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Small-scale farmers in South-East Asia face serious challenges in agricultural productivity, food security and environmental degradation. Complex Rice Systems (CRS) entail an integrated farming approach that combines new technologies with traditional practices and knowledge to sustainably increase agricultural productivity. A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the potential of CRS by adding rice, fish, ducks and border crops to rice fields in Lima Puluh Kota (West Sumatra, Indonesia) to improve rice productivity and dietary nutrient supply. The treatments were: conventional rice (CON), organic rice (ORR), organic rice with border crops (ORB), organic rice with fish (ORF), organic rice with ducks (ORD), and organic rice with ducks, fish, and border crops (CRS). The experiment resulted in improvements in growth, development and yield of rice in CRS and ORD compared to other treatments. Despite elevated costs, treatments with ducks also resulted in a higher gross margin than the other treatments. CRS produced the most diverse nutritional composition, and higher nutritional value compared to ORD. It was concluded that CRS can contribute to higher rice yields, improved farm income and more diversified diets, and thus providing a comprehensive approach to improve livelihoods and food security of small-scale farmers.

Serious threats to child safety are infrequent and unpredictable but can lead to serious injury and death. To stay safe, children must identify and avoid contact with a safety threat, escape from it, and report it to an adult so the adult can remove the threat. Research shows that active learning approaches are effective for teaching children to engage in these safety skills. Passive learning approaches are not effective. Active learning approaches require children to practice the skills in the presence of simulated threats with feedback to reinforce correct responses and promote generalization of skills to the natural environment.

The purpose of this review is to evaluate recent research on functional assessment procedures to identify recent advances and best practices. Indirect assessments are the most limited form of functional assessment, but their value increases when conducted by behavior analysts rather than caregivers. Direct assessments produce more valid outcomes than indirect assessments, but do not demonstrate a functional relationship between the environmental contingencies and the behavior. Functional analysis procedures are the most rigorous and valid approaches. Recent research has evaluated functional analysis variations, such as the interview-informed synthesized contingency analysis, that are more efficient and flexible for use in a variety of settings. The implementation of a functional assessment continues to be best practice for developing effective functional interventions for challenging behavior. Indirect assessments have value for informing direct assessments and functional analyses. Using indirect assessment findings to develop functional analysis procedures can increase their efficiency while maintaining the validity of the functional assessment process.

Altres ajuts: Ean Univesity Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Trajectories of many rural landscapes in Latin America remain unsustainable. Options to support sustainable rural trajectories should be comprehensive and rooted in the interests of rural actors. We selected a municipality in a coffee-growing region in Colombia with an increasing urban- rural nexus to describe interactions between rural processes and their drivers while identifying and contextualising the perceptions of local actors on major constraints and opportunities for more inclusive and sustainable rural trajectories. We described these interactions by combining secondary data on main drivers, agricultural census data, and interviews with different local actors. Changes in population structure, volatility in coffee prices, in-/out-migration, deagrarianisation, and rurbanisation, among others, are reconfiguring the rural trajectories of the study area. Despite not being a major coffee region, farmers in the study area have developed different strategies, including intensification, diversification, replacement or abandonment of coffee production, and commercialisation. The perceptions of local actors and the multiplicity of agricultural households, food/land use systems, rural processes, and drivers described in this study suggest that more sustainable rural transitions need to be supported by inclusive, integrated, and transformative landscape planning approaches that align with local priorities. However, this transformation needs to be accompanied by changes at a systemic level that address the fundamental bottlenecks to real sustainability.

