainable agricultural marketing initiatives.

The adoption of Precision Farming (PF) practices involving ubiquitous computing advancements and conceptual innovations of “smart” agricultural production toward Agriculture 4.0 is a significant factor for the benefit of sustainable growth. In this context, the dynamic integration of PF facility systems into the Internet of Things (IoT) represents an excessive challenge considering the large amount of heterogeneous raw data acquired in agricultural environments by Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (WSANs). This paper focuses on the issue of facilitating the management, process, and exchange of the numerous and diverse data points generated in multiple PF environments by introducing a framework of a cloud-based context-aware middleware solution as part of a responsive, adaptive, and service-oriented IoT integrated system. More particularly, the paper presents in detail a layered hierarchical structure according to which all functional elements of the system cope with context, while the context awareness operation is accomplished into a cloud-based distributed middleware component that is the core of the entire system acting as a Decision Support System (DSS). Furthermore, as proof of concept, the functionality of the proposed system is studied in real conditions where some evaluation results regarding its performance are quoted.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the agricultural practices in a drought-prone region of India in an effort to find out how science, technology and innovation (STI) measures can address the existing problems and help achieve sustainable solutions. This study has been planned with two specific objectives: to study the agricultural practices of small and marginal-holding farmers in a drought-prone region and to examine the opportunities for suitable interventions to mitigate the impacts of droughts. The study is based on primary survey conducted in Banda district of Bundelkhand region, Uttar Pradesh, India. Design/methodology/approach Empirical survey was done in eight different blocks of a drought-prone region of India using structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested with a group of 12 farmers during a workshop through a pilot survey conducted during April 2017. Stratified sampling based on land holdings (small farmers having 1–2 ha of land, medium farmers having 2.1–5 ha of land and large farmers having more than 5 ha of land) and irrigation types (canals and tube wells) were utilised in different blocks of the district for selecting farmers in the surveyed villages. Findings Findings suggest that due to various reasons like change in climatic conditions, frequent crop failure, crop diseases and high cost of production, farmers have adopted certain crops which are not suited to their agro-climatic conditions. The paper recommends that farmer’s school or “on-farm training school” have to be initiated to integrate farmers’ traditional knowledge with modern knowledge systems with amalgamation of STI tools. Research limitations/implications Uttar Pradesh is divided into nine agro-climatic zones; however, this study is focused on Bundelkhand and may be region specific, though the findings are important for other drought-prone areas. Practical implications The paper links the existing agricultural practices and further linking them with farmers’ socio-economic, cultural and environmental settings. Only 17.5 per cent of respondents owned any agricultural equipment due to high cost of farm tools, difficulty in taking equipements on rental basis and lack of sharing tools among the farmers. Social implications This paper targets small and marginal farmers in the drought-prone region of India who face the dual shock of climate impacts and poverty. Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate which is further hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case of small land holdings. Originality/value This paper has advocated for well-organised, efficient and result-oriented STI system to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought-prone agriculture. Farming community in drough-prone areas needs adequate investment, local-specific technology, better quality inputs, real-time information on weather and most importantly latest know-how for sustaining commercial and cost effective sustainable agriculture.

Purpose The technology determinism theory facilitated in assessing the impact of interactive radio and social network sites (SNSs) on development factors such as education, agriculture, health, and governance, by conducting an integrative and comprehensive literature review focusing on African countries. This paper aims to conduct this literature review to provide comprehensive empirical evidence on the impact of interactive radio and SNSs on development in Africa. Design/methodology/approach This study examined articles that were retrieved from online databases including EBSCOhost, Elsevier, Science Direct, SAGE Journals, Springer and Wiley Online Library. The keywords used included interactive radio, radio, development in Africa, SNS, agriculture, education, health, peace and governance. Search phrases were formulated using boolean operators “AND” and “OR.” Findings Study results revealed that interactive radio and SNSs improve knowledge among farmers and allow the dissemination of information on innovative agricultural techniques, which supports the adoption of sustainable practices. Interactive radio promotes political accountability because the strategies provide the voiceless and powerless communities with a platform to express themselves. This paper discovers that the incorporation of SNS with existing multimedia communication facilitates the dissemination of health-related information on illnesses such as Ebola, HIV, hypertension, diabetes and Polio, and interactive radio and SNS promote education among marginalized communities and under-served rural schools. Research limitations/implications The findings on the impact of interactive radio and SNSs do not represent all 54 countries in Africa. Although the studies included in this literature review were conducted in several countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Malawi, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, this limited the generalizability of the findings and recommendations. Also, the other potential limitation is that using the inclusion-exclusion criteria could have resulted in bias when selecting the studies to include in the review. Practical implications The paper might serve as a valuable source of information for students, academics and entrepreneurs where the impact of interactive radio and SNSs on agriculture, education, health and governance, which are core determinants of development in Africa, has been assessed for further case studies in this area. Social implications The use of interactive radio has helped in decreasing health issues caused by a deficiency in vitamin A among children in sub-Saharan Africa. Originality/value The development of sustainable and effective interactive radio programs is dependent on the collaboration of the core stakeholders such as governmental ministries, donor organizations and the mass communication sector. Numerous open sources on technology radio stations are available to employ social media managers to help in the application of knowledge.

AbstractInteraction between farmers and researchers has benefits for both groups. Researchers gain an understanding of farmers' needs and the production system into which new techniques must fit; farmers are helped in adopting new techniques, and get insights into why some techniques are more successful than others. However, communication between farmers and researchers usually has been just from the university to the farmer. The recovery of information from farmers, integration of techniques into whole production systems, and the research priorities of farmers have not been very important to researchers.An exception has been in sustainable agriculture, where some researchers have been asking farmers what they are doing and what they want the university to do, and spending time observing existing practices before they design research trials. Ideally, farmers and researchers interact as equals, sharing information and expertise. We present examples from California and New York that show that this approach is highly effective, and recommend policie s to expand on this approach in researchfunding, training of research and extension personnel, and the dissemination ofinformation. We also discuss practical ways to carry out those policies, drawn from the experiences of both university and private non-profit organizations.

There have been plenty of studies investigating farmers’ decision to adopt sustainable agricultural practices but a lot more segregated studies exist, highlighting the importance of individual factors affecting adoption. This review addresses this gap and provides a suggestion to effectively understand adoption of sustainable agricultural practices by farmers from a comprehensive perspective. The study underscores and justifies the use of the integrated framework of Reasoned Action Approach/Theory of Planned Behavior, to present a new perspective on studying sustainable agriculture. The paper presents a review of empirical studies, reports and some review papers from past research from 1995 to 2014. Till now, only a handful of studies have incorporated the usage of this framework, which has significant relevance in studying the adoption behaviour of farmers. As suggested by previous studies about the use of socio-psychological models in agriculture, and the importance of studying adoption from multi-disciplinary a perspective, this study justifies the use and significance of Reasoned Action Approach/Theory of Planned Behaviour by providing evidences from past literature. The study concludes that the framework is comprehensive enough to look at the multidisciplinary aspects, necessary to investigate farmers’ adoption decisions, and thereby provides more than a starting point for contributing to the existing body of literature.

