Dataverse World Agroforestry (ICRAF)
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Agroforets a base de cacaoyers au Sud du Cameroun. croissance, developpement des arbres et influence sur les jeunes cacaoyers
No full textTheobroma cocoa L. est l’une des principales cultures de rente pratiquées dans la zone forestière humide du Cameroun. Il contribue pour plus de 50% par an au budget des ménages. La baisse du prix du cacao sur le marché mondial dans les années 90 a amené les planteurs à diversifier les cultures dans leurs cacaoyères en y intégrant des arbres améliorés. Cependant, l’absence d’un modèle-type d’intégration qui soit le plus bénéfique aux arbres et aux cacaoyers et qui soit le plus économiquement rentable reste le problème majeur auquel font face les cacaoculteurs. Cette étude vise à déterminer un modèle idéale d’agroforêt à base de cacaoyers qui offre un développement optimal aux espèces en association et procure aux paysans de meilleurs revenus. Un modèle en trois stra
tes auxquelles appartiennent les arbres à l’âge adulte est comparé aux plantations pures de cacaoyers (témoin): la strate inférieure (marcottes de Dacryodes edulis et greffes d’Irvingia gabonensis), la strate moyenne (semis, boutures de D. edulis et greffes de Ricinodendron heudoletii) et la strate supérieure (semis et boutures de R. heudoletii). L’essai est conduit suivant un dispositif en blocs avec 4 répétitions dans chacune desquelles les traitements sont alloués de manière aléatoire. Chaque parcelle enrichie d’une superficie de 1728 m2 comporte 12 arbres plantés à 12m x 12m, en association avec 192 plants de cacaoyers disposés à 3m x 3m. La hauteur des plants, le diamètre au collet, le développement de la couronne et les coûts d’exploitation sont évalués et comparés annuellement. Les résultats à la troisième année de plantation n’ont révélé aucune différence significative du point de vue développement ni des arbres, ni des cacaoyers dans les 3 strates comparées aux parcelles témoins. Les arbres des strates inférieures, moyennes et supérieures mesurent respectivement 1,14±0,13m; 1,43±0,20m et 1,65±0,23m de haut et les jeunes cacaoyers 0,98±0,05m; 1,09±0.05m et 1,1±0,04m. Les coûts d’installation sont en cours d’évaluation mais déjà il est important de noter que les différentes strates n’ont pas d’influence sur la croissance du cacaoyer trois ans après plantation
Evergreen Agriculture Baseline Survey
No full textEvergreen Agriculture combines agroforestry (trees on farm) with the principles of conservation Agriculture (minimum tillage, crop rotations/associations and maximum soil cover). It is emerging as an affordable and accessible science-based solution to caring better for the land and increasing smallholder food production.
This project aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in eastern (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda) and southern Africa (Lesotho) while sustaining the natural resource base, through promotion of Evergreen Agriculture
SRI HOUSEHOLD SURVEY: GRASSROOTS INSTITUTIONS IN ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT
No full textThe World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in East Africa has been working with IFAD on implementing the “Enabling rural transformation and grassroots institutional building for sustainable land management and increased incomes and food security” project. The project aims at are providing IFAD with the tools and approaches which will contribute to addressing some of the challenges associated with better articulation and integration of rural grassroots institutional issues into the project cycle . The ICRAF project has the following main objectives: • To enhance capacity of variants of grassroots institutions and provide support to harness broader collective action for rural service delivery • To improve enterprise development within the context of conservation, and community level asset accumulation • To build a regional institutional platform for knowledge sharing, scaling up, and participation in sustainable land management policy making and development processes in East Africa. The research project is undertaken through action research, involving a number of stakeholders at the grassroots, district and national levels. It is currently at the group capacity development stage, with initial investigations into platform and enterprise development processes underway
THE ROLE OF GRASSROOTS INSTITUTIONS IN ENHANCING ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN SMALLHOLDER FARMING SYSTEMS
No full textKenyatta University in partnership with World Agroforestry Centre is carrying out a survey in this area looking at how smallholder farmers understand current climatic variations, the measures they put in place to cope with climatic shocks, and factors that promote or inhibit households to undertake measures in the face of weather related shocks
Replication data for: Assessing success factors of partnership building and rural institutions development amongst smallholder systems in East Africa
No full textThe nature and form of collective action varies. It is contextually specific and may change over time. It arises when individuals jointly tackle constraints, make decisions and achieve outcomes with mutual benefit. Strong and vibrant smallholder groups do provide opportunities to the community to play a role in rural development and benefit from it. However, most of those groups do not have the capacity and ability to individually influence rural development. Linking groups across levels therefore, facilitates access to combined knowledge and leverages complementary assets. While there is emerging evidence of linkages amongst groups and associations that transcend individual group activities, more systematic information is needed on across level linkages, their reasons for success and possibilities for designing supportive policies. The main objective of this study was to examine factors which influence successful linkages among the smallholder groups. The study involved two already existing smallholder platforms in Embu county of Kenya and Kapchorwa district of Uganda. These platforms serves as multi-stakeholder linkages of smallholder groups, the local government as well as development partners with shared values of sustainability, stewar