Pesticides are a major tool for the intensification of agriculture, and helped to increase food, feed and biofuel production. Yet, there are persistent concerns about the negative effects of pesticides in human health and the environment, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Given the lack of information on pesticide exposure and hazard, Colombia exemplifies the need to narrow the information gap on pesticide risk in LMICs. We assessed pesticide hazard in Colombia based on the official toxicity categorization, compared it to more integral international standards, and identified main actions to narrow this information gap. Results showed that Colombia has been a relevant regional actor in pesticide production and trade, reaching almost 75 million kilogrammes and liters sold in 2016. Based on acute toxicity for humans, a quarter of the amount of pesticides sales and imports, and a third of the exports in 2016 ranged from moderately to extremenly toxic. The top-selling agrochemicals in 2016 (glyphosate with 14% of the total sales, chlorpyrifos 7.5% and mancozeb 6.9%) are also commonly used in other countries, reflecting a homogenized global industry. Compared to integral international categorizations, we found that for that year 63% of the pesticides sold with slightly acute toxicity are actually considered highly hazardous pesticides (HHP) for humans or the environment, evidencing the need to use a more integral hazard categorization in the country. Narrowing the information gap in pesticide use and associated risks demands a transparent process of knowledge creation and sharing, including funtional information and monitoring systems. This should be part of an integral assessment and regulation that better defines HHP, their production and trade to reduce pesticide risk while informing a transition towards sustainable food systems.

Serious threats to child safety are infrequent and unpredictable but can lead to serious injury and death. To stay safe, children must identify and avoid contact with a safety threat, escape from it, and report it to an adult so the adult can remove the threat. Research shows that active learning approaches are effective for teaching children to engage in these safety skills. Passive learning approaches are not effective. Active learning approaches require children to practice the skills in the presence of simulated threats with feedback to reinforce correct responses and promote generalization of skills to the natural environment.

Physical inactivity is a widespread problem associated with numerous health problems and many individuals with intellectual disabilities are physically inactive. This study used an ABAB design to evaluate a session-based self-monitoring and monetary reinforcement intervention for increasing walking by adults with intellectual disabilities at a worksite. The intervention resulted in a noticeable increase in the rate of walking for all five participants, with consistent increases for four participants. This study also evaluated if staff could correctly implement the intervention. The staff member implemented the treatment with high fidelity, and the higher rates of walking observed when the researchers implemented the intervention were maintained when staff implemented the intervention. The participants and the staff member rated the intervention as effective and acceptable.

CONTEXT: Policy-based or technological interventions are more likely to be effective if aligned with farmers' objectives, constraints, and decision-making processes. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to explore trade-offs and synergies of farming systems in response to innovative rice cultivation activities by understanding current farming systems, main drivers impacting farm management and farmers' perspectives on rice intensification. Understanding these interrelations is key in rice production areas, where smallholder farmers largely depend on growing rice to subsist. METHODS: A rapid system analysis was conducted interviewing 20 farmers in 4 villages along the Senegal River Valley (SRV) to obtain a general view on farm functioning and farmers' perspectives on farming systems. A detailed system analysis with four farmers was subsequently conducted to provide an insight into the underlying processes regulating farm management. A multi-objective optimization model was used to quantitatively evaluate and explore farm performances based on four selected indicators representing: rice production, household agricultural profit, household labour and farm nutrient balance. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed that government programmes and farmers' Unions were strongly influencing farmers' decision-making in agricultural production. Farmers also reported that although rice was still essential for their livelihoods, there were transitions towards less rice production in the wet season with short duration rice varieties and more vegetable production. Both farmers' interviews and the modelling results suggested that farmers would be unlikely to increase or even maintain the area of rice double cropping, which has been strongly promoted by the Senegalese government. Instead, farmers would rather keep investing in vegetable production. SIGNIFICANCE: This modelling study shows the consequences of policy-based and technological interventions for farming systems and may inform both policy makers and farmers in situations where objectives are strongly divergent. Hence, modelling outcomes may be used to inspire discussion and innovation in order to align the government priority of ensuring national food security and farmers' objectives and constraints in the SRV.

