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In the printed version of the above article the following contributors, Luca Nizzetto, Nina Buenaventura and Rachel Hurley were mistakenly not included in the final list of authors for their role in the development of the concept for the reference materials and the effervescent pills vectors used in the study.

Western Kenya is one of Africa's most densely populated rural areas, characterised by intensive smallholder crop-livestock systems on degraded lands managed with small inputs of mineral fertiliser and animal manure. Competing uses for crop residues and other organic resources often results in poor nutrient cycling efficiencies at farm scale. Modifying livestock feeding, retaining more crop residues in the field, and improving manure management can help conserving considerable amount of nutrients on-farm. To examine to what extent such strategies would be feasible, we analysed whole-farm nutrient cycling efficiencies (NCE) of a range of farms differing in resource-endowment and production orientation, identifying the most efficient farmer strategies considering labour and financial constraints. Nutrient concentration in excreted cattle manure was relatively small (i.e., N

SUMMARYMineral fertiliser is a scarce input for smallholder maize farmers in Malawi. A recent provision of small amounts of subsidised fertilisers by government programmes to farmers throughout Malawi has increased fertiliser access and raised maize production, but fertiliser management and yield responses frequently remain poor. To seek ways to use the fertiliser more efficiently, we analysed the effects of low rates of N (15 or 30 kg N ha−1) and P (9 kg P ha−1) fertiliser in combination with improved weed management on maize yields in experiments on 12 smallholder farms in Chisepo, central Malawi. Several indices of N and P use efficiency were computed from the above-ground crop components and nutrient contents. Maize yield simulations were conducted using long-term rainfall records in the APSIM crop-soil system model. NP fertiliser significantly (p < 0.001) raised maize grain yield from 0.65 to 1.5 t ha−1, and twice-weeding fertilised maize significantly (p < 0.001) raised maize yields by 0.4 t ha−1 compared with weeding once (0.9 t ha−1). The agronomic efficiency of applied fertiliser N (AEN) averaged 19.3 kg grain kg N−1 with one weeding but doubled to 38.7 kg with the additional weeding. The physiological efficiency of applied N (PEN) was 40.7 kg grain kg−1 N uptake. APSIM predicted that similar or larger maize yield responses to 15 or 30 kg N ha−1 can be expected in 8 out of 10 years in areas with similar rainfall patterns to Chisepo. A financial analysis showed that the application of these small amounts of fertiliser was economic even when fertiliser was purchased from the open market, provided the crop was adequately weeded. Participatory assessments helped farmers understand the increased efficiency of fertiliser use possible with additional weeding, although some farmers reported difficulty implementing this recommendation due to competing demands for labour. We conclude that to raise the productivity and sustainability of fertiliser support programmes in Malawi, initiatives should be introduced to help identify and educate farmers on the major drivers of productivity in their systems.

BackgroundTo increase rice production in Africa, considerable research has focused on creating interspecific hybrids between African (Oryza glaberrima Steud.) and Asian (O. sativa L.) rice in an attempt to obtain the positive attributes of each in new cultivars. Since flavor is a key criterion in consumer acceptance of rice, as an initial inquiry we characterized and compared the aroma chemistry of selected cultivars of African O. sativa ssp. japonica, O. sativa ssp. indica, O. glaberrima, and their interspecific hybrids grown in West Africa, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-olfactometry and descriptive sensory analysis. ResultsOf 41 volatiles identified across seven representative rice cultivars grown in West Africa, 3,5,5-trimethyl-2-cyclopenten-1-one, styrene, eucalyptol, linalool, myrtenal and l--terpineol had not been previously reported in rice. Thirty-three odor-active compounds were characterized. 4-Ethylphenol and (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal were unique to O. glaberrima, and pyridine, eucalyptol and myrtenal were described only in an interspecific hybrid. Descriptive sensory analysis indicated cooked grain', barny' and earthy' attributes were statistically different among the cultivars. ConclusionThe aroma chemistry data suggest that it should be possible to separate African cultivars into distinct flavor types thereby facilitating selection of new cultivars with superior flavor in African rice breeding programs. (c) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Nsisha, a rural village located close to the shores of Lake Victoria in northwestern Tanzania, this article analyzes how climate change and variability intersect with other stressors that affect rural livelihoods, particularly HIV/AIDS. The analysis integrates theories of vulnerability from both climate and HIV/AIDS literatures to show how these intersecting stressors compound livelihood vulnerability in complex ways. Climate change and variability are linked to declining agricultural yields and an increase in food and nutrition insecurity and poor health in this region. This situation heightens poverty and susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, compromising people’s abilities to cope and adapt. Because of social dynamics, single mothers and their children are particularly affected by these compound vulnerabilities. Climate change and variability are significant contributing vulnerability factors that sustain and exacerbate asymmetrical poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and HIV/AIDS. By describing the links between vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and climate variability, findings highlight the importance of holistic and localized approaches to adaptation, instead of trying to isolate single issues. Prioritization of multidisciplinary research focusing on the socially differentiated and gendered distribution of vulnerability specifically in regard to poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and HIV/AIDS is recommended as a means to enrich the understanding of climate change vulnerability. Adaptation strategies should address how climatic shifts interact with generalized poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, health, and gendered vulnerability in areas most affected.