The agricultural sector in the Jordan Valley plays an important role in the economic system and that the region is essentially Jordan's food basket. The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is widely recognized as essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. This study analyzed factors influencing citrus farmer's adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) in the Northern Ghor of Jordan valley. The study used a quantitative approach. Simple random sampling was adopted to select 115 farmers in the study area. A multiple regression analysis was applied to identify factors influencing the sustainability of citrus farming practices. The study found that the largest proportion 44.4% of the citrus farmers had a fairly high adoption rate of SAPs while 13.0% of ones had high adoption of SAPs. In addition, the study revealed that age of farmer, Farm experience, primary education, and tertiary education were factors that affected farmers SAPs adoption. Policy recommendations are proposed to enhance the implementation of sustainable agriculture practices by the citrus farmers in the Northern Ghor of Jordan valley.

The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices is widely recognized as essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. This study analyzed factors influencing citrus farmers adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) in the Northern Ghor of Jordan valley. The study used a quantitative approach. Simple random sampling was adopted to select 115 farmers in the study area. The study found that the largest proportion 44.4% of the citrus farmers had a fairly high adoption rate of SAPs while 13.0% of ones had high adoption of SAPs. In addition, the study revealed that age was the significant variable that positively influences farmers SAPs adoption, while experience, primary education, and tertiary education have a negative influence on the adoption of SAPs. The study recommends that special attention be given to older farmers to exploit their skills and receptive to implementing SAPs, encourage and guide farmers toward implementing sustainable agriculture techniques and suitable inputs by providing premium and incentive payments to them, and take deterrent penalties against farmers who using inappropriate and harmful applications, or who do not use appropriate applications.

Agriculture is an important contributor of rural development. The rural area will benefit economically, socially, and environmentally if the approach of sustainability in agricultural activities is put into practise. This, in turn, will help to make rural development more sustainable in the long run. In a similar light, rural development strategies are also variables that can make it easier for sustainable practises to be implemented in a cost-effective and timely manner. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the significance of dimensions of sustainable rural development as assisting elements in farmer’s decision-making towards adopting Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP). Previous empirical studies were analysed for this purpose, and 50 studies conducted in various countries were evaluated in order to discover the main elements impacting the decisions to adopt SAP. The NVivo 12 software was used to code influencing factors gathered from previous studies into dimensions essential to sustainable development of rural area according to the Rural Web model. Findings of this research have found most of the influencing factors that affects farmer’s decision to adopt SAP came from the dimension with institutional elements. Meanwhile, novelty aspect was found to have the least factors recorded in previous studies, which has drawn attention to a gap in previous research. The association between farmers who use innovative methods and their decisions to embrace SAP should be explored further in future studies.

In the wake of climate change, climate-smart agriculture has been proposed as an option for mitigation and adaptation to the attendant harsh impacts among smallholder farmers in Africa. The approach has been promoted for nearly two decades in Kenya, Nigeria, and Malawi, but with low adoption among farmers. This study therefore sought to determine the pathways for sustainable scaling of climate-smart agricultural technologies and practices in the three countries. Secondary and primary data were obtained from desk review, field survey, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multivariate probit regression. The multivariate probit regression result showed eight negative correlated coefficients between the climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices adopted, thus implying that the practices are substitutes for each other. It was observed that gender had no significant influence on the adoption of a set of practices (refuse retention, minimum tillage, green manure, and mulching) but influenced significantly the adoption of early maturing varieties. Implicitly, therefore, apart from gender, the adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices might often be due to other factors.

Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices (SAP) among smallholder dairy farmers in developing countries, especially within the Asia Pacific region remains low. This is probably attributable to the fact that psycho-social factors are not considered during the adoption process. The current study was carried out in order to increase the adoption of SAP in Malaysia, by investigating psycho-social factors among dairy farmers. It adopted the enhanced Theory of Planned Behaviour to investigate smallholder dairy farmers’ intention to uptake SAP in Malaysia. This study applied the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) to model how psycho-social factors influence farmers’ SAP adoption decisions. A key finding of this study was that farmers who are equipped with the right attitude and belief have the ability to adopt SAP and are inclined to adopt SAP in their farms. Hence, it was proposed that a holistic approach is recommended towards formulating policies and drawing intervention strategies that focus on the farmers’ needs and abilities. This would motivate farmers to make choices that would lead to a change of behaviour towards adopting SAP. Additionally, the producer-led approach adopted in this study provided insights into smallholder dairy farmers’ beliefs and behaviour.

Agricultural cooperatives play an important role in promoting local communities and sustainable farming practices in many parts of the world. In Kyrgyzstan their development remains a challenge despite the existence of laws and policies, support from donor-funded projects and the existence of an apex organisation. What is missing for their development and who should lead their development? Adopting an entrepreneurial ecosystem (EE) approach to the analysis of the agricultural cooperatives, we aim to identify the lead actors of the agricultural cooperatives’ development in Kyrgyzstan and understand what roles such a lead actor plays in the emergence and strengthening of an EE for agricultural cooperatives. Adopting a case study approach, we retrieved archival data published between 1991 and 2020 on agricultural cooperatives in Kyrgyzstan, that included documents from government, cooperatives and their apex organisations, and studies commissioned by international organisations. We reviewed data using a grounded theory approach and organised our codes and text excerpts around the EE elements and actors. Thereby, we identify what roles the three principal actors of cooperative development, namely government, cooperatives and their apex organisation, and international organisations, play in different EE dimensions – i.e., policy, skills and education, market environment, culture, networks and partnerships. Among others, we uncover that the lead actor varies across EE dimensions and the paradox, where expectations of the government and cooperatives’ are inadequate to their funding abilities; while international organisations, that could fund cooperatives’ development, do not consider them as a priority in their projects. Although the study has limitations due to its exploratory nature, we offer both theoretical contribution extending entrepreneurial ecosystem approach to the study of agricultural cooperatives in transition economies and practical implications for better understanding and integrating agricultural cooperatives in the international development programming.

Mechanized raised-bed technology (MRBT) is recognized as an important measure to achieve higher crop productivity and water-use efficiency in intensive irrigated systems. Development efforts on spreading this technology require adequate understanding of the qualities and drivers of farmers’ adoption of MRBT. Research in agricultural innovation adoption has identified the importance of the socio-ecological context (SEC) that influences the livelihood of farmers adopting new technologies. This study introduces an agricultural livelihood systems (ALS) typology-based approach for guiding concrete analytical steps and statistical methods in evaluating the effects of system SEC diversity in two Egyptian governorates. We objectively classify a population of sampled farming households into a limited number of ALS types and use inferential statistics for the whole sampled population and individual ALS types to discover adoption drivers. Values added by the ALS approach confirm the widespread role of common determinants of MRBT adoption across ALS types, household groups subject to the effects MRBT, and show new causal effects. The presented advanced approach and empirical findings will be useful for enhancing targeting and out-scaling of MRBT practices toward achieving sustainable agricultural water uses at scale.

