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Using carbon emission credits to promote environmentally sensitive agriculture

Forests and tree plantations are seen as part of the solution since they store carbon at a rate 20 to 100 times more per acre than pastures and croplands. The substitution of composting and other organic techniques for fertilizers and pesticides on tree plantations also allows for increased carbon storage.


Bole, Ghana: Research and development of the shea tree and its products

In recent years the shea tree has gained importance as an economic crop because of the heavy demand for its butter, both locally and internationally. In recognition of the need to find substitutes for the rather expensive cocoa products, and to maximize economic exploitation of the vast shea resource in Ghana, the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) initiated scientific research into the cultivation and processing of shea nuts.


Spiders Reduce Risks, Increase Yields for China's Farmers

Worldwide, about a million people are poisoned by pesticides each year; ten thousand of these victims die from such poisonings. The risks are greatest in developing countries. Ninety-nine percent of the deaths caused by agricultural chemicals occur in those countries.


Adoption and impact of dry-season dual-purpose cowpea in the Nigerian semiarid region

In the semiarid zones of sub-Saharan Africa, crop and livestock farming forms the source of sustenance for resource-poor farmers. But the dry season is usually marked with food scarcity, reduced food availability, and lower village-level economic activities.


Lentil and Chickpea Production in Jordan

Food legume improvement project (FLIP) is under the rain-fed agricultural research program at National Center for Agricultural Research and Technology Transfer (NCARTT) in Jordan, a government body under the umbrella of the Ministry of Agriculture.


Controlling the Andean potato weevil through Integrated Pest Management

Controlling Andean potato weevils while minimizing pesticide use


Integrated aquaculture provides viable alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture, reducing destruction of tropical forests

Many nations are taking steps to protect the tropical rain forests within their borders by creating parks and nature reserves. But it is clear that this kind of action can protect merely a fraction of the world’s rain forest lands. Maintaining parks and reserves is expensive, especially for governments who are trying to meet the competing needs of other people for income and for land on which to live.

Juan Guevera’s job is to help the farmers who live in the area around the city of Pucallpa, in the part of the Amazon Basin that lies in Peru, meet their needs for food and income.


The "Centro de Tecnología Agroindustrial" program to transform the utilization of the Cochabamba region's vegetal resources

Cochabamba, a predominantly agricultural region, has a great vegetation diversity due to the different ecosystems present. However, Cochabamba does not have the means for transforming these resources. For this reason agricultural products are generally commercialized in a fresh state, which gives rise to all the problems usually associated with this type of commercialization: perishability, price fluctuation and a diminished ability to compete in the market.

The need for applied research on the utilization and transformation of the region's vegetal resources in order to obtain products with greater value added, led a group of researchers from the Faculty of Science and Technology at the “Universidad Mayor de San Simon (UMSS)” to create, in 1980, the “Programa Agroquímico” (at present the Centro de Tecnología Agroindustrial -CTA-).


Alternative agriculture in Thailand and Japan

The demand for alternative agricultural systems has grown in response to the failures of conventional agriculture and to set this analysis in context the introduction provides a summary of these failures both generally and then specifically for Thailand and Japan. A brief overview of the agricultural development of both Thailand and Japan is presented to provide a background to the study. A literature review was undertaken to document other studies on alternative agriculture in the two countries and to help establish a definition for the term 'alternative agriculture'.


Integrated whole farm -- whole landscape planning

By incorporating an integrated approach to farming and water management, Pyneham farm in Frankland, Australia, has overcome problems caused by land degradation to create a more sustainable system. The newly established farming system, known as integrated whole farm -- whole landscape planning, has not only helped combat desertification, but also helps restore biodiversity in an area which previously experienced vast forest depletion for agricultural expansion.


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