Technology introduction and the intensive use of resources, particularly in smallholder farming systems, are at the core of debates about future food security and sustainable livelihoods. In Brazil, land use changes promoted by competing agricultural chains require a search for alternative modes of production for family farms. We analyse the technical and economic viability of intensification of dairy farming by smallholders in the “Balde Cheio” (Full Bucket) programme. On average, family farmers who joined the programme increased milk production three-fold whereas at regional level there was a significant reduction of 8% between 2003 and 2009. Comprehensive datasets from Sao Paulo state and four other regions across Brazil were collated and analysed to explore for whom, how and when intensive dairy production is a feasible option. Data envelopment analysis allowed us to compare inefficiencies among farms and highlight different strategies for technological changes. The empirical evidences in this study indicate the technical viability of the more intense use of resources towards family-based dairy farming systems. Higher productivity was due to a combination of more lactating cows/area (31%), higher productivity/cow (24%), better labour performance (37%) while using less land area (−7%). The gross margin/area almost doubled although milk prices had increased by only 7%. The economic outcome of the intensified systems was on average R$ 3000/ha which was competitive with R$ 600/ha for sugarcane leasing and R$ 700/ha for soybean production. Despite the smaller returns on land, large landowners can have a good household income with sugarcane or soybean, but for smallholders the intensification of dairy is the only option. Compared with the alternative of wage jobs in urban areas, we found it very competitive for 40 out of 50 farmers in the sample in terms of income per family member involved in the production process.

This article presents results from a study exploring the reasons for low adoption of legume technologies to improve soil fertility by farmers from a community in central Malawi who took part in participatory trials. This study explores the influence of gender roles in agriculture and land ownership and socio-economic differentiation in the community. Because most women do not own land and are traditionally responsible for legume crops, they have little interest in managing soil fertility for maize crops. Men are not interested in using legumes in maize-cropping systems. Some are too poor: this group needs to complement their subsistence maize production with paid labour on the farms of better-off farmers; restricting the labour availability for their own farming activities. Wealthier farmers have access to, and prefer to use chemical fertilizer and cattle manure. Take-up rates among the middle group of farmers were also low. This study discusses how these (and other) factors influence the (non-)adoption of maize-legume technologies in Malawi and the effectiveness of participatory research. It emphasizes how differentiated farmer-realities affect the uptake of technologies identified as promising in participatory field evaluations.

Crop residue mulching combined with zero tillage and crop rotation, known as conservation agriculture (CA), is being promoted as an alternative system to revert soil degradation in maize-based farming in the central highlands of Mexico. The goal of this paper was to determine the effects of CA vs. conventional tillage systems on soil quality, with a special focus on the role of earthworms in affecting the soil structure morphology, and on crop yield. For the conventional tillage system, the effect of crop residue retention (CONV + RES) was also compared to the conventional farmers’ practice (residues removed; CONV). CA resulted in four times higher earthworm abundance when compared to CONV. Residue retention per se (CONV + RES) did not favor earthworm abundance. In all cases the earthworm community was dominated by exotic species. CA increased total N and soil organic C concentrations relative to CONV, but only at 0–5 cm soil depth. Nevertheless, the more pronounced vertical stratification of soil organic carbon content under CA favored soil surface aggregation and aggregate stability as expressed by the aggregate mean weight diameter after dry sieving (MWDds = 2.6 mm for CA and 1.6 mm for CONV) and wet sieving (MWDws = 0.9 mm and 0.6 mm, respectively). Also, CA improved topsoil water stable macroaggregation (WSA = 415 mg g−1) when compared to CONV (251 mg g−1). Residue retention within conventional tillage (CONV + RES) led to small increases in topsoil aggregate stability (i.e. MWDds and WSA). Soil structural improvements were accompanied by a higher direct surface water infiltration. Micromorphological analysis of thin sections indicated a loose and highly biogenic soil microstructure in CA, whereas CONV was characterized by a physicogenic microstructure, despite similar soil bulk densities (SBD). SBD is thus a poor indicator of soil physical quality when comparing different tillage systems. Redundancy analysis illustrated that CA resulted in improvement in most parameters related to soil quality, especially at the soil surface, but significant yield increases were recorded only in 2004. CONV + RES lead to marginal improvements in soil quality with no yield increases.

The Adja plateau (Benin) is densely populated by tenant and landowner farmers engaged in oil palm based cropping. Landowners use oil palm sap for the production of sodabi (a local spirit), and an oil palm fallow (if no crops are grown beneath the palms) to restore soil fertility. In this area, growing oil palm for its oil is uncommon. Tenants access the land under specific contracts but are not allowed to plant oil palm. They grow food crops beneath the oil palm and extend the cropping period by severely pruning the palms because their right to grow food crops terminates when the palms reach a height of 2 m. The competing claims between landowners and tenants and between oil palm and annual food crops result in conflicts over practices that either degrade or restore soil fertility. Using a political ecology perspective, we examined how two overlapping institutions shape access to and management of the land: the customary tenure system and the legal system that was introduced to regulate titling and contracting. These institutions have divergent implications for tenants and landowners, in terms of both social equity and land management practices. The implications of this institutional patchwork (bricolage) for joint learning to achieve sustainable agriculture are discussed.

Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) is one of the areas of Participatory Technology Development (PTD) in which collaboration of researchers and farmers has been reported as quite successful although its institutionalization remains problematic. This paper aims to contribute to better understanding of PPB processes. It focuses on the practices of developing a common bean variety (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) by a group consisting of a breeder, farmers and NGO technician in northern Nicaragua. The description is an example of a technography and uses the concept of boundary object to analyse how actors come together around a shared goal and how their knowledge and practices are combined in the material making of five varieties, eventually leading to JM-12.7 as a formally released variety. The material making of five bean varieties is central in the first part of the process and shows how in practice different knowledges within the group interact. The second part of the process leads to distinguishing socio-political boundaries. The formal registration of JM-12.7 required crossing of these boundaries and prompted the reorganization of the group into a co-operative.

The need for interdisciplinarity in agricultural and development-oriented research has become widely recognized. In this paper a framework is suggested to integrate research methods of the social and natural sciences. It is argued that the context–mechanism–outcome configuration, based on critical realism, allows a more comprehensive understanding of all candidate mechanisms that have a social, technical or socio-technical basis, related to a particular question. Candidate mechanisms are all possible mechanisms postulated to explain a particular phenomenon. Four research styles can be recognized in both the social and the natural sciences. These research styles help choosing the appropriate methods to test the various candidate mechanisms related to a single research question. Combining the context–mechanism–outcome configuration with the four research styles may reduce the chances of missing out important candidate mechanisms. In this way the proposed framework may help optimize the research set-up and methodology of an interdisciplinary research project. Understanding which disciplines and research styles to combine can also allow interdisciplinary research to go beyond triangulation, as it provides more clarity about the possibilities for tightly integrating research methods and/or different data sets. It is suggested that the absence of a clear methodology for interdisciplinary research holds the advantage that it helps building bridges and developing alternative paths in science.

An agricultural experiment is usually associated with a scientific method for testing certain agricultural phenomena. A central point in the work of Paul Richards is that experimentation is at the heart of agricultural practice. The reason why agricultural experiments are something different for farmers and agronomists is not their capacity to experiment as such but the embedding of experiments in a specific ecological, material and institutional environment. Using a historical perspective, changes are examined in the organization of agricultural experiments focusing on the Netherlands and colonial Indonesia during the first half of the 20th century and the international agricultural research institutes for the period thereafter. The results show a gradual shift in the role of experiments in the connection between science and practice. Initially, the link was considered to be established through various forms of experiments, rooted in an integrated social and technical understanding of agronomy. Gradually, this turned into a connection primarily established through various forms of communication. Recent work of Richards incorporates ideas that address key issues emerging from the history of agricultural experiments, dealing with an integrated social and technical understanding of agriculture.

A surge of media reports and rhetorical claims depicted genetically modified (GM) crops as a solution to the ‘global food crisis’ manifested in the sudden spike in world food prices during 2007–08. Broad claims were made about the potential of GM technologies to tackle the crisis, even though the useful crops and traits typically invoked had yet to be developed, and despite the fact that real progress had in fact been made by using conventional breeding. The case vividly illustrates the instrumental use of food-crisis rhetoric to promote GM crops.

This article presents a different dimension of the innovation systems approach, going beyond analysis and shedding light on how these processes can be facilitated in practice. This is based on 20 years' experience with innovations systems. The focus is on the role of facilitation in triggering the changes, as well as in integrating learning and knowledge management (KM) in the innovation process.

The decades-old conflict in Mindanao, southern Philippines, is often framed as a Muslim–Christian conflict and reinterpreted as such within the US-led global war on terror, with the Muslim secessionist movement standing accused of providing a hub for international jihad. In the meantime, global economic integration has made it easier to ignore the agrarian roots of violent conflict in Mindanao, enabling national and sub-national actors, including the international community and the Muslim or Moro separatists, to dismiss the issue of agrarian justice. We counter these arguments by using an agrarian political economy framework to uncover the roots of resilient violence in Mindanao, using historical narratives of the region from the end of the nineteenth century that accentuate the links between state-making, control of land and labour, and processes of agrarian modernization. We emphasize the critical role played by the Muslim landed elites who shaped processes of state-making by brokering the interests of their clans with exogenous actors at the national and international level. We shed light on emerging state policies and competing interests among other landed and agribusiness elites that resulted in the spread of a parallel underground economy, renewing opportunities for violence and crime within semi-autonomous social worlds.