dship, local ownership and involvement, profitability, adaptability and volunteerism. Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted to obtain in-depth information on members’ perception on the network performance. A five-level likert scale survey questionnaire was administered to sixty eight groups from the two platforms to quantify their perception on the networks’ successes in terms of sustainable performance and benefits. Principal component analysis was used to extract indicators which define the dimensions that influenced the performance of the platforms. Weighting of the selected indicators was done using their factor loading values. Multiple regression analysis was used to fit the model of successful linkages. The results indicate that members’ ownership, motivation, and leaders’ commitment, skills and motives are the critical factors that have enabled the success and sustainability of these two platforms. The findings of this study are important for developing strategies for strengthening smallholder platforms through capacity development and information sharing
FAO Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture Programme
No full textThe FAO Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) programme is to facilitate developing countries pursue climate change mitigation measures in agriculture and move towards low-emissions agricultural practices
http://www.fao.org/climatechange/micca/79677/en/ The project is funded by the Government of Finland through UN - FAO Goals and activities The main goal of the MICCA pilots project implemented by ICRAF, is to show results on the ground to provide quantifiable evidence that climate-smart agricultural practices can mitigate climate change, improve farmers' lives and make local communities better able to adapt to climate change
, and thus persuade farmers, national policy-makers, international organizations and donors that climate-smart agriculture is a priority. To address this need, MICCA is carrying out two pilot projects in Africa. http://www.fao.org/climatechange/micca/79578/en/
i. Enhancing agricultural mitigation within the East African Dairy Development Project (EADD), Kaptumo, Western Kenya This project builds upon sites of the Gates funded East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project. The EADD project is a regional industry development program led by Heifer International in partnership with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), TechnoServe, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the African Breeders Service (ABS) Total Cattle Manage
ment. Working with the EADD partners at the Kenya site in Kaptumo, MICCA efforts aims at adding value to the dairy development efforts by building capacity for the integration of climate-smart practices that simultaneously increase productivity, income and ecosystem resilience within the farming systems of small holder farmers and along the value chain - quantifying subsequent greenhouse gas reductions along with other benefits. This is being done by establishing a baseline and monitoring changes in GHGs and ecosystem processes and productivity with and without the implementation of climate smart practices agreed upon by the Dairy Farmers Business Associations. We measure GHGs emissions from a complete zero grazing set up, semi- zero grazing and non- zero grazing farm system to compare the systems and thereafter advice farmers on the best practice that reduce emission and increase agricultural productivity.
ii. HICAP (CARE Tanzania) - Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project. The CARE Hillside Conservation Agriculture Project in the South Uluguru mountains of Tanzania is aimed at improving livelihoods through the integration of conservation agriculture into farming systems. The MICCA project offers an opportunity to add further value to community based conservation agriculture practices being implemented by clarifying the mitigation potential of these practices as well as the integra
tion of trees on farm and in the landscape. With suitable methodologies the project will measure the increase in carbon accumulation across the landscape as a result of climate smart practices, thus providing evidence for the contribution of small-holder farmers to mitigating the impacts of climate change. MICCA aims at
developing the capacity for the integration of additional climate-smart practices that simultaneously increase productivity and ecosystem resilience within the farming systems of small holder farmers - quantifying subsequent greenhouse gas reductions along with other benefits associated with risk reduction and adaptation. This is being done by establishing a baseline and measuring above and below ground carbon as well as monitoring changes in non CO2 GHGs and ecosystem processes and productivity with and without the introduction of climate smart practices on farms
Replication data for: Are coffee agroforestry systems suitable for circa situm conservation of indigenous trees? A case study from Central Kenya