Crop residues are a key livelihood resource in smallholder mixed crop-livestock systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. With expansion of arable land and resultant decline in grazing resources, crop residues are becoming an increasingly important component of livestock feeds. This demand for livestock feeds has implications for the long-term sustainability of such systems since failure to return biomass to soils has implications for soil quality and the capacity of soils to support long-term productivity. Biomass allocation patterns are likely to vary with overall level of productivity and hence availability. In this study we used a household survey to quantify crop residue allocation patterns across a gradient of productivity in Eastern Africa focusing on two sites in Ethiopia and one in Kenya. We assessed the underlying determinants of crop residue allocation patterns with a view to understanding how productivity increases through intensification will influence biomass allocation in Eastern Africa and how livelihood and natural resource management objectives could be optimized. Results showed that farmers strongly favour allocation of residues to livestock feeding but that allocation to soil increases along the productivity gradient. This reduced feeding to livestock and increased allocation to soil fertility is associated with smaller farm sizes leading to reduced animal traction needs for tillage, increased overall livestock productivity, increased use of inputs and a reduced reliance on farm-based activities in overall livelihood strategies. The implications of these trends are that productivity increases in smallholder systems are likely to reduce pressure on biomass in the long term and that measures that enhance the prospects for farmers to intensify their production systems are likely to increase soil health and sustainability objectives in general. A key conclusion of the work is that intensification of livestock production could reduce crop residue allocation to soils with long term implications for soil productivity.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of token reinforcement, using an ABAB reversal design, for increasing distance walked for adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities at an adult day-training center. Five participants earned tokens for walking 50-m laps and exchanged tokens for back-up reinforcers that had been identified through preference assessments. Token reinforcement resulted in a substantial increase from baseline in laps walked for 4 participants.

One factor that has been linked to reduction in body fat and the health problems associated with obesity is increasing physical activity. In-person behavioral interventions have been shown to effectively increase physical activity, and focus has shifted to increasing the accessibility of these inter

In complex mixed crop-livestock systems with limited resources and biomass scarcity, crop residues play an important but increasingly contested role. This paper focuses on farming systems in the semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe, where biomass production is limited and farmers integrate crop and livestock activities. Conservation Agriculture (CA) is promoted to intensify crop production, emphasizing the retention of surface mulch with crop residues (CR). This paper quantifies the associated potential economic tradeoffs and profitability of using residues for soil amendment or as livestock feed, and explores alternative biomass production options. We draw on household surveys, stakeholder feedback, crop, livestock and economic modeling tools. We use the Trade-Off Analysis Model for Multi Dimensional Impact Assessment (TOA-MD) to compare different CR use scenarios at community level and for different farm types: particularly the current base system (cattle grazing of maize residues) and sustainable intensification alternatives based on a CA option (mulching using maize residues ± inorganic fertilizer) and a maize– mucuna (Mucuna pruriens) rotation. Our results indicate that a maize–mucuna rotation can reduce trade-offs between CR uses for feed and mulch, providing locally available organic soil enhancement, supplementary feed and a potential source of income. Conservation Agriculture without fertilizer application and at non-subsidized fertilizer prices is not financially viable; whereas with subsidized fertilizer it can benefit half the farm population. The poverty effects of all considered alternative biomass options are however limited; they do not raise income sufficiently to lift farmers out of poverty. Further research is needed to establish the competitiveness of alternative biomass enhancing technologies and the socio-economic processes that can facilitate sustainable intensification of mixed crop-livestock systems, particularly in semi-arid environments.

Understanding the diversity of current states, life cycles and past trajectories of households and agroecosystems is essential to contextualise the co-design of more sustainable agroecosystems. The objective of this paper was to document and analyse current states, trajectories of changes and their major drivers of households in a highly populated maize-based agroecosystem of Western Kenya. In 2013, we revisited 20 rural households that were surveyed, analysed and categorised 10 years ago (2003) in order to describe major changes in livelihood strategies, land use and soil fertility status. The household-level analysis was complemented with the analysis of secondary data on changes in drivers at the national level for the study period. The diachronic study showed a close association between drivers such as market and transport development, and the structure of rural households in terms of demographic shifts, land and labour exchanges, increased costs of agricultural inputs and better connectivity to markets. Between 2003 and 2013, the surveyed households experienced an increase in non-agricultural income by 30 %; intensity of land cultivation by 60 %; use of hybrid maize seeds by 35 %; and of synthetic fertilisers by almost 50 %. Local households increase their number of cross-bred livestock in detriment of local breeds and used less manure to fertilise their soils. In contrast, there were few changes in terms of food self-sufficiency (around 9 months per year) and in soil conditions (soil fertility was already poor in 2003). In terms of livelihood strategies, better-endowed households tended to diversify and acquire land that enabled them to adapt and benefit from the major changes observed in external drivers. In contrast, more vulnerable households sold labour and land to cope with such changes, remaining in a poverty trap. Households combine and explore diverse strategies to act, cope and adapt to fast-changing local and regional drivers. Policy or development programmes need to account for such diversity and dynamics to support the co-development of more adaptive and sustainable smallholder agroecosystems.

