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SUCCESS Project. Data on smallholders eligible for Agroforestry Concessions in the Peruvian Amazon
No full textData is part of "SUCCESS: Support to the Development of Agroforestry Concessions in Peru" Project developed by ICRAF Latin America Regional Office.
Dataset contains data at the productive units in the Peruvian Amazon of smallholders who occupy State Forestland (as defined by the Peruvian Law) eligible for agroforestry concessions. Dataset was based on the National Agricultural Census (IV CENAGRO) from 2012
Planejamento e Avaliação para Tomada de Decisão em Sistemas Agroflorestais - PLANTSAFS
No full textConjunto de dados coletados em campo para estudo do contexto no desenvolvimento de opções agroflorestais e recomendações agroecológicas através da ferramenta PLANTSAFS (planejamento e avaliação para tomada de decisão em sistemas agroflorestais)
Tsafack SAM, Degrande A, Franzel S, Simpson B. 2015. Farmer-to-farmer extension: a survey of lead farmers in Cameroon. ICRAF Working Paper No. 195. Nairobi, World Agroforestry Centre.
No full textThis study examines how the farmer-to-farmer (F2F) extension approach is implemented by farmer trainers in Cameroon. Those farmers selected to lead F2F extension are often known by different names but in this study, we use the term “lead farmer” (LF) as a generic term even though different names sometimes imply different roles. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 160 randomly selected LFs in six regions in Cameroon in 2013. The study describes the activities of LFs and the support they receive, assesses their technical competence and identifies factors that motivate them, as well as the challenges they face in implementing the F2F approach.
In Cameroon, about half of the LFs (52 percent) were between 41 and 55 years old. Most LFs (81 percent) were married, and more than half had education levels above primary school. A majority of LFs started serving in their roles between 2005 and 2009. After their selection, through their group/community or from the extension field staff, LFs received an initial residential training of 6.8 days on average (median = three days). They also received additional training during their service.
The major functions of LFs were to provide other farmers with technical advice, supervise their activities, and mobilize their community for awareness or training sessions. Although LFs declared that their competencies in the techniques that they taught others were often insufficient, they rated their competence level on the innovations that they disseminated at 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Most (93 percent) topics taught by LFs were supported with practical exercises, and 91 percent of techniques were actually applied by trainees on their farms. Training needs were generally set by organizations who conducted their own training needs assessments. Lead farmers had some involvement in this process as training needs were identified through farmers’ requests. On average, a lead farmer trained five groups of 26.3 farmers each and 37 additional farmers outside of organized groups (median of total number of trainees per LF = 65). The most common places where LFs conducted training were in group/community halls, at trainees’ houses/farms, or at the LF’s house/farm. Transportation and communication expenses were mainly paid by LFs themselves.
Half of the LFs received training and demonstration materials from the organizations
supporting their efforts. Almost all LFs (95 percent) reported being able to increase their income from being a LF and 94.4 percent believed that their trainees were also able to earn more income as a result of the new farming techniques that they learned. To improve upon their activities, 57 percent of LFs collaborated with government extension agents. In addition, some LFs met among themselves, mostly once a month.
Since they started their work as LFs, each one had trained on average 231 farmers (median = 100). In the year before the interview, LFs had trained on average 58 farmers (median = 17). There was no significant difference between male and female LFs concerning the numbers of farmers trained. Female LFs trained more women compared to their male colleagues (74percent against 41 percent of trainees being women, respectively). Overall, 53.7 percent of farmers trained in the past year were female.
Almost all LFs (98.1 percent) mentioned at least one topic that they successfully passed on to their trainees. However, 86.9 percent of LFs also cited topics for which training was less successful.
The number of female and male LFs trained in the past year were not significantly different. Female LFs seemed to work more with individual farmers than their male counterparts. When working with groups, they mostly associated with one group only while men LFs worked with five groups on average. Female LFs also tended to train more farmers in their own houses/farms than men LFs, who trained more in community halls and in the trainees’ houses/farms.
Altruism, increasing one’s income and getting early access to new technologies were the main motivations for LFs to become or remain LFs. A majority (60 percent) of LFs found the F2F approach to be very useful for developing local capacity, increasing technology adoption and increasing access to extension. Identified challenges were budget limitations, insufficient transportation and lack of communication support.