Soils form the basis for agricultural production and other ecosystem services, and soil management should aim at improving their quality and resilience. Within the SoilCare project, the concept of soil-improving cropping systems (SICS) was developed as a holistic approach to facilitate the adoption of soil management that is sustainable and profitable. SICS selected with stakeholders were monitored and evaluated for environmental, sociocultural, and economic effects to determine profitability and sustainability. Monitoring results were upscaled to European level using modelling and Europe-wide data, and a mapping tool was developed to assist in selection of appropriate SICS across Europe. Furthermore, biophysical, sociocultural, economic, and policy reasons for (non)adoption were studied. Results at the plot/farm scale showed a small positive impact of SICS on environment and soil, no effect on sustainability, and small negative impacts on economic and sociocultural dimensions. Modelling showed that different SICS had different impacts across Europe—indicating the importance of understanding local dynamics in Europe-wide assessments. Work on adoption of SICS confirmed the role economic considerations play in the uptake of SICS, but also highlighted social factors such as trust. The project’s results underlined the need for policies that support and enable a transition to more sustainable agricultural practices in a coherent way.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enhance the adoption decision of farmers and observe the factors that affect the adoption decision of sustainable agriculture practices (SAP) which is the major motivating force of Malaysian economy. The idea behind this study is to transfer knowledge to paddy farmers within regional areas of Malaysia and to comprehend their understanding of social innovation and sustainable agriculture engineering and their overall significance. The outcome of this research will suggest a strategic extensive plan to encourage the use of SAP and also help to develop SAP helping toward building a sustainable society. Design/methodology/approach This paper encompasses three phases: analyzing the process of SAP among Malaysian Paddy farmers, to agricultural industrialization, until the stage of SAP led by farmer’s co-operatives, discussing the relevant practice together with literature and historically evidencing that there is no better way to promote SAP among regional paddy farmers within Malaysia. Findings Initial objective of this paper is to establish a thoughtful approach to enable the society to bridge a gap between embracing sustainability. The second objective investigates the misconception among farmers about social innovation. Furthermore, the study builds the conceptual framework and examines the relationship among the relevant constructs, this framework is critically examining the literature within paddy farming context. Harmoniously, there has been limited empirical research performed on the decision of adoption toward SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Originality/value The clear worth of this research paper is the illustration from past reviews and practices to endorse SAP usage among paddy farmers in Malaysia. Another literature review suggests that these countermeasures comprehensively, historically, and theoretically are proven result oriented. The information about SAP will be beneficial for farmers and policy maker who are interested in the advancement. This learning delivers a comparative summary of knowledge transfer influencing farmer’s intention and behavior of sustainable agriculture engineering to adopt green technology. In a future study, these construct will be empirically tested.

Agricultural development nearby protected areas is required to minimize negative impacts from uses of off-farm resources as well as improper activities on the ecosystem and ensure livelihood for local farming communities. This research aims at assessing agricultural management practices and outcomes toward agroecology of rice cultivation in the buffer zone of Xuan Thuy National Park. Data were gathered from ecosystem managers, communal authorities and 96 rice cultivators living in 14 villages adjacently to the park in 2017-2018. “Traffic light” approach developed by FAO was used as an analytical technique to evaluate and visualize the environmental sustainability of rice cultivation with three levels of desirable, acceptable and unsustainable. The assessment reveals that none of the environmental indicators achieved at sustainable including fertilizer management, soil fertility, pesticide management, biodiversity preservation, and water conservation. Therefore, agricultural development in this area is required to be scrutinized for improvements especially the overdependency on nitrogen fertilizers, improper application of pesticides, limited adoption of biodiversity-friendly practices as well as other environmentally-friendly practices. The research highlights the need of implementing agroecological approach and special regime for protected area buffer zone to strengthen environmental preservation.

Yam (Dioscorea sp.) is an understudied tuber crop despite its importance for food security, income generation, culture, and health in West Africa. Traditional yam cropping practices in West Africa deliver low yields and lead to environmental degradation. In the context of a ‘research for development’ project, we developed and implemented a participatory and transdisciplinary research approach as a means to derive more sustainable yam production practices. We identified and studied different soil and plant management technologies adapted to varying biophysical and socio-economic contexts. For this purpose, we established innovation platforms (IPs) in four yam growing regions of West Africa, to validate the new technologies and to promote their adoption. These co-developed technologies were set up and tested first in researcher-managed plots before doing the same in farmer-managed plots. The new technologies resulted in a significant increase in yam productivity compared to conventional practices. The results discussed in the IPs gained interest from regional stakeholders and were shared through the media at local and national levels. Overall, this development-focused research approach showcases the relevance of purposeful stakeholder involvement to improve agricultural research outcomes.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the critical factors associated with growing fertilizer usage culminating in contamination of soil/water in agriculturally intensive regions of Uttar Pradesh, India. The agriculture sector is seen as one of the major contributors in ensuring food security, however adoption of sustainable agriculture to protect water resources from contamination due to fertilizers and pesticides is becoming pressing to achieve long term environmental security. Design/methodology/approach A two staged study aimed at monitoring the soil quality status followed by stakeholder survey has been attempted. Attitude-behavior framework based on the theory of reasoned action has been tried to explain the fertilizer use behavior in the study. The results are analyzed through Analysis of variance. Findings Soil monitoring data showed nitrate and total nitrogen loadings beyond the permissible limit in the identified regions. A questionnaire aimed at determining farmer’s attitude toward fertilizer usage showed a significant influence of factors like net farm income, overall farm yield, extension services, farmer characteristics on one hand and risks associated with changing farming practices, costs of substitutes available, market-based instruments like subsidies and loans on the other. Divergent responses were observed with respect to farmer’s perceived risks from adopting to organic substitutes, linkages of fertilizer application with environmental degradation and the level of adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Research limitations/implications The study can be scaled up to study the inter-regional differences by benchmarking regional responses. It would be interesting to extend the work to find solutions from the farmers as alternative fertility management strategies. The items used in questionnaire are self-made; hence there is still a possibility of enhancing the robustness of scale by applying advanced statistical techniques. Practical implications Results of the study indicate excessive nitrogen loadings in farm soils which is an indicator of potential future nitrate contaminated zones or vulnerable zones emerging in agricultural intensive regions. Findings reinforce the role of education, knowledge transfer and awareness for long-term agricultural sustainability. The paper highlights the urgency for reorientation of the support system by the government and policymakers. Originality/value The paper attempts to understand the linkage between the agricultural productivity and the environmental implications followed by the reasons culminating in the agri-environmental imbalance. On-site monitoring study followed by assessment of reasons culminating in this scenario has not been attempted earlier and this paper contributes to understanding at dual level. This paper emphasizes on the insights of stakeholder which is instrumental in ensuring agricultural sustainability or otherwise. It takes the position that the farmer’s farm management behavior is strongly influenced by factors like food security and income, keeping environmental quality at second place. It also identifies the barriers for organic farming and other alternative systems as well as explores the economic, social, and philosophical aspects of sustainable agriculture.