This study evaluated behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) to teach a response to bullying (RtB) to four adults with intellectual disabilities who were victims of bullying. The RtB consisted of refraining from retaliating, stating disapproval, walking away, and telling a staff member. In situ assessments were conducted in the natural setting to assess the effects of BST and IST. BST alone was successful in teaching the RtB to two participants. When BST did not result in the use of the RtB, IST was effective for one participant, and IST plus an incentive was effective for the other participant. The results of this study are consistent with previous BST and IST research.

Achieving climate smart agriculture depends on understanding the links between farming and livelihood practices, other possible adaptation options, and the effects on farm performance, which is conceptualised by farmers as wider than yields. Reliable indicators of farm performance are needed in order to model these links, and to therefore be able to design interventions which meet the differing needs of specific user groups. However, the lack of standardization of performance indicators has led to a wide array of tools and ad-hoc indicators which limit our ability to compare across studies and to draw general conclusions on relationships and trade-offs whereby performance indicators are shaped by farm management and the wider social-environmental context. RHoMIS is a household survey tool designed to rapidly characterise a series of standardised indicators across the spectrum of agricultural production and market integration, nutrition, food security, poverty and GHG emissions. The survey tool takes 40–60 min to administer per household using a digital implementation platform. This is linked to a set of automated analysis procedures that enable immediate cross-site bench-marking and intra-site characterisation. We trialled the survey in two contrasting agro-ecosystems, in Lushoto district of Tanzania (n = 150) and in the Trifinio border region of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras (n = 285). The tool rapidly characterised variability between farming systems at landscape scales in both locations identifying key differences across the population of farm households that would be critical for targeting CSA interventions. Our results suggest that at both sites the climate smartness of different farm strategies is clearly determined by an interaction between the characteristics of the farm household and the farm strategy. In general strategies that enabled production intensification contributed more towards the goals of climate smart agriculture on smaller farms, whereas increased market orientation was more successful on larger farms. On small farms off-farm income needs to be in place before interventions can be promoted successfully, whereas on the larger farms a choice is made between investing labour in off-farm incomes, or investing that labour into the farm, resulting in a negative association between off-farm labour and intensification, market orientation and crop diversity on the larger farms, which is in complete opposition to the associations found for the smaller farms. The balance of indicators selected gave an adequate snap shot picture of the two sites, and allowed us to appraise the ‘CSA-ness’ of different existing farm strategies, within the context of other major development objectives.