The bulk of analysis and commentary on violent conflicts in developing countries over the past 20 years or so has neglected the dynamics and tensions of agrarian political economy. Introducing a special issue devoted to these agrarian dimensions of armed conflict, non-war violence and post-war repertoires of political mobilization, this paper argues for a new research and policy agenda. In doing so, we revive some older analytical approaches and suggest that they can refresh and enhance current scholarship. We argue too for a historical perspective: not simply to highlight precedents but, rather, because such a perspective helps to clarify the issues involved and their centrality to processes of rural change, as well as to show that there may be long-run continuities in patterns of conflict. Bringing the agrarian back in to the study of violent conflict means investigating access to land and capital and means of mobilizing labour; it means investigating changes in the institutional regulation of such access and control; and it means identifying the tensions, techniques of compulsion and modes of resistance developed around productive relations in, typically, a globalized context.

Was the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991–2002) fought for diamonds, or was it a peasant insurgency motivated by agrarian grievances? The evidence on both sides is less than conclusive. This article scrutinizes the peasant insurgency argument via a more rigorous methodology. Hypotheses concerning intra-peasant tensions over marriage and farm labour are derived from an examination of the anthropological literature. These are tested using econometric tools, applied to data from a randomized survey of 2,239 households in 178 villages surrounding the Gola Forest in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, the cradle of the war. It is shown that a decade after the war ended peasant disputes over marriage continue to mark out an incipient class divide in isolated rural communities, as evidenced by cases presented in local courts and family moots. Disputes mainly involve a village elder suing a young man with weak social protection. Fines are exceptionally high, and mostly paid off in the form of coerced farm labour. It is argued that grievance over this long-standing form of labour exploitation fed insurgency, and contributed to the otherwise puzzlingly high levels of peasant-upon-peasant violence associated with the war in Sierra Leone.

In areas with less favourable conditions for agriculture, informal seed systems permit gene flow through pollen to play a crucial role in the development of new varieties. An important factor with great impact on cross-pollination is the plant breeding system, but so far this is little studied within the context of low-input farming systems. This research studied the chances of cross-pollination within and between rice fields in The Gambia. Size and time of flowering were measured for 28 rice fields in one village. The level of mixture was measured in 90 seed lots of rice collected from four villages. Based on the results, we suggest that in general cross-pollination between different rice genotypes occurs more often within fields than between fields. No clear relationship was found between the level of within-field mixture and socio-economic status of farmers. Some comparison was made with millet, which allowed the identification of various factors influencing pollen flow between different genotypes. Effective pollen flow (between genotypes) is a function of a number of factors, such as the rate of cross-pollination of a crop, number of off-types within fields, variety distinctiveness, farmer expert knowledge, length and reliability of the rainy season, growth duration of different varieties, availability of fields, pest pressure and number of varieties grown per field or per farmer. We hypothesize that a low cross-pollination rate is more favourable for the development of new varieties in farmer fields than a high cross-pollination rate.

This paper assesses the extent to which customary governance in Sierra Leone can be held responsible for an increasingly unstable two-class agrarian society. A case is made for regarding the civil war (1991–2002) as being an eruption of long-term, entrenched agrarian tensions exacerbated by chiefly rule. Evidence is presented to suggest that the main rebel movement embodied in its plans to reorganize agricultural production some grasp of these longer-term agrarian problems. Postwar attempts to implement co-operative farming and mining are then described. The failure of these schemes is linked to the reinstitution of customary land law and local patronage systems. Current struggles over land now involve international capital. Deep agrarian reforms will be required as the price of keeping international capital engaged in the Sierra Leone countryside

The agrarian de-collectivisation in Kazakhstan is an instructive case for examining the relative viability of large-scale farming vis-a-vis smallholder agriculture. Within the transition from communism to capitalism in Kazakhstan, de-collectivisation involved not only a redefinition of property rights but also a dramatic rupture with former modes of agricultural knowledge generation and use. Up to now, however, the role of knowledge and skills in shaping de-collectivisation has received scant attention in the literature on postsocialism. This article argues that the loss and inadequacy of knowledge, following the collapse of knowledge institutions and the shift from large-scale knowledge-intensive mechanised farming to predominantly manual farming on small plots, needs to form part of any explanation of the postsocialist agrarian crisis. The analysis shows the importance of studying access to, and control over, knowledge in constructing a theory of agricultural labour processes.

Those who intervene in crises must take care to ensure that assistance does not undermine the processes through which social cohesion is generated or restored. From a neo-Durkheimian analytical perspective, feeding creates social loyalties as well as saves lives. Humanitarian agencies provide practical assistance to livelihoods, but they need also to create space for the ritual agency on which social cohesion depends. Attention to the rituals of food distribution helps humanitarian actors to address a potentially damaging dissociation between social and material facts. A post-war food security project in Sierra Leone is used to illustrate the point. The lessons of this intervention have implications for the organisation of humanitarian assistance at all levels, both international and local. The paper argues that establishing space for ritualisation within humanitarian programmes is an obligation for those who wish to do no harm.