The impact of climate change on agriculture is varying over space and time. The consequences highly uncertain are heterogeneous in nature. Agricultural sector must focus on adopting climate smart technologies to successfully achieve food security and climate change challenges.Climate Smart Technologies in agriculture is clearly a crucial response for an effective and equitable adaptation and mitigation strategy. To shift the focus towards climate smart agricultural technologies in India, innovation will be the key. The present study focused on level of awareness and adaptation strategies of farmers about climate change and Climate smart technologies. Farmers’ knowledge and perceptions about climate change, and adoption of climate smart technologies, will help development practitioners, researchers and policy makers to develop more promising technologies according to the needs and interests of farmers. The paper advocates various agricultural innovations including technological innovations, managerial innovations and traditional agriculture as a climate-smart approach for sustainable food production.

Purpose – The adoption of lean operational practices and independently the uptake of business practices related to sustainability and corporate social responsibility continues to grow. Past research has hinted at relationships between these two areas – suggesting that “lean is green” (e.g. Florida, 1996). The lean mantra of waste reduction and “doing more with less” is immediately apparent as delivering environmental benefits and has formed the basis of past research (e.g. Hughes, 2012). Almost all research linking lean operations or lean supply chains to sustainability issues have focused exclusively on environmental impact. The purpose of this paper is to explore the broader sustainability benefits of lean operations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a longitudinal multi-year (up to four years observation), multi-case analysis (n=5). Findings – The paper reports that lean operations meet a wide range of sustainability outcomes beyond environmental benefits (including supply monitoring, transparency, workforce treatment, and community engagement). The paper specifies the internal and external policies, procedures, tools, and strategies for implementation of lean and sustainable operations management (OM). This is encapsulated in the development of a stage-based theoretical model of lean-sustainability. Further, it is proposed that lean implementation and sustainability performance are in fact interlinked. Originality/value – Past research on the role of lean operations in improving sustainably has focused almost exclusively on environmental benefits accruing from toolkit/workplace level waste reduction. This paper demonstrates that lean provides more than a toolkit (a philosophy and strategic direction) and that this meets a wide range of sustainable outcomes. This finding makes major contributions to conceptualising how lean operations influence sustainability outcomes. The paper develops the first integrative stage-based model of lean and sustainable OM.

<p>This research supports the sustainable environmental development, especially at Perhutani area. The objective of this ethno-ecological study was to know relationship between daily life of local people related to their agroforestry practices in edge of the forest belong to Perhutani at the landscape of Bromo Tengger Semeru-East Java. The Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) showed the importance of the forest for the local people. This study covered the perception and conception traditional management system of environment by the local society and also impact of their activities. Data were collected by applying ethno-ecology research methods. Quality of data were measured by means of participatory ethno-botanical appraisal (PEA) and some research methods included semi-structural and open discussion, in-deep interview, direct observation and plants identification. The results showed that development and management of the natural resources, in Komplangan agroforestry, were highly related to the plant conservation policy. The land use system was adapted from indigenous knowledge which consisted of holly sites (Pedanyangan), worship sites (Sanggar Pamujan), cemetery area and terrace. The conservation model and traditional knowledge in agricultural practices could be used as a model of komplangan area which should be taken into account as the key of biodiversity conservation. Traditional knowledge from these integrative studies will support the sustainable development of NTFPs.</p>

Development was conventionally driven by one particular need, without fully considering the wider or future impacts. This kind of approach has now been considered to be responsible for the economic and environmental catastrophes that humans are facing: from large scale financial crises caused by irresponsible banking to the changes in global climate resulting from our dependence on fossil fuel based energy sources. Soils provide essential ecosystem services such as primary production, regulation of biogeochemical cycles (with consequences for the climate), water filtration, resistance to diseases and pests, and regulation of above-ground biodiversity. Changing of the climate systems is unequivocal. Adaptation to global climate change through improved soil quality by adoption of improved management practices is key to maintaining sustainable agricultural production. A holistic approach to soil management as the engine for increasing productivity by increasing resource use efficiency and making agriculture environmentally compatible is more important than ever before. Strategies of greenhouse gas emission reduction include those that increase the use efficiency of inputs. Herein, we discussed how management and protection of soil resources can contribute to sustainable development through sustainable agricultural production while maintaining sustenance of soil fertility. J. Environ. Sci. & Natural Resources, 11(1-2): 159-170 2018

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the early stages of the transition to specialty coffee in Burundi and the role of an agribusiness support program as a catalyst for this transition. Design/methodology/approach This study uses two years of panel data (2007 and 2012) to analyze changes in technology adoption among coffee washing stations (CWSs) and how the adoption of improved technologies affects coffee quality. Findings Programmatic investment in Burundi’s coffee value chain resulted in a significant shift in adoption of processing technologies by CWSs. Producers who processed at these stations saw a significant increase in the quality of their coffee and forged sustainable trade relationships with international buyers. Research limitations/implications Future research should investigate the incentives and barriers of producers to invest in production boosting practices. Originality/value This is one of the first empirical papers that analyzes Burundi’s transition from ordinary to specialty coffee and how programmatic investments in improved technologies has helped to make the change possible.

Land management needs to cope with persistent environmental and societal changes. This requires functional governance systems. The purpose of this research is to develop a good governance framework for the implementation of sustainable land management. Good governance theory is extensive, although its operationalization remains difficult. We derived a set of good governance attributes from the literature: (i) the functionality of the regulatory framework, (ii) the legitimacy and accountability of the actors, (iii) the fairness and transparency of the decision-making processes, and (iv) quality control and adaptiveness. These constitute a framework which, supported by guiding questions, facilitates the evaluation of governance attributes to assess sustainable land management practices. We applied the scheme to a case study in Northeast Brazil regarding sustainable land management where biological pest control is considered to be a biodiversity-related ecosystem service. Since its adoption often falls short of expectations, we scrutinized its governance system. First, experts answered our guiding questions, and second, we involved local stakeholders in the discussion of good governance attributes through the participatory approach of constellation analysis. Trust in agricultural consultants and issues of the practical application of pest control turned out to be crucial. The workshop participants requested a model farm to build more trust and experience. There was considerable demand for policy at the national planning level to formulate and monitor the content of the agricultural advisory program. Our conceptualized framework of good governance questions provides systematization for planning and steering the implementation of sustainable land management practices.

Watersheds are acknowledged as a paramount form of green substructure that provides us with important services like; drinking water, irrigation water, fodder/forage, pebbles/boulders, and timber including recreational, regulating, and other available services. The hills and mountains of Nepal are the watershed areas with the most fragile ecosystem and poor agricultural potential, as more than 15% of the total population of the country and 13% of the total land area is covered by Chure that has fragile ranges of hills. Hence, it can’t be denied from the fact that many of Nepal’s watersheds are in a state of physical and biological deterioration where landslides, soil erosion, floods, biodiversity loss, unsustainable water extraction, and farming practices are among the major issues leading towards watershed degradation. Therefore, proper strategies like developing stream and rainwater harvesting programs, strict implementation of EIA, IEE, adoption of SALT technology for income generation, etc. needs to be prioritized based on the principles of integrated watershed management while planning, monitoring & implementing soil and watershed management.