Almost all LFs (94 percent) reported their intention to continue to train fellow farmers even after organizations working with them leave or the projects end. To improve the F2F approach and to make it beneficial to more farmers, 81 percent of LFs mentioned issues related to their motivation, such as “improving their conditions” and the desire to be supported in becoming real “model farmers”. Interview responses also indicate that there is a need to train more LFs and/or refresh their knowledge, especially in communication skills and improved agricultural practices, as well as to build awareness of authorities and projects/organizations of the importance of the F2F approach and to encourage more youth to join groups served by LFs
Trees on farms products and species diversity in two municipalities of Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape
No full textThe current data sets were generated as part of the master thesis entitled “Trees on farms contribution to rural families livelihoods in two municipalities of Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape” as part of the CATIE master program in Agroforestry and Sustainable Agriculture 2014-2016 . The study was carried out in two municipalities of the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape. Tree census and semi structure interviews were carried out in 45 farms of La Dalia and 45 farms of Waslala municipalities. In each farm, five productive land uses were considered: cocoa plantation, coffee plantation, pastures, basic grains and home gardens. All trees ≥ of 10 cm of diameter at breast height (dbh) were censed (but fruit trees with ≥5 cm of dbh), and their common and scientific names, dap, commercial height, and the diameter at the commercial height were recorded. For trees with more than one stem the quadratic mean diameter was calculated. Farmer uses of trees products and their availability was measured based on interviews with the farm manager and field measurements. Tree products were categorized based on the main product harvested by the farmers: timber, firewood, fruit, post and service (e.g. shadow, soil improver). Additionally, the fruit trees were classified in five productive stages based on their dbh and farmer’s criteria: unproductive young, little productive young, productive, little productive old and unproductive old. Tree products availability was recorded for 2014, variables such as amounts, destiny of the production (sale or familiar consumption), harvested season, farm labor as person-hours were recorded. Additionally, the value of the products as prices declared by farmers and by sellers, local markets and details of cost transportations were recorded. The data set has five files and each one with their respective description
Building Biocarbon and Rural Development in West Africa (BIODEV), WP1.5
No full textThe Building Biocarbon and Rural Development in West Africa Programme aims to demonstrate the multiple developmental and environmental wins that result from a high value biocarbon approach to climate change and variability in large landscapes principally in Mali, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The Programme will also build local institutions and capacity to be able to sustain the benefits in the sites and will establish linkages with related initiatives to jointly build national and regional capacity to scale up the approaches into other programmes and projects. The themes of the Programme are very closely linked to FinlandâÃÂÃÂs international development priorities and are closely aligned with the priorities expressed in its national poverty reduction and climate change adaptation strategies. Furthermore, the Programme aims to generate critical information that can fill the global knowledge gaps on how to better link climate change mitigation and adaptation thrusts and how to make these actions work effectively to enhance the livelihoods of rural communities
TREES FOR FOOD SECURITY PROJECT - BIOPHYSICAL BASELINE DATA
No full textThe aim of this project is to enhance food security for resource-poor rural people in Eastern Africa through research that underpins national programmes to scale up the use of trees within farming systems in Ethiopia and Rwanda and then scale out successes to relevant agro-ecological zones in Uganda and Burundi.
The specific objectives of the project are:
To characterize target farming landscapes and systems, and develop tools for matching species and management options to sites and circumstances.
To generalize predictions of impacts of tree species and management on crop productivity, water resources and nutrients at field, farm and landscape scales to inform scaling up to improve food security and reduce climate risk.
To develop effective methods and enabling environments for scaling up and o
ut the adoption of trees on farms.
To develop databases and tools for monitoring and evaluation of the impact of scaling up and out the adoption of trees on farms.