This paper examines the competing claims on land use resulting from the expansion of biofuel production. Sugarcane for biofuel drives agrarian change in So Paulo state, which has become the major ethanol-producing region in Brazil. We analyse how the expansion of sugarcane-based ethanol in So Paulo state has impacted dairy and beef production. Historical changes in land use, production technologies, and product and land prices are described, as well as how these are linked to changing policies in Brazil. We argue that sugarcane/biofuel expansion should be understood in the context of the dynamics of other agricultural sectors and the long-term national political economy rather than as solely due to recent global demand for biofuel. This argument is based on a meticulous analysis of changes in three important sectors - sugarcane, dairy farming, and beef production - and the mutual interactions between these sectors.

Policy makers, journalists and other commentators have hailed genetically modified (GM) crops as a ‘pro-poor’ success in the developing world. Their confidence appears to be justified by the encouraging conclusions reached by academic studies on the performance and impacts of GM crops, which seem to provide convincing evidence of substantial benefits for smallholders in developing countries. However, a detailed, critical examination of studies on transgenic, insect-resistant cotton in China, India and South Africa demonstrates that the technology's impacts have been evaluated and represented in selective and misleading ways. The performance and impacts of GM crops have in fact been highly variable, socio-economically differentiated and contingent on a range of agronomic, socio-economic and institutional factors. The shortcomings of the GM crop-impacts literature have done a disservice to public and policy debates about GM crops in international development and impeded the development of sound, evidence-based policy

Building from the perception that farmers have an intimate knowledge of their local environment, production problems, crop priorities and criteria for evaluation, an on-farm experiment was conducted with farmers in 2003/4 in Chisepo, central Malawi, to evaluate the response of six annual legumes to phosphorus (P) (20 kg P ha-1 or no P fertilizer) application. The legumes were velvet bean, pigeonpea, soyabean, groundnut, bunch-type cowpea and Bambara groundnut. Twelve farmers hosted the experiments and each farmer formed a group of at least 4 other farmers to evaluate the legumes. Farmer participatory monitoring and evaluation of the legume and P combinations was conducted during the experiment to determine farmer preferences and acceptance of the technology. Measured grain yields, returns to labour and total costs of the P-fertilized legumes were compared with those for the unfertilized legumes. The application of P fertilizer significantly (P = 0.05) increased legume grain yields, particularly with velvet bean, and soyabean. However, use of P was not financially attractive and farmers were not interested to use P at the time. Farmers were more interested to maximize legume food production from their labour investment. Soyabean, groundnut and pigeonpea, grain legumes with high value as food, were considered to be priority crops by farmers over velvet bean, cowpea and Bambara groundnut

The purpose of this paper is to document smallholder experiences during a participatory experimental initiative and draw useful lessons for field practitioners. The main methods used to collect data were participant observation, in-depth interviews among 40 farmers, and analyses of notes taken during participatory monitoring and evaluation. These farmers were regular participants in four collective trials—designed by scientists, managed by smallholders—that were run for over five years in western Kenya. This paper shows that scientific trial designs enhanced 'conviction' among smallholders in new technologies that were being experimented. The study further reveals that (1) collective trials must last long enough for interactive learning to effectively occur, (2) farmers' selected aspects of experiments and did not generally treat the whole trial as one concept, (3) field trials were forms of evidence of research or project activity, and (4) trials were seen as like 'churches' and multipurpose congregating sites, especially because these collective experiments had roots in local traditions. The practical implication is that because interactive trials are social events, like other learning platforms, they must be appropriately situated within local contexts to enhance their relevance. This paper also shows that experiments are only a first step in learning, which needs to be supported by in-depth research and support for smallholder experiments. Collaborative experimentation is an effective tool for improving smallholder knowledge. Experimentation is a hands-on tool; it strengthens interactive learning, enhances understanding of a concept and improves ownership of the process or research among farmers. However, longer-term collective experiments develop a strong underlying human dimension. Understanding the social dynamics that influence the value of collective experimentation is critical for the process of scaling out

SUMMARYUsing farmer resource typologies, adaptability analysis and an on-farm mother and baby trial approach, we evaluated the production risks of alternative maize-legume crop combinations for smallholder farmers in Chisepo, central Malawi between 1998 and 2002. Production benefits and risks of four soil fertility and food legumes, pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea), tephrosia (Tephrosia vogelii) and mucuna (Mucuna pruriens), intercropped or rotated with maize, were compared by 32 farmers in 4 farmer resource groups (RGs) of different wealth status. The calculation of lower confidence limits was used to determine the production risk of the crops. Alternative crop technologies presented different risks to farmers of different wealth status, and the degree of risk affected their choice of soil fertility management strategy. The better-resourced farmers (RG 1) had larger yields with all crop combinations than the poorly resourced farmers (RG 4). Legumes integrated with maize significantly (p< 0.001) raised maize grain yields by between 0.5 t ha−1and 3.4 t ha−1, when compared with sole crop unfertilized maize. Fertilized maize was less of a risk for the better-resourced farmers (RG 1 and RG 2), and it yielded well when combined with the legumes. Maize-legume intercrops yielded more and were associated with less risk than the maize-legume rotations. Maize intercropped with pigeonpea was predicted overall to be the least risky technology for all RGs. We conclude that new crop technologies may pose more risk to poorly resourced farmers than to wealthier farmers.