Abstract This article argues that the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) future promotion should be based on the potential users’ good understanding of sustainable agriculture. A qualitative approach was used to examine the perceptions of SRI attributes among Indonesian rice farmers, which is built upon the developing theory of diffusion of innovation. Through focus group discussions in three Indonesian provinces, compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage were identified as essential factors for SRI adoption. SRI was seen as incompatible with current farming practices, labour capacity, budget, and time available for additional labour inputs. SRI was seen as relatively complicated in terms of compost processing and application as well as mechanised agricultural technologies. As a result of the economic surplus provided by SRI rice, organised farmers may be able to obtain a higher price for SRI rice than non-organised farmers. Environmental and agronomic benefits were thought to have a long-term payoff. Such results demonstrate the subjective evaluation of SRI by farmers, which is important to its implementation.

The ability to produce and supply more food that is both nutritious and environmentally sustainable is a momentous challenge facing Africa. Where climate change is expected to negatively impact the agricultural resource of many parts of Southern Africa specifically. Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has emerged as an approach considered capable of transforming and realigning agricultural systems to support food and nutritional security, and development under a changing climate. For sustainable food and nutrition security to be achieved, an effective policy environment is required that supports the widespread adoption of CSA application. In light of this context, this study aims to better understand nutrition’s current position within CSA-related policy at the national level by systematically reviewing all agriculture-related policy documents across Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, published between 2010 and 2019. The main findings show that efforts to address nutrition are being made within all countries and a sizeable number of policies, with crop-diversification and intensification presented as popular practices promoted as part of CSA. Nonetheless, the widespread adoption of these efforts remains weak and policies lack detail and instruction for the delivery of nutritional security. Cross-ministerial collaboration is recognised as essential for an improved policy environment, but few provide plans to strengthen such linkages or to include nutritional strategies. Clearer actions and policy outlines that promote nutrition as part of CSA are necessary if more effective action is to be achieved.

The circular economy (CE) has been proposed as a potentially significant catalyst to enhance the current response to the global climate crisis. The objective of this study was to investigate the scientific literature of the research between climate change and CE adopting a knowledge mapping approach. Based on a total of 789 peer-reviewed publications extracted from Scopus, we found that research on climate change and CE is continually growing and interdisciplinary in nature. Europe notably leads scientific production. Keyword evolution shows that CE has been influenced by more lines of research than climate change. We also found that waste management is the CE approach most associated with climate change, mitigation is the climate action most impacted by CE, and food is the most reported greenhouse gas (GHG)-emitting material. However, there are knowledge gaps in the integration of the social dimension, the promotion of climate change adaptation, and the association of sustainable development goal (SDG) 13. Finally, we identified four potentially valuable directions for future studies: (i) CE practices, (ii) bioeconomy, (iii) climate and energy, and (iv) sustainability and natural resources, in which carbon recovery technologies, green materials, regional supply chains, circular agriculture models, and nature-based solutions are promising themes.

AbstractDocumentation of on-farm sustainability in agricultural sectors is becoming an essential element to ensure market access. An assessment process was developed to help soybean farmers document practices and verifiable advances in community, environmental and economic sustainability. Technical difficulties in analyzing and summarizing such assessment data include a large number of practices, correlation in variables, and use of discrete measures. By combining non-negative principal components analysis and common-weight data envelopment analysis, we overcame these difficulties to calculate a composite sustainability index for each individual farm and for the farm group as a whole. Applying this method to assessment data from 410 US Midwestern soybean farmers gave average sustainability scores of 0.846 and 0.842 for the soybean-specific and whole-farm assessments, respectively. Scenario analysis examined the impact if the bottom 10% of growers adopted the top ten sustainability drivers identified by the analysis. The average sustainability score only increased by 2%, but the minimum score increased from 0.515 to 0.647 for the soybean-specific assessment, and from 0.624 to 0.685 for the whole-farm assessment, while the lowest 10th percentile increased from 0.635 to 0.819 for the soybean-specific assessment, and from 0.634 to 0.920 for the whole-farm assessment. These results suggest that significant advancements could be made through focused efforts to improve adoption of sustainable practices by soybean farmers at the lower end of the spectrum.

In recent years, the concept of the circular economy has been gaining relevance and its importance has grown both in academia and in rural municipalities in general. The rural development policy of the European Union, in addition to prioritizing the diversification of the productive activities of municipalities, encourages the adoption of the circular economy. The aim of this article is to show and publicize the applications relating to the circular economy that are being carried out in a rural mountain municipality with a small population focused on agriculture, and which are setting an example for others that are suffering the endemic problem of depopulation. A diagnosis is carried out taking into consideration local sustainable development methodologies. In relation to the results, the positive impact of these practices with a rural development approach based on awareness and education regarding the basic 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) is highlighted. Almócita is an example that can be extrapolated to many mountain municipalities at national and international levels.

AbstractA shortage of effective, non-chemical pest control measures is a major constraint to more widespread adoption of sustainable agricultural practices. Overcoming this constraint with biological pest control tactics appears to be an attainable goal but will require substantial public sector support. Biological agents that are self-perpetuating do not offer profit incentive to private industry. On the other hand, microbial pesticides, which do require annual application, often are so highly specific for particular pests that the private sector is unable to risk venture capital for their development. Collaboration between public- and private-sector scientists is essential for biological pesticide development. In the U.S., a model working relationship for technology transfer between the private and public sector has been achieved with two commercial mycoherbicides, Collego™ and DeVine™. The model illustrates the strengths of the public sector for creating and storing fundamental knowledge of biological interactions at the organismal and ecosystem levels, also the capability of the private sector for large-scale production of fungi, for drying labile, living products, for effective patent protection, for satisfying EPA registration requirements, and for the commercial distribution, marketing and servicing of agricultural products. From three perspectives-biological, technical, and commercial—the success of Collego™ and DeVine™ has provided a definite step in the quest for low-cost weed control methods that are not hazardous to the environment nor in ground water. These successes also provide a model for an approach to reducing the dependence of agriculture upon chemical herbicides, the most extensively used chemical pesticides in agricultural production, likewise a useful insight toward technology that can lead to more widespread adoption of low-input, environmentally compatible and sustainable agricultural production.

Deforestation is a severe threat to diversity in the Ecuadorian Amazon Region (EAR). To mitigate deforestation, it is necessary to know the relevant stakeholders’ roles and interactions and deepen our knowledge of the local livelihoods, objectives, potentials, limitations, and “rights of being” among farms, as well as the best management practices (BMPs). In this study, our aim was to identify and assess livestock BMPs along an elevational gradient to foster sustainable production and reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). This approach could be environmentally and economically beneficial. Data were collected from 167 households along three elevational gradients, as well as from 15 interviews held among a multidisciplinary panel of key stakeholders and researchers in the EAR. The results showed that most of the Kichwa population lives in the medium zone, which features a larger agricultural and forest surface. Conversely, in the lower and upper areas, livestock predominates, where the upper area is specialized in milk production and the lower area in dual-purpose cattle (meat and dairy). The stakeholder assessment provided several key results: (a) social, structural, and technical factors have complementary effects on BMP adoption; (b) the sixteen assessed BMPs facilitated the implementation of existing financial incentive programs and enabled public–private partnerships to develop REDD+ projects. The policy implications of implementing these approaches are also discussed.