Les systemes agraires mixtes cultures-elevage constituent la principale activite economique pour plus de 80 % de la population des pays en developpement (PED), produisant 50 % de la production mondiale de cereales, environ 34% de la production bovine mondiale et environ 30 % de la production laitiere mondiale. Cependant, ces systemes agraires sont remis en question par la croissance projetee de la population humaine dans les PED qui devrait passer de 1 099 millions de personnes en 2000 a 1 670 millions en 2030, et par l’augmentation du cheptel animal qui devrait passer de 230 millions a 317 millions de tetes de l’an 2000 a 2030. Les rendements des cultures cerealieres ont de plus stagne en Afrique sub-saharienne ces 40 dernieres annees (en contraste avec l’augmentation des rendements de 1,5 a 2 % par an pour le reste des regions en developpement), et l’augmentation de la production globale cerealiere est principalement due a l’exploitation de nouvelles terres arables, et non a un accroissement de la productivite agricole. De telles projections ne sont pas viables a long terme car les terres propres a la culture deviennent rares, et les eventuelles nouvelles terres a cultiver risquent d’etre plus marginales et plus vulnerables aux aleas climatiques. La pression est de plus en plus grande sur l’utilisation de la biomasse dans les systemes agraires mixtes, et il y a un besoin urgent d’innover pour contrer cette « penurie de biomasse » en augmentant le rendement global de la production de biomasse et la qualite des fourrages tout en accroissant l’efficacite de la production animale. La biomasse venant des residus de culture (RC) est utilisee comme ressource alimentaire et comme paillis pour augmenter les rendements de culture. La biomasse devient plus rare et la competition pour les RC devient de plus en plus critique en raison de son utilisation soit comme aliment du betail soit pour le renouvellement de la fertilite du sol. Cette competition s’illustre dans les changements d’utilisation des RC du pâturage a la recolte et au stockage, dans l’augmentation des distances de transport des CR entre les lieux de recolte et de vente, et la diminution du ratio de RC par rapport a la production de grains. L’augmentation projetee de la demande en produits animaux, denommee revolution de l’elevage, va stimuler encore plus la demande en fourrage et par consequent augmenter l’utilisation des RC pour l’alimentation du betail. L’utilisation des RC comme paillis et dans l’agriculture de conservation necessite environ 2 a 3 tonnes de RC par hectare, ce qui est souvent egal au rendement total en RC dans le cas de l’agriculture pluviale dans les tropiques semi-arides. L’amelioration multidimensionnelle des plantes peut reduire la competition pour la biomasse en augmentant la quantite des RC et en ameliorant leur qualite fourragere. Augmenter les rendements en RC facilitera leur repartition entre l’alimentation du betail et l’amelioration de la fertilite du sol. Augmenter la qualite fourragere des RC soutiendra l’intensification de l’elevage ou plus de produits animaux pourront etre obtenus avec moins d’aliments pour le betail. Il est important de comprendre que les besoins en biomasse fourragere dependent du contexte local et diminuent avec l’augmentation de la productivite par unite animale.

Conservation Agriculture (CA) is being advocated to enhance soil health and sustain long term crop productivity in the developing world. One of CA's key principles is the maintenance of soil cover often by retaining a proportion of crop residues on the field as mulch. Yet smallholder crop–livestock systems across Africa and Asia face trade-offs among various options for crop residue use. Knowledge of the potential trade-offs of leaving more residues as mulch is only partial and the objective of this research is to address some of these knowledge gaps by assessing the trade-offs in contrasting settings with mixed crop–livestock systems. The paper draws from village surveys in 12 sites in 9 different countries across Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia. Sites were clustered into 3 groups along the combined population and livestock density gradients to assess current crop residue management practices and explore potential challenges to adopting mulching practices in different circumstances. Results show that although high-density sites face higher potential pressure on resources on an area basis, biomass production tends to be more substantial in these sites covering demands for livestock feed and allowing part of the residues to be used as mulch. In medium-density sites, although population and livestock densities are relatively lower, biomass is scarce and pressure on land and feed are high, increasing the pressure on crop residues and their opportunity cost as mulch. In low-density areas, population and livestock densities are relatively low and communal feed and fuel resources exist, resulting in lower potential pressure on residues on an area basis. Yet, biomass production is low and farmers largely rely on crop residues to feed livestock during the long dry season, implying substantial opportunity costs to their use as mulch. Despite its potential benefit for smallholder farmers across the density gradient, the introduction of CA-based mulching practices appears potentially easier in sites where biomass production is high enough to fulfil existing demands for feed and fuel. In sites with relatively high feed and fuel pressure, the eventual introduction of CA needs complementary research and development efforts to increase biomass production and/or develop alternative sources to alleviate the opportunity costs of leaving some crop residues as mulch.