To enhance capacity and connectivity of national partner institutions (including farmer groups) in developing and promoting locally appropriate options for adoption of farm trees
Farm system characterization of two municipalities in the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape
No full textThe purpose of this survey was to characterize family farming systems in the Nicaragua north central region. Household survey was carried on in 90 farms from El-Tuma La Dalia and Waslala. Five most dominant land types were studied for each farm system: cacao plantations, coffee plantations, basic grains, pastures, and patios was collected. The following information was collected based on structured interview to the household head or farm manager:
a) General information of the property: location of the farm, long owning property, land uses, number of farms, cooperatives or links to projects related to agricultural activity.
b) Household composition: household members, age, sex, education, outside farm economic activities.
c) Food security: food origin, difficulty to feed the family long one calendar year, and cost of food over the last year (product, quantity, price and period).
d) General characteristics of the farm: farm diversification, type of productive systems, type of crop, area, livestock.
e) General characteristics of land use: area, previous use, years of managing the use, planting distance, seeded varieties.
f) Productivity: crop yields and animal production, maximum historical production, minimal production and normal (most common).
g) Livestock and crop management: cropping activities and periodicity, type and quantity of inputs (fertilizers, man labor, etc.)
h) Agroecological practices: associations, rotations, etc., soil and water practices conservation.
i) Farm income and marketing products
DIVERSITY OF BIRDS ACROSS LAND USE AND HABITAT GRADIENTS IN FORESTS, RUBBER AGROFORESTS AND RUBBER PLANTATIONS OF NORTH SUMATERA
No full textBirds play a pivotal role in ecosystems, but in disturbed areas their role may be limited due to the changes of their natural habitat. This paper studies the birds habitat in Simalungun and Asahan districts, North Sumatera. The study was conducted in four habitats: natural forest, rubber agroforests (RAF), rubber monoculture plantations (RMP) and emplacement areas (EA). The birds were observed using descriptive survey methods by implementing a quick biodiversity survey, data were collected along one km transect. The results showed that in total, 142 species of birds from 42 families were observed in the four habitats. Natural forests had the highest diversity of bird species, followed by rubber agroforests, emplacement areas and rubber plantations, with a Shannon-Wiener index of 3.8, 3.6, 3.0 and 2.5, respectively. Regarding the IUCN red list species, 12 bird species of near-threatened status and 2 species of vulnerable status were recorded. Based on CITES categories, one species was listed in the Appendix criteria I, 12 species were classified in Appendix II and 26 bird species were protected under Indonesian regulations. Changes in the structure and composition of vegetation in disturbed forests and cleared land determined the richness of bird species. The different tree compositions in the four habitats of the rubber estate plantations and surrounding areas influence the number of bird species, bird diversity and species composition
Tree species diversity and carbon stock of trees on farms in the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape
No full textThe current data sets were generated as part of the master thesis entitled “Diversity and carbon storage in two sites with different degrees of agriculture intensification in Nicaragua”, done by Willan Caicedo as part of the CATIE master program in Agroforestry and Sustainable Agriculture 2014-2016. The study was part of a multidisciplinary program in the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape that aims to understand the presence and contribution of tree on farm to ecosystem processes, food security and livelihood (see detail in the website www.paisagecentinela.org). Complementary, spatial information for this study is available in the www.landscapeportal.org. The study was done in two Nicaraguan municipalities, El Tuma - La Dalia and Waslala. In each site 45 farms were selected and their six predominant land uses (plot) were sampled: coffee plantations, cacao tree, living fences, basic grains, pastures and home gardens. In each plot tree, banana and palm individuals with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 9.9 cm (≥ 4.8 cm DBH trees in the case of Citrus sp.) were recorded. Every individual was identified in the field using its local or scientific name. For species with difficult identification plant material was collected and sent to the Herbarium of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, UNAN-León for subsequent taxonomic identification. Other complementary variables measured at individual level were: diameter at breast height (DBH; 1.30 m above the ground); commercial stem height (from the ground to the usable height), and total height of individuals (from the ground to the apex). When individuals have several stems, each one were independently measured and then the mean square diameter per individual was calculated. For Citrus trees that were highly branched below 1.30 m above the ground, the diameters was measured at 0.30 m above ground. (2015)
The data set has five files and each one with their respective descriptio
Soil description and physical properties from farm productive land uses in the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape
No full textComplementary information to understand farm management into the project Trees on Farms in the Nicaragua-Honduras Sentinel Landscape. Data for soil characteristics from 90 farms of two Nicaraguan municipalities (La Dalia and Waslala) . Soil description was done for sampling arable soil layer of four land use types: pastureland, basic grains, coffee and cocoa plantations. Protocol of sampling methods and complementary material are available in Spanish as PDF documents