Environmentally friendly waste management (EFWM) is a safer way of waste disposal that can foster a cleaner environment for both farms and their surroundings. It may lessen land, air, and water pollution, as well as moderate ecological footprints, and aid in sustainable agricultural development, which has become one of the major concerns of the modern era. To achieve these outcomes, incentives and control mechanisms initiated by the government may alter farmers’ behavior. The study involved a review of relevant literature and the conduct of interviews with 499 pig breeders to evaluate the impacts of government incentives and control mechanisms on fostering the adoption of environmentally friendly waste management practices by farmers. A theoretical framework based on existing studies is proposed, utilizing a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach to analyze the data and illustrate the relationships among incentives and control mechanisms. The results show that: (i) overall the impacts of incentive mechanisms were stronger and more effective than those of control mechanisms. Among them, subsidy policy and discount policy were the most influential for farmers’ adoption behavior. However, penalty and disincentive policy also impacted the outcome variables; (ii) a significant relationship was observed among regulatory, disincentive, and subsidy policies and a moderate relationship among penalty, insurance, and discount policies. However, bonus-community service and social critic policies did not show any significant relationship with any other variables. The research findings can assist the Chinese government in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of two crucial mechanisms and promoting the adoption of environmentally friendly practices by farmers. The government should highlight and strengthen the importance of social obligations and orientation, as well as providing monetary support at the rural level to improve farmers’ ability to adapt to environmentally friendly waste management practices.

Over 94% of the land of northwestern Vietnam is classified as sloping. Population growth has exerted pressure on local natural resources, with agricultural expansion on steep slopes resulting in forest degradation, landscape fragmentation and severe environmental consequences. Efforts to restore forest ecosystems have been made by the government, however, as the livelihoods of 80% of the population depend on agriculture, the reconversion of land to forest has proven to be an inappropriate solution. Agroforestry offers a potentially sustainable land-use solution, which could re-establish forests, restore ecosystem services, and stabilize local livelihoods. In this paper, we assess the potential of agroforestry development in the region based on the results of two interrelated surveys conducted in 21 representative villages in six districts of three northwestern provinces: 1) a farming system diagnosis implemented in 17 representative villages; and 2) an agroforestry adoption survey with 210 households practising agroforestry in 14 villages. The analysis was strengthened by four years’ experience in implementing an extensive agroforestry project in the region. The studies focussed on assessing key benefits and constraints of existing farming systems, including agroforestry practices, adopted by farmers and identifying the potential for agroforestry development in the region. The results showed that the dominant farming system in the north-western provinces was monoculture of staple crops on slopes, which provided relatively low economic returns. Soil erosion, land degradation, and water shortages resultant from intensive farming practices were the most significant environmental issues in the area. Tree-based farming systems were rare and mostly a result of spontaneous adoption by farmers. Given the mountainous landscape and the need for soil stabilization, agroforestry was seen by farmers as a viable approach. Improving the existing and adopting new, integrated agroforestry systems were identified as viable ways toward sustainable livelihoods in Northwestern Vietnam.

Purpose Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male out-migration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security. Design/methodology/approach Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices. Findings Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of out-migration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Gender-equitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods. Social implications The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods. Originality/value This study is based on the robust data sets of 100 each of male and female from 100 households (n = 200) using well-designed and validated survey instrument. From 10 randomly selected climate-smart villages in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India, together with focus group discussions, the primary data were collected by interviewing both men and women from the same household.

Sustainable coffee production is significantly threatened by climate change. While implementing CSA practices offers numerous benefits, adoption rates remain low. Coffee plantations are dominated by smallholders and located in rural areas, making them more complex and requiring a comprehensive analysis and intervention. This study used an exploratory approach to assess farmers’ preferences for CSA practices, identify barriers to implement, and design a support system model. The investigation focused on Arabica and Robusta farmers, with case studies from two Indonesian production centres. Preferences assessment used conjoint analysis, barriers evaluation used Mann–Whitney analysis, model development used synthetic approaches, and priority analysis used the Analytical Hierarchy Process. The study revealed that diversification is more desirable than cultivation, soil management, and water management. Arabica farmers preferred intercropping with annual crops, whereas Robusta farmers preferred perennials crops. Robusta farmers assessed that agricultural inputs, such as labor, capital, climatic data, and farm equipment and machinery, existed as barriers. However, these represent a lesser issue for Arabica farmers. We proposed agricultural innovation support system, consisting of innovation support facilities and services, as a comprehensive support system model to accelerate CSA implementation. Further analysis showed that the priority strategy for Arabica farmers is support services that focus on network development, while for Robusta farmers is support facilities that focus on climate information system development.

Conventional and intensive agriculture systems represent an environmental challenge. This research aims at evaluating the economic and environmental implications of conventional and organic durum wheat production in Southern Italy by applying material flow analysis and the crop accounting method. The purpose is to evaluate and compare the natural resource consumption, waste generation and economic profitability of conventional and organic durum wheat farming, respectively. The functional unit is one hectare of cultivated land. System boundaries encompass all agronomic operations, from cradle to gate. The research applies a bottom-up approach and relies on either primary or secondary data. It emerges that organic durum wheat production reduces the use of synthetic chemical and phytosanitary products, as well as plastic waste, by up to 100%. Moreover, it decreases diesel use by 15%, with a consequent reduction in CO2 emissions, and also avoids soil and groundwater pollution. From an economic perspective, gross income for conventionally farmed durum wheat is still 55% higher compared to organic production. Public authorities should boost environmental sustainability by supporting organic production from either an economic or a social perspective, by enhancing the sharing of best practices, by certification for farmers’ groups, by research and innovation, and by incentives in taxation. Overall, this research represents a further step towards the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

This study analyzes farm households’ adaptation in a broad livelihood context, showing how both household internal dynamics and broader external factors, such as agro-ecological, climatic, and institutional economic and political frame conditions, influence both the perception of and adaptation to climate variations and change. Nearly a third of the households in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) are engaged in agriculture as one livelihood strategy to cope with the multiple shocks experienced over the past three decades, resulting in economic decline and loss of income opportunities. Based on a household survey, we analyzed the livelihoods of households in three agricultural regions in BH: how they are affected by climate change, their perceptions of climatic change, as well as various household adaptation strategies. The results were discussed in the context of the sustainable livelihoods approach. Our results indicate that rural households are relatively asset poor and highly dependent on agriculture, irrespective of geographical location or wealth. Their access to assets is further constrained by the ongoing changes in economic and political structures and processes. Negative effects of climate change were reported in terms of yield decline and reduced quality of products. On a positive note, the level of adoption of different agricultural practices and technologies indicates signs of an overall intensification strategy of agricultural production in BH, as well as adaptation to the perceived changes in climate and climate variability using the available asset base.