Agent-based modelling has become an important tool to investigate socio-ecological processes. Its use is partially driven by increasing demand from decision makers to provide support for understanding the potential implications of decisions in complex situations. While one of the advantages of agent-based modelling is the ability to simulate the implications of human decision-making processes explicitly, methods for providing empirical support for the representation of the behaviour of human agents have not been structured systematically. This paper develops a framework for the parameterisation of human behaviour in agent-based models and develops twelve distinct sequences for the characterisation and parameterisation of human behaviours. Examples are provided to illustrate the most important sequences. This framework is a first step towards a guide for parameterisation of human behaviour in ABM. A structured discussion within the agent-based community is needed to achieve a more definitive guideline.

Land-use/cover change (LUCC) is a complex process that includes actors and factors at different social and spatial levels. A common approach to analyse and simulate LUCC as the result of individual decisions is agent-based modelling (ABM). However, ABM is often applied to simulate processes at local scales, while its application in regional studies is limited. This paper describes first a conceptual framework for ABM to analyse and explore regional LUCC processes. Second, the conceptual framework is represented by combining different concepts including agent typologies, farm trajectories and probabilistic decision-making processes. Finally, the framework is illustrated through a case study in the Netherlands, where processes of farm cessation, farm expansion and farm diversification are shaping the structure of the landscape. The framework is a generic, straightforward approach to analyse and explore regional LUCC with an explicit link to empirical approaches for parameterization of ABM.

Land use/cover change (LUCC) is often the cumulative result of individual farmer's decisions. To understand and simulate WCC as the result of local decisions, multi-agent systems models (MAS) have become a popular technique. However, the definition of agents is not often based on real data, ignoring the inherent diversity of farmers and farm characteristics in rural landscapes. The aim of this paper is to describe an empirical method that defines an agent typology and allocates agents into the different agent types for an entire region. This method is illustrated with a case study in the Netherlands, where processes of farm expansion and diversification of farm practices take place. Five different agent types were defined and parameterized in terms of views, farm characteristics and location. Despite its simplicity, this empirical method captures several relations between farmers' views, farm characteristics and land-use decisions and strategies. This approach is a step forward in multi-agent systems of land use/cover change (MAS/LUCC) to include the diversity of land-use decisions and strategies in regional studies by empirically defining, parameterizing and allocating different agent types. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper presents seven tactics for managing the variability evident in some physical activity data. High levels of variability in daily step-count data from pedometers or accelerometers can make typical visual inspection difficult. Therefore, the purpose of the current paper is to discuss several strategies that might facilitate the visual interpretation of highly variable data. The seven strategies discussed in this paper are phase mean and median lines, daily average per week, weekly cumulative, proportion of baseline, 7-day moving average, change point detection, and confidence intervals. We apply each strategy to a data set and discuss the advantages and disadvantages.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of token reinforcement, using an ABAB reversal design, for increasing distance walked for adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities at an adult day-training center. Five participants earned tokens for walking 50-m laps and exchanged tokens for back-up reinforcers that had been identified through preference assessments. Token reinforcement resulted in a substantial increase from baseline in laps walked for 4 participants.

Throughout their lives, children may be exposed to a variety of safety threats that can result in harm or even death. These safety threats include: abduction, sexual abuse, poisons, and firearm injuries-among others. Research highlights the need for effective strategies to teach children to recognize a safety threat, and to engage in behaviors that will increase their chances of escaping safely. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the research on teaching safety skills to children. The chapter discusses different approaches to assessment and training, with an emphasis on active learning approaches as the most effective strategies.

