The main objective of this study was to describe the importance of cob rots in farmers' maize fields and reduced food quality through spoilage. During the 1997/98 season disease incidence and severity levels were evaluated in the Local, MH18, NSCM41, and NSCM51 varieties on farmers' maize from two villages in...

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) is an important strategy for soil improvement in smallholder systems of East Africa but successful implementation depends upon identification of opportunities for intervention, which are in turn dependent upon a practical knowledge of farm enterprises and decision making. Surveys addressing soil fertility management were conducted among...

Malta Organic Agriculture Movement is a totally independent and voluntary organization set up in November 1999 to promote Organic Agriculture in Malta. Its members include farmers, consumers, technical people and many others who have the local natural environment at heart.  The primary aims of MOAM is to inform the public...

Ensuring that women have independent and secure rights to farmland is an important component of eliminating poverty and increasing economic productivity. This is true for three general reasons. First, women are often the primary food producers for a household, working their household farm plots while their husbands work for collective...

The project ‘Conversion of farms in the city community of Ljubljana to organic agriculture' started in the year 1998. The main aim of the programme is to stimulate the farmers in the community of Ljubljana to convert to organic farming and offer them relevant advisory services. Our Institute provides the...

In this issue, you can read more about EndaPronat, FAN and IRED, about their working methods and the countries they will be covering within the framework of the collection of information for the Dimitra project. Furthermore, you will find several articles in this issue covering a wide range of subjects...

The great majority of farmers in Latin America are peasants who still farm small plots of land, usually in marginal environments utilizing traditional and subsistence methods. The contribution of the 16 million peasant units to regional food security is, however, substantial. Research has shown that peasant systems, which mostly rely...

El Censo Nacional de 1988 señalaba que en el país existían unas 420.000 explotaciones agropecuarias, de las cuales según el Programa Social Agropecuario hay unas 160.000 bajo el control de productores minifundistas, es decir un 38 % del total. El relativamente importante peso cuantitativo que aún conserva el sector, contrasta...

Farmer participation in decision making at various phases of project implementation contributes very highly to project success. The Soil-Water Management Research Programme (SWMRP) has gained valuable experience in the involvement of farmer in all phases during the implementation of the programme.  The programme used the following instruments to ensure farmer...

We analyse the process of technological change of resource-poor farmers raising goats in North-western Córdoba (Argentina). We focus on farmers' behaviour in relation to a certain technology (the use of veterinary products) proposed by extensionists who are canying out a development program in the región. We used a survey including...

This issue of Unasylva contains, as promised in the previous edition, additional articles on sustainable mountain development. These articles help to complete the focus on the topic and should also help to promote interest in the recently declared International Year of the Mountain (2000) for which FAO has been designated lead agency...

Reseña dos iniciativas de ley aprobadas por la Comisión Agraria del Congreso y vinculadas a la formalización de la propiedad rural. La primera de ellas representa modificar el régimen jurídico de propiedad inmobiliaria. El segundo proyecto propone modificar el D. Leg. 667, conocido como Ley del Registro de Predios Rurales,...

Los agricultores de Chancayllo (Huaral, Lima) exportaron, entre octubre y diciembre del año pasado, 54 contenedores de cebolla, con aproximadamente 19 toneladas cada uno para ser vendidos en EEUU

The point of departure of this paper is that African nations cannot afford to ignore smallholder agriculture, however difficult its prospects may seem. Region wide, at the beginning of the 1990's, 85 percent of Africa's population was rural, and more than a quarter of the labour force was actively engaged...

The aim of this paper is to show how the means to reduce poverty lies in: (a) the socio-economic conditions that irrigated agriculture can change; and (b) the way irrigation development is pursued. It is hoped that the paper will promote debate and act as a stimulant for new action...

Smallholder poultry production (i.e. family poultry) is an appropriate system that makes the best use of locally available resources. Family flocks are important providers of eggs and meat as well as being valued in religious and cultural life. There are three production systems for family poultry - free range, backyard...

The Dimitra Project on Rural Women and Development started in 1994 at the King Baudouin Foundation in Brussels, Belgium, with the support of the European Commission. The Dimitra Guidebook, printed in 1996, contains information on 255 European NGOs, research institutes and information centers working with and for rural women in...

This paper examines the most significant developments and changes that have been occurring over a period of transition in the economy and agriculture. The paper examines the changes that have occurred in Slovene agriculture, the macro-economic framework within which agriculture operates the functioning of the agricultural markets for staple farm...

The recent effort by two global organizations, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Anglo-Dutch multinational, Unilever, to establish an independent Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as a conservation partnership to create market incentives for sustainable fishing has attracted a great deal of attention-as well as controversy. In this...

This paper summarizes the results of six DFID funded country studies on encouraging sustainable agriculture in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. It emphasises the need for continuing government and donor support for sustainable increases in agricultural productivity which must underpin poverty alleviation. In this context, moves toward...