Recurring political and economic crises in agriculture lie behind policymakers' demands for more interdisciplinary, problem-solving approaches. This article examines different systems theories in agricultural sciences that claim to adopt interdisciplinarity and to bridge a supposed gap between the natural and social sciences. It analyses the debates and differences between so-called ‘hard systems’ and ‘soft systems’ approaches, or positivist and interpretative approaches. It aims to make the confrontation between these two approaches more legible as well as to reveal the shortcomings of each position. In particular, the implicit and unsophisticated sociology underlying the hard systems approach is a key issue. Critical realist theory is explored as an alternative to both the hard and the soft systems approach towards interdisciplinarity since it opens up space for thinking in a non-reductionist way about multiple determinations without rejecting the value of single disciplines for uncovering the working of important causalities.

Bananas are the world’s fourth food crop but in many countries in Asia and Latin America, it is also an important export crop. Africa is also importing it increasingly. Among European stakeholders, there's interest in African bananas. Before export from this continent can take off, a number of questions need addressing. Wageningen UR is developing practical knowledge for a multidisciplinary approach

The International Potato Center (CIP) and collaborating institutions implemented an intensive research programme over a period of 25–30 years on the use of botanical seed of potato as an alternative way of growing a potato crop. The use of botanical or ‘true’ potato seed (TPS) had many advantages over the use of seed tubers. Potentially, the use of TPS was especially attractive for small-scale farmers in developing countries. The difference of using TPS as compared to using seed tubers meant in many respects the development of a new crop–commodity chain, requiring research on breeding, seed production, agronomy and marketing aspects. This research made it possible to produce potatoes from TPS at commercial scale: it removed a number of important constraints in the uniformity and earliness of the TPS varieties and in seed physiology. Experimentation and adoption by farmers in a wide range of countries showed that the technological advantages of using TPS were only translating in economical benefits as compared to tuber seed when the last one was costly or not available. Since the economic performance of seed tubers is likely to continue to fluctuate, TPS remains an interesting alternative. Study of the use of TPS in various countries could contribute to better understanding of factors that promote or inhibit crop technology innovation. The article gives an overview of the various areas of TPS research in CIP and presents information on the application of TPS technology in several developing countries.

Technology is often defined in terms of tools or machines but, in this article, it is treated as the human capacity to make. The author focuses on clothing as an instance of making in war. Specific attention is paid to the junction between the power to make (or unmake) and the social and ritual capacities for regulation through which making is governed. In this sense, the study is intended as a contribution to a revived interest in the incomplete Durkheimian project on elementary forms of technique, and techniques of the body in particular. The case-study material derives from the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991—2002) in which dress was as important an aspect of making war as weaponry. Various functions and social and material entailments of battle dress are described and differentiated, and the central role of magic for understanding clothing (and technology more generally) is underlined

Migrants from the British Isles played a hitherto little recognised part in the development of Cuban society and economy in the nineteenth century. Although not a numerically large migration, British and Irish merchants, professionals and, above all, workers had a significance for Cuba out of proportion to the numbers involved. They contributed to the development of Cuba’s international commerce, to both the outlawing and the hidden continuation of slavery, to the technological development of the sugar industry, and to the modernisation of the island. However, there is little evidence of a ‘British’ community existing, and the ‘British’ identity of the migrants was at best ambiguous and more often than not subsumed within a broader definition of what it meant to be ‘white’ and ‘foreign’ in Cuba at this time. The article draws on extensive original archival research in Britain and Cuba

Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is an important food and cash crop in the Guinea-Sudan zone of Benin. The genetic diversity of about 70 cultivars of Dioscorea cayenensis/Dioscorea rotundata (Guinea yam) and about 20 cultivars of Dioscorea alata (water yam) was analysed using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The amplified bands revealed high polymorphism. These polymorphic DNA fragments were used to construct dendrograms, clustering all accessions into 18 groups: 12 for D. cayenensis/D. rotundata and six for D. alata. The analysis of molecular variance revealed highly significant variation among species, among groups within species, and among cultivars within groups. The study showed that the genetic diversity changed along a spatial gradient. In general, there was a tendency that most of the varieties from the north-east and north-west of the zone investigated appeared to be distinctive from the ones of the centre. However, few varieties were distributed randomly and did not reflect any specific relation to their zone of collection. The current study suggests that the Guinea-Sudan zone of Benin has a large gene pool of yam varieties. Yam farmers may have played a significant role in the enrichment and the maintenance of the genetic diversity of yam.