Crop residues (CR) have become a limited resource in mixed crop-livestock farms. As a result of the increasing demand and low availability of alternative resources, CR became an essential resource for household activities, especially for livestock keeping; a major livelihood element of smallholder farmers in the developing world. Farmers’ decisions on CR use are determined by farmers’ preferences, total crop production, availability of alternative resources and demand for CR. Interaction of these determinants can result in pressures and trade-offs of CR use. Determinants, pressures and trade-offs are shaped by the specific socio-economic and agro-ecological context of these mixed farms. The objective of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of the determinants of CR use and to examine some options to cope with pressures and trade-offs in 12 study sites across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Drawing on socioeconomic data at household and village level, we describe how cereal intensification and livestock feed demand influence use, pressures and trade-offs of CR use across study sites, specifically cereal residue. Our results show that in low cereal production and livestock feed demand sites, despite a low demand for CR and availability of alternative biomass, pressures and trade-offs of CR use are common particularly in the dry season. In sites with moderate cereal production, and low–moderate and moderate livestock feed demand, alternative biomass resources are scarce and most residues are fed to livestock or used to cover household needs. Subsequently, pressures and potential trade-offs are stronger. In sites with low cereal production and high livestock feed demand, pressures and trade-offs depend on the availability of better feed resources. Finally, sites with high cereal production and high livestock feed demand have been able to fulfil most of the demand for CR, limiting pressures and trade-offs. These patterns show that agricultural intensification, better management of communal resources and off-farm activities are plausible development pathways to overcome pressures and trade-offs of CR use. Although technologies can largely improve these trends, research and development should revisit past initiatives so as to develop innovative approaches to tackle the well-known problem of low agricultural production in many smallholder mixed systems, creating more sustainable futures.

Mixed crop–livestock farms in the highlands of East Africa are undergoing a process of intensification but the constraints to intensification and the opportunities to overcome those constraints are not well understood. Survey activities were conducted from 2010 to 2011 in three sites in the highlands of Ethiopia and Kenya to (1) compare the extent of crop–livestock intensification, (2) assess constraints to intensification, and (3) explore options to overcome these constraints. Eight villages in each site were selected for the survey at two sites in Ethiopia (Kobo and Nekemte) and one (Kakamega) in western Kenya. The sites represented a gradient of productivity, increasing from the relatively extensive production system in Kobo to the more intensive production seen in Kakamega. Representative groups of 10–20 farmers were identified and interviewed in each village to gather quantitative group-level data at the village level. Results showed that the application of manure and the use of inorganic fertilizers and improved seeds were more pronounced in Kakamega and Nekemte than in Kobo. Unlike the two Ethiopian sites, 10 % of the households in the Kakamega site owned crossbred cattle. The level of intensification varied among the three sites mainly due to variations in market options and the availability of water and system-oriented technological options. Because of complexity and variation, different solutions are called for in different contexts. Dealing with some of the issues, for example, the water and technological options in Kobo, the market issue in Nekemte and the population-related issues and technological options in Kakamega, could lead to a more sustainable intensification of crop–livestock farming in the respective study sites.

Mixed crop-livestock systems provide livelihoods for a billion people and produce half the world’s cereal and around a third of its beef and milk. Market orientation and strong and growing demand for food provide powerful incentives for sustainable intensification of both crop and livestock enterprises in smallholders’ mixed systems in Africa. Better exploitation of the mutually reinforcing nature of crop and livestock systems can contribute to a positive, inclusive growth trajectory that is both ecologically and economically sustainable. In mixed systems, livestock intensification is often neglected relative to crops, yet livestock can make a positive contribution to raising productivity of the entire farming system. Similarly, intensification of crop production can pay dividends for livestock and enhance natural resource management, especially through increased biomass availability. Intensification and improved efficiency of livestock production mean less greenhouse gases per unit of milk and more milk per unit of water. This paper argues that the opportunities and challenges justify greater investment in research for development to identify exactly where and how ‘win-win’ outcomes can be achieved and what incentives, policies, technologies and other features of the enabling environment are needed to enable sustainable, integrated and productive mixed crop-livestock systems.