AbstractEcosystem functions and services provided by soils depend on land use and management. The objective of this article is to review and synthesize relevant information on the impacts of no-till (NT) management of croplands on ecosystem functions and services. Sustainable management of soil through NT involves: (i) replacing what is removed, (ii) restoring what has been degraded, and (iii) minimizing on-site and off-site effects. Despite its merits, NT is adopted on merely ∼9% of the 1.5 billion ha of global arable land area. Soil's ecosystem services depend on the natural capital (soil organic matter and clay contents, soil depth and water retention capacity) and its management. Soil management in various agro-ecosystems to enhance food production has some trade-offs/disservices (i.e., decline in biodiversity, accelerated erosion and non-point source pollution), which must be minimized by further developing agricultural complexity to mimic natural ecosystems. However, adoption of NT accentuates many ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, biodiversity, elemental cycling, and resilience to natural and anthropogenic perturbations, all of which can affect food security. Links exist among diverse ecosystem services, such that managing one can adversely impact others. For example, increasing agronomic production can reduce biodiversity and deplete soil organic carbon (SOC), harvesting crop residues for cellulosic ethanol can reduce SOC, etc. Undervaluing ecosystem services can jeopardize finite soil resources and aggravate disservices. Adoption of recommended management practices can be promoted through payments for ecosystem services by a market-based approach so that risks of disservices and negative costs can be reduced either through direct economic incentives or as performance payments.

Irrigation projects in sub-Saharan Africa are mostly unsustainable because of lack of maintenance by their users or government planners. By contrast, evidence shows that the smallholder farmers are developing and expanding the irrigated land, using their initiatives. Farmer-led irrigation, a revolutionary agricultural intensification approach, is already in progress with the magnitude to significantly transform the living standards of smallholder farmers. However, a rigorous assessment of its impact on household welfare to ascertain this is lacking. This paper bridges this gap by assessing factors influencing the adoption of this particular approach as well as its effects on the farmers’ per capita net crop income. Our data set consists of 608 smallholder farmers in Southern Tanzania and used propensity score matching to estimate the effects of adoption on the per capita net crop income. Our results indicate that the uptake of farmer-led irrigation practices is influenced by drought experience, water user group membership, farmer organization membership, and government extension, as well as the sex of the household head. Further, there was a positive and significant effect on the adopters’ per capita net crop income, thus encouraging the need to promote farmer-led irrigation as a complement to externally promoted innovations in achieving sustainable food security. This study, therefore, recommends that the government should support the farmers’ initiative by improving roads, removing market barriers, and helping farmers who have not yet taken up the initiative. Also, the government should enact regulations to make sure farmer-led irrigation initiatives do not harm the eco-environment such as protecting domestic water users. Finally, the government should leverage microservices to the farmers such as promoting affordable and appropriate credit facilities. It is necessary to continue pursuing this vein of research to gain information regarding the definite impact of the farmer-led irrigation on household welfare.

Low-income producers and consumers of food in Africa are more vulnerable to climate change, owing to their comparatively limited ability to invest in more adapted institutions and technologies under increasing climatic risks. Therefore, the way we manage our food systems needs to be urgently changed if the goal is to achieve food security and sustainable development more quickly. This review paper analyzes the nexus “climate-smart agriculture-food systems-sustainable development” in order to draw sound ways that could allow rapid transformation of food systems in the context of climate change pressure. We followed an integrative review approach based on selected concrete example-experiences from ground-implemented projects across Africa (Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, in West Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania in East Africa). Mostly composed of examples from the Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS) Research Program of the CGIAR (former Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) and its partners, these also included ground initiatives from non-CGIAR that could provide demonstrable conditions for a transformative agriculture and food systems. The lessons learnt from the ground implementation of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), in the African context, were instrumental to informing the actions areas of the food-system transformation framework suggested in this paper (reroute, de-risk, reduce, and realign). Selected CSA example-cases to inform these action areas included 24 initiatives across Africa, but with a focus on the following studies for an in-depth analysis: (1) the climate-smart village approach to generate knowledge on climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies and practices for their scaling, (2) the use of climate information services (CIS) to better manage climate variability and extremes, and (3) the science–policy interfacing to mainstream CSA into agricultural development policies and plans. The analysis of these examples showed that CSA can contribute driving a rapid change of food systems in Africa through: (1) the implementation of relevant climate-smart technologies and practices to reroute farming and rural livelihoods to new climate-resilient and low-emission trajectories; (2) the development and application of weather and climate information services (WCIS) that support de-risking of livelihoods, farms, and value chains in the face of increasing vagaries of weather and extreme events; (3) the use of climate-smart options that minimize waste of all the natural resources used for growing, processing, packaging, transporting, and marketing food, and therefore mitigating the carbon footprint attached to this food loss and waste; and (4) the realignment of policies and finance that facilitate action in the four proposed action areas through the identification of news ways to mobilize sustainable finance and create innovative financial mechanisms and delivery channels.

To overcome the challenging food safety and security problem, in 2003, the Thai government initiated ‘Good Agricultural Practices’ (GAP) technology. This paper used a sample of 107 small chili farms from the Chiyaphoom province for the 2012 crop year, and data envelopment analysis (DEA) meta-frontier directional distance function technique to answer two questions: (1) Are GAP-adopting farms, on average, more efficient than conventional farms? (2) Does access to GAP technology affect farmers’ decisions to adopt GAP technology? We also developed an ‘indirect’ approach to reduce the potential sample selection bias for small samples. For the dry-season subsample, GAP farms were more technically efficient when compared with non-GAP farms. These dry-season non-GAP farms may not adopt the GAP method because they have limited access to GAP technology. For the rainy-season subsample, on average, GAP farms were more efficient than non-GAP farms at the 5% level. Access to the GAP technology is not a possible reason for non-GAP rainy season farms to not adopt the GAP technology. To enable sustainable development, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must develop and implement appropriate educational and training workshops to promote and assist GAP technology adoption for chili farms in Thailand.