Bij investeringen in de landbouwsector in ontwikkelingslanden zijn multinationale ondernemingen centrale spelers. Dit artikel bespreekt recente trendsin de internationalisering van de landbouwsector en onderzoekt de voorwaarden waaronder deze internationalisering bij kan dragen aan duurzame groei inontwikkelingslanden

Preferences of traders and consumers for different yam varieties were analysed in Benin. Prices varied by variety, showing that the market valued distinct crop traits differently. These varietal price differentials were present throughout the year and across years. The use for which each variety was appreciated, was the most important factor determining the selling price. The study showed that the main quality criteria for poundable varieties were plasticity, absence of knobs, taste, and swelling. The quality of the paste depends on the quality of the dried slices. The quality criteria of the dried slices included possibility for long storage, absence of blackening during drying, absence of fibres inside the tuber, strong swelling of the paste, and high eating quality of the paste and the wassa-wassa (also called “African couscous”). These market data confirm that successful varietal technology development on food crops ought to include reference to consumer preferences, including cultural preferences.

This paper focuses on ethno-cognitive connections between HIV/AIDS and banana plants in the Bahaya agricultural society that emerged from an anthropological study carried out in 2005–2006 in Nsisha, a rural village in Bukoba District, north-western Tanzania. The paper briefly describes the historical context of HIV/AIDS and how its onset coincided with a decline in the production of bananas, the historical, cultural and staple food of the Bahaya people. In addition, references are made in Luhaya, the primary language spoken in the region, to demonstrate that HIV/AIDS is communicated about within the context of socio-cultural, economic, and agricultural transition that resulted, amongst other things, in a sharp decline in banana production. It is shown that for the Bahaya, HIV/AIDS is yet another ecological challenge that coincides with a decline in soil fertility, diminishing access to land, increased poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and a lower production of their long-standing cultural and staple food. The paper examines some of the possible reasons why HIV/AIDS is referred to as ekiuka, a combination of pathogens that destroy bananas. The paper concludes that HIV/AIDS and banana plants are cognitively linked and that understanding how people communicate about HIV/AIDS is important for understanding how HIV/AIDS is connected to the Bahaya agricultural livelihood and for implementing effective alleviation strategies.

This paper shows how HIV/AIDS negatively affects soil fertility management strategies among Kenyan smallholders. The paper examines this relationship, using ethnographic interviews of purposively selected affected households in Butula Division, Busia District, Kenya. Soil fertility management was given low priority in the face of high HIV/AIDS prevalence although it is a critical resource for meeting basic needs. Findings show that HIV/AIDS poses a significant and complex threat to the already deficient soil fertility management practices among smallholders. The disease's synergistic relation with poverty increases the stress on soil fertility management. It destructs local social structures and households by taking away resource persons, overburdening traditional insurance systems, and obliterating any modest capital and labour useful for soil fertility management that has been accumulated by the household. There is need for robust soil fertility policy-action frameworks that can be sustained under the limiting conditions of affected households and that can mitigate HIV/AIDS impacts amidst high poverty.

Farmers' perceptions of earthworm activities were studied in the transitional zone of Benin and linked to scientific explanations of earthworm casting activities. Earthworm activity was assessed in farmers' fields with three different cassava cultivars and in a field experiment with three different egusi melon species. The experiment included plots with cowpea and maize. The study also comprised group discussions and a survey with 91 individual farmers. All farmers were aware of earthworms, but there were significant gender differences in terms of perception of earthworms. The presence of earthworm casts is used by farmers as an indicator of soil fertility and of good conditions for crop growth. Cast production over a period of two months was highest in fields with maize, followed by cowpea, cassava and egusi melon. Farmers' ranking of earthworm abundance showed a pattern almost the opposite of our assessment, with cassava and egusi melon fields being ranked highest and those with maize and cowpea lowest. We suggest that farmer's criteria are context-dependent, with earthworm casting activity being relevant when judging whether a field can be intensively cropped again. Casts showed significantly higher plant nutrient contents than the topsoil. Nevertheless, the amount of nutrients recycled in casts is relatively low. Farmer involvement in the research activity increased their interest in earthworms.

This paper presents the results of a study that was undertaken to assess adoption dynamics of Tithonia diversifolia in Siaya and Vihiga districts of western Kenya from 1997 to 2004. The study was undertaken among a random sample of 120 farmers from eight pilot villages exposed to the technology. Descriptive statistics and a logit regression model were used to analyse data. The findings show that more farmers in pilot villages of Siaya are taking up the use of Tithonia than in Vihiga. As of 2004, 52% of farmers in Siaya were adopters compared to only 8% in Vihiga. Results of the logit regression model show that the use of Tithonia biomass for soil fertility management (SFM) is more likely to be adopted in a context where there is a scarcity of animal manure, farmers are willing to plant it on farms and hire casual labour. The use of Tithonia by smallholder farmers for SFM is therefore a promising low-cost option that can be scaled up to areas where farmers face similar constraints.

In the last decade, the concept of Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) has been advocated as a tool that combines the development of adapted varieties with the maintenance of crop genetic diversity in farmers' fields. Concrete experiences show that PPB provides farmers with more food security and opportunities to maintain cultural identity in combination with social benefits in the form of capacity development and organization. These cases indicate that crop genetic diversity is maintained or increased through PPB. However, how the PPB is organized and how diffusion of PPB varieties is influenced by the institutional and environmental context is not yet well understood. Effective support for PPB for conservation and enhancing farmers' livelihoods in the face of climate change is required. Cases from Nicaragua and Honduras are used as central examples.