This paper explores the potential and challenges of increasing production of food and feed on existing maize fields in mixed crop-livestock systems in the semi-arid areas of southern Africa. It integrates results from different sources of data and analysis: 1. Spatial stratification using secondary data for GIS layers: Maize mega-environments combined with recommendation domains for dual-purpose maize were constructed for Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, stratifying the countries by demand factors (livestock densities and human population densities) and feed availability. Relative biomass contributions to feed resources from rangelands were compared to those from croplands to explore the usefulness of global datasets for feed supply estimations. 2. Verification through farming systems analysis: the potential demand for maize residues as feed (maize cropping patterns, maize yields and uses, feed deficits) was compared at contrasting sites, based on household survey data collected on 480 households in 2010. 3. Maize cultivar analysis: Genotypic variability of maize cultivars was compared to evaluate the potential contribution (stover quantity and quality) of dual-purpose maize to reduce feed deficits. The study results illustrate high spatial variability in the demand for and supply of maize residues. Northern Malawi is characterized by high livestock density, high human population density and high feed availability. Farmers achieve maize yields of more than 2 t/ha resulting in surplus of residues. Although livestock is important, southwest Zimbabwe has low livestock densities, low human populations and low feed availability; farming systems are more integrated and farmers make greater use of maize residues to address feed shortages. Central Mozambique also has low cattle densities, low human populations and low feed availability. More rangelands are available but maize yields are very low and livestock face severe feed shortages. The investigation of 14 advanced CIMMYT maize landraces cultivars and 15 advanced hybrids revealed significant variations in grain and stover yield and fodder quality traits. Where livestock densities are high and alternative feed resources are insufficient, maize cultivars with superior residue yield and fodder quality can have substantial impact on livestock productivity. Cultivars at the higher end of the quality range can provide sufficient energy for providing livestock maintenance requirements and support about 200 g of live weight gain daily. Maize cultivars can be targeted according to primary constraints of demand domains for either stover quantity or stover fodder quality and the paper proposes an approach for this based on voluntary feed intake estimates for maize stover.

Animals use rules to adjust their level of investment in a contest. We evaluate male strategies during contests over females in the golden orb-web spider Nephila clavipes. We tested whether male behaviour changes with female value, and found that contests were similar in intensity and outcome whether the female was a juvenile or adult, virgin or non-virgin, or whether one male had invested sperm in the female. We found evidence that males use a self-assessment strategy when deciding to withdraw from a contest. Loser body size and contestant size difference were correlated with a higher frequency of contest escalation, and fights involving two large males were more likely to escalate than a fight in which one male was small. A multiple regression showed that loser body size had a stronger effect on contest escalation than contestant body size difference. More importantly, the size of the winning male had no effect on contest escalation, a key prediction of a self-assessment strategy. In N. clavipes, body size is the primary factor that determines the outcome of male contests, and males do not appear to assess their opponent or the quality of the resource when deciding to withdraw from the fight.

The development of rural regions is a result of multiple (spatial) interactions between socio-economic and biophysical processes. These interactions differ largely between rural regions as processes within the region are different and they also respond differently to the pressures the region is facing from outside. In particular, the diversity of farmers’ decision-making in rural regions may have an important influence on how the region responds to endogenous and exogenous processes. This response can affect the use and the structure of the landscape. The aim of this paper is to explore how future responses of farmers’ decision-making to endogenous and exogenous processes can affect the regional landscape structure. This is achieved by implementing different future scenarios in an agent-based modelling approach for a rural region in the Netherlands. The results show how the response of farming to global or regional processes either polarise or interconnect agriculture and semi-nature areas in the rural region. The results also demonstrate how different types of decision-making can influence passively or actively the structure of the landscape. The added value of including the diversity of farmers’ decision-making in regional LUCC research is discussed.

In rural regions, land use changes (LUC) are often the result of the decision-making of individual farmers. To influence this decision-making, compulsory and voluntary mechanisms are implemented. However, farmers' decision-making is a heterogeneous process that depends on their ability and willingness to take certain decisions. Discrepancies between farmers' ability and willingness and the design of voluntary mechanisms occur frequently. This makes it necessary to understand how farmers' participation in these mechanisms can affect LUC. The aim of this paper was to demonstrate an agent-based approach to analyse and explore how voluntary mechanisms can influence LUC processes in rural regions. This approach was applied to a rural region in Australia, where clearing of native vegetation has occurred for agricultural development. Historical land cover data and semi-structured interviews were used to parameterise an agent-based model. Factors that influence farmers' ability and willingness to participate in these mechanisms were identified. Three scenarios were simulated with the model to explore how the implementation of different voluntary mechanisms can affect the landscape structure of the region. This paper identifies how the diversity of farmers' decision-making can influence the landscape structure in the region. The advantages and limitations of an agent-based approach in relation to LUC research and policy are discussed. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.