Green growth and the transition towards green growth are gaining scientific and public interest across Africa at an unprecedented rate. The Paris Agreement ratification by all 54 member states and the African Union (AU) goals in its Agenda 2063 on green economies are sufficient evidence of this. This is in line with the European Green Deal (EGD) aspirations, which envisages making Europe a carbon neutral economy by 2050. One of the EGD’s four main pillars is sustainable food systems. The success of EGD is premised on its ability to inspire and support green transition and effective climate action globally. The borderless nature of climate change necessitates a holistic approach to ensure the EU’s green transition does not come at the cost of development elsewhere. The main challenge is finding Africa’s space and position within the desired holistic approach, as Africa’s economy is agriculturally driven. One key African agricultural sub-sector significantly impacting livelihoods is livestock, which supports up to 80% of the rural livelihoods and which grapples with challenges in satisfying the needs of a fast-growing population. What could the EU green transition mean to this sector? We established that between 2010–2019, the African livestock population grew exponentially, and feed production followed the same path, with the share of land under forests, grasslands and meadows declining drastically. Over the same period, the percentage of land under arable farming increased while the animal-based protein and meat imports curve grew exponentially. This situation puts the continent in a dilemma about finding a sustainable solution for the food–feed and environmental nexus. Against this backdrop, a myriad of questions arises on how the green transition can be established to promote mitigating any loss that might occur in the process. We conducted a detailed sectoral trend analysis based on Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) statistics to find plausible solutions and pathways to achieve a greener transition. We coupled it with intensive policy mapping to develop science-policy-driven solutions that could promote the green transition sustainably. To sustainably accelerate the sectoral growth trajectory while addressing climate change, we recommend adopting and implementing raft measures geared towards increased sectoral efficiency, effectiveness, innovativeness and a holistic approach to the problem. Adopting transformative policies can promote the sector’s competitiveness through incentivisation, technological adoption, financial support, market support and increased awareness of its importance in sustainable development. However, exercising caution in implementing these practices is crucial to ensure there is no leakage effect in implementing the EGD across Africa and beyond.

Rapid urbanization rates impact significantly on the nature of Land Cover patterns of the environment, which has been evident in the depletion of vegetal reserves and in general modifying the human climatic systems (Henderson, et al., 2017; Kumar, Masago, Mishra, & Fukushi, 2018; Luo and Lau, 2017). This study explores remote sensing classification technique and other auxiliary data to determine LULCC for a period of 50 years (1967-2016). The LULCC types identified were quantitatively evaluated using the change detection approach from results of maximum likelihood classification algorithm in GIS. Accuracy assessment results were evaluated and found to be between 56 to 98 percent of the LULC classification. The change detection analysis revealed change in the LULC types in Minna from 1976 to 2016. Built-up area increases from 74.82ha in 1976 to 116.58ha in 2016. Farmlands increased from 2.23 ha to 46.45ha and bared surface increases from 120.00ha to 161.31ha between 1976 to 2016 resulting to decline in vegetation, water body, and wetlands. The Decade of rapid urbanization was found to coincide with the period of increased Public Private Partnership Agreement (PPPA). Increase in farmlands was due to the adoption of urban agriculture which has influence on food security and the environmental sustainability. The observed increase in built up areas, farmlands and bare surfaces has substantially led to reduction in vegetation and water bodies. The oscillatory nature of water bodies LULCC which was not particularly consistent with the rates of urbanization also suggests that beyond the urbanization process, other factors may influence the LULCC of water bodies in urban settlements. Keywords: Minna, Niger State, Remote Sensing, Land Surface Characteristics References Akinrinmade, A., Ibrahim, K., & Abdurrahman, A. (2012). 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Managing the declining yield of non-food crops has opened new strategic challenges amidst global uncertainties. The COVID-19 scenario has increased awareness of natural lifestyle and eco-friendly products, largely dependent on non-food crop material. This strategic shift requires moving beyond traditional farm practices to improve agricultural production efficiency, and developing countries in particular have shown a consistent loss in their self-sufficiency of industrial crops despite being major exporters of non-food crop materials. However, existing studies analyze production efficiencies of non-food crops from general or theoretical aspects often by virtual estimates from breaking down the multiple factors of crop productivity. This study examined multiple factors of crop production to identify “which crop inputs have been inefficiently used overtime” by tracking efficiency changes and various input issues in overall cotton production from practical aspects, i.e., scaling non-constant returns of those multiple factors would allow for the violation of various situations. Accordingly, a stochastic frontier approach was employed to measure the production frontier and efficiency relationship using time-series data of Pakistan’s cotton production from 1971–2018—a specific non-food crop perspective from a top-ranked cotton-producing country that has recently been shifted towards being a non-exporter of cotton due to low yield. The coefficient of area, seed, and labor indicates the positive relationship with cotton production, while fertilizer, irrigation, electricity, and machinery are statistically negative. This implies that policymakers need priority-based strategies for the judicial use of synthetic fertilizers, irrigation, a subsidy policy, and technology adoption, which could significantly improve the efficiencies of cotton productivity from the same land resources. Being adaptable to other developing economies, the analysis would strategically facilitate designing and developing affordable technology-driven solutions and their customized extensions towards sustainable non-food crop production practices and Agri-Resources efficiencies.

Weeds are a significant problem in crop production and their management in modern agriculture is crucial to avoid yield losses and ensure food security. Intensive agricultural practices, changing climate, and natural disasters affect weed dynamics and that requires a change in weed management protocols. The existing manual control options are no longer viable because of labor shortages; chemical control options are limited by ecodegradation, health hazards, and development of herbicide resistance in weeds. We are therefore reviewing some potential nonconventional weed management strategies for modern agriculture that are viable, feasible, and efficient. Improvement in tillage regimes has long been identified as an impressive weed-control measure. Harvest weed seed control and seed predation have been shown as potential tools for reducing weed emergence and seed bank reserves. Development in the field of allelopathy for weed management has led to new techniques for weed control. The remarkable role of biotechnological advancements in developing herbicide-resistant crops, bioherbicides, and harnessing the allelopathic potential of crops is also worth mentioning in a modern weed management program. Thermal weed management has also been observed as a useful technique, especially under conservation agriculture systems. Last, precision weed management has been elaborated with sufficient details. The role of remote sensing, modeling, and robotics as an integral part of precision weed management has been highlighted in a realistic manner. All these strategies are viable for today's agriculture; however, site-specific selection and the use of right combinations will be the key to success. No single strategy is perfect, and therefore an integrated approach may provide better results. Future research is needed to explore the potential of these strategies and to optimize them on technological and cultural bases. The adoption of such methods may improve the efficiency of cropping systems under sustainable and conservation practices.

A significant proportion of the African continent is conducive for animal agricultural production, due to its historical experience and available resources to accommodate and nurture various indigenous and exotic animal species and breeds. With food security being a global challenge, animal products can play an important role as nutrient dense food sources in human diets, particularly in Africa. However, this does not seem to reach its full potential in practice, due to numerous reasons that have not been adequately addressed. Animal welfare reservations can be highlighted as one of the major contributing factors to the curbed progress. The consequences have been scientifically proven to affect product quality and market access. However, in the African community, the concept of animal welfare has not been fully embraced. While there are international animal welfare standards in the developed world, there are inherent factors that hinder adoption of such initiatives in most developing regions, particularly among communal farmers. These include cultural norms and practices, social ranking, socio-economic status, available resources, information dissemination and monitoring tools. Therefore, there is need to harmonize what is internationally required and what is feasible to accommodate global variability. The protocols followed to ensure and evaluate farm animal welfare require regular investigation, innovation and a sustainable approach to enhance animal productivity, efficiency and product quality. Additionally, investing in animal wellbeing and health, as well as empowering communities with significant knowledge, has a potential to improve African livelihoods and contribute to food security. This review seeks to highlight the concept of animal welfare in relation to livestock and food production in African conditions.