Characterization of genetic diversity among cultivated cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] varieties is important to optimize the use of available genetic resources by farmers, local communities, researchers and breeders. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity in 70 cowpea accessions collected throughout Benin. Nine random primers were screened on 24 accessions to assess their ability to reveal polymorphisms in cowpea and four of them were selected for use in characterizing the total sample. A total of 32 amplified bands were generated by the four primers. The number of loci detected varied from 5 to 11. RAPD profiles were analysed and amplified polymorphic DNA fragments were used to construct a dendrogram, clustering the accessions into nine groups at a similarity index of 71% based on the Unweighted Pair-Group Method using Arithmetic Averages. The genetic diversity among the cowpea cultivars investigated was large and the RAPD proved to be a useful technique to characterise it. Based on the molecular variance, the fixation index suggests a large differentiation of cowpea cultivars in Benin.

The aim of this paper was to understand the process of selecting soybean ( Glycine max [L.] Merr.) promiscuous varieties by smallholders for soil fertility management in western Kenya. Eight varieties were screened on 2.5 m × 3 m plots that were managed according to farmers’ practices and evaluated through participatory monitoring and evaluation approaches. Farmers selected preferred varieties and explained their reasons (criteria) for making the selections. Seven promiscuous varieties had better yields than a local one. Farmers’ selection criteria fell into three broad categories relating to yield, appearance and labour. Selection criteria were not primarily aimed to improve soil fertility. This created a challenge to embed the new varieties within the local farming systems for soil fertility improvement. This study shows that farmer criteria for selecting varieties overlapped with scientific procedures. We propose co-research activities targeted to strengthen farmer experimentation skills, their understanding on N addition, and the role of P.

We examine environmental aspects of the conflict between the Turkish state and the insurgent Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan or PKK). Since the early 1990s, several civil society groups have claimed that the Turkish army burned forests and destroyed other livelihood resources in the Kurdistan region of Turkey as it evacuated settlements. We report the results of a case study of destruction in Tunceli, eastern Turkey, undertaken in order to evaluate support for such claims. We demonstrate the use of geospatial techniques in case-specific approaches to the study of armed conflict. Through the analysis of satellite images, we verified eyewitness reports and confirmed that substantial burnings did indeed take place in the study area between 1991 and 1994. We argue that this destruction was not irrational or wanton, but that it was part of a strategy used by the Turkish army in the early 1990s that aimed at actively transforming the war environment.

Deregulation and globalisation has altered the views of public involvement in development and led to strategies focusing on private sector participation. An implicit assumption seems to be that these linkages will enhance the technological capacity of smallholder producers by way of more cost-efficient technologies trickling down through the value chain or by quality requirements inducing best practices. The argument put forward in this paper is that sustainable non traditional agricultural chain development requires more purposeful actions and institutional transitions, both in the public and private spheres, targeting improved upstream innovative capacities. Empirical findings from a Dutch-Vietnamese partnership on sustainable floriculture development are used. Research revealed that the pest and disease control solutions applied by smallholder rose growers were incremental adaptations of experiences obtained in former food crop cultivation practices. Floriculture however may require more drastic changes in cultivation practices to make the sector more environmentally benign. In the case of smallholder Vietnamese flower producers, this implies adaptation of knowledge and skills currently not present. An important hindrance in promoting this knowledge and skills appears to be the weak vertical linkages between flower growers and public and private research and development organizations.

Many interventions try to address farmers¿ seed insecurity, though few assess the causes of farmers¿ vulnerability or understand their coping strategies. This paper analyzes farmers¿ practices for maintaining sorghum seed security in a specific season (1998¿99) in Ethiopia, which provides a richer picture of coping strategies than accounts of ¿general¿ practices, as it shows how responses reflect events unfolding over time and household-specific situations. High seeding rates ensure against environmental uncertainty, but not everyone has sufficient seed for repeated sowing should stands fail to establish. Off-farm seed fills this gap, though payment is usually required for substantial quantities; only 20% of seed from other farmers came for free in 1998. Differences between seed suppliers and recipients suggest indicators for chronic seed insecurity. The discussion explores implications for supporting farmers¿ coping strategies. Helping the poorest farmers access off-farm seed, from other farmers or from merchants, can reduce their vulnerability.

GIS has been welcomed worldwide for its potential production of accessible, timely, and accurate information for decision making. In recent discussions it has been presented as a condition for governance. The implementation of GIS in large and complex institutions like ministries or planning institutes, however, is still problematic. Therefore, attention has shifted from the mere ‘technical factors' to organisational and institutional problems of GIS implementation, looking for the right ‘fit’ of GIS for the organisation in question. This paper will sketch the importance of organisational culture for understanding GIS implementation, and draw some conclusions on the implications for the use of GIS in promoting good governance. The paper discusses a Costa Rican case study on the implementation of GIS for forest monitoring. This case shows the strengths and weaknesses of different organisational cultures in adopting GIS, and illustrates that the (inter)organisational complexity of monitoring forest resources requires more attention to the potential variety in data demands from different organisations.