No full textCoffee agroforestry systems (CAFS) are often considered to be species-rich, potentially contributing to the conservation of indigenous trees. To investigate the conservation capacity of a Kenyan CAFS, all tree species on 62 smallholder coffee farms (covering 39 ha in total) in the Aberdare Mountains of Central Kenya were recorded. In total, 6,642 trees of 59 species were enumerated, with a mean density of 256 trees per ha and a mean species richness of 11.2 species per farm. Indigenous species represented 63 % of the richness but only 31 % of the abundance. For individual farms, as expected, farm size had a positive correlation with tree species richness, but more interestingly there was a negative correlation with tree density. Cluster analysis based on densities of the 18 most important species (defined by an importance value index) revealed two groups of farms: one cluster represented small farms (mean size = 0.4 ha) with high tree species diversity and individual density, particularly of indigenous trees; the other cluster represented large (mean size = 1 ha) and less diverse farms with low tree densities, particularly regarding indigenous species. Tree individuals were unevenly distributed within farms, being more frequent in living fences (38 % of all individuals), the garden zone (
20 %) and in coffee plots (18 %). The relative occurrence of indigenous species was also uneven, being greater in living fences and the garden zone. Most adult trees (83 %) were planted, but only 46 % of seedlings were, revealing the active removal of volunteer seedlings by farmers as trees mature. Surveyed coffee farms harboured 20 % of the 135 tree species of the potential natural vegetation for the region, but only 3.6 % of the on-farm tree individuals belonged to the most valuable types of dominant and forest vegetation. Thus, although a source of significant tree cover and heterogeneity at landscape level, the value of these CAFS as circa situm reservoirs of forest tree species is questionable
Replication data for: Locating REDD: A global survey and analysis of REDD readiness and demonstration activities
No full textMechanisms that support reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD/REDD+) have potential to counteract a large share of global greenhouse gas emissions if implemented effectively across the tropics. In 2007 the conference of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change called upon parties and international organizations to promote REDD through investments in capacity building and demonstration activities. This prompted many new actors to become involved in REDD activities at a variety of locations and scales. A global survey of REDD activities was undertaken in 2009 to enable better understanding of the intensity and geographic distribution of these activities. Existing compilations, literature review, web-based sources, face-to-face and telephone interviews, and e-mail questionnaires were used to compile data for the inventory. Inter alia, data were collected on the location of activities and official and unofficial factors influencing location choices. Inventory data were combined with secondary data to estimate a statistical count model (Poisson) of factors affecting the number of REDD activities undertaken in the 64 developing countries that experienced significant emissions from deforestation. The results show that there were at least 79 REDD readiness activities and 100 REDD demonstration activities as of October 2009. Of these, the largest shares of REDD readiness and demonstration activities were implemented in Indonesia (7 and 15 respectively) and Brazil (4 and 13 respectively), countries widely agreed to have the greatest potential for re
ducing forest-based emissions. The statistical results found no national characteristic to have a statistically-significant effect on the number of REDD readiness activities, but five national characteristics to have significant effects on the number of REDD demonstration projects. Baseline CO2 emissions, forest carbon stock, number of threatened species, quality of governance, and region all had significant effects. The results reveal the importance of biodiversity and good governance, and the relative unimportance of human need and opportunity cost of land. The results also reveal a bias against Africa and toward Latin America. Unless this pattern is countered, REDD and REDD+ may have geographic biases that undermine its broad political support
Trees for Food Security Project-Local Knowledge-Local Knowledge of Farmers on Farm Tree Management, East Shewa Zone, Ethiopia
No full textFood insecurity, natural resource degradation and climate change threaten 12-14 million livelihoods in Ethiopia annually. Trees are being hyped as a ‘silver bullet’ solution to meet these triple challenges. However, studies suggest a decreasing trend not only in adoption but farmers practice of maintaining trees on their farms. The study explores the local knowledge of 94 farmers in two villages of the East Shewa Zone, Ethiopia on land use and land cover dynamics on the farming landscape, tree adoption and management of trees on agricultural fields and their implications for sustained food security. Findings suggest farmers have extensive knowledge on tree on fields, their utilities, management, and effect of management on natural regeneration and the overall role of trees in ensuring livelihoods. Farmers identified government policies and population growth as main drivers of land use and tree cover change in both sites. Farmers retained and or planted trees on their fields for meeting tree product needs with tree materials for dead fencing as major a priority
Towards an Evergreen Agriculture in Africa: Scaling-up Conservation Agriculture with Trees for improved Livelihoods and Environmental Resilience in Eastern and Southern Africa- Local Knowledge- Local Agro-Ecological Knowledge of Priority Tree Species and their Propagation Techniques in Eastern Province of Kenya
No full textWhere the adoption of agroforestry innovations is concerned, it is important to understand the farmers‟ preferences for trees and to have an insight into the propagation methods used by them. Therefore, the main aim of the study was to develop a detailed understanding of the local ecological knowledge or locally prioritised tree species and their propagation techniques used in Eastern Province of Kenya. Specific objectives include: 1) Collect and evaluate local knowledge held by farmers about trees found on their farms, their uses, which trees are grown where and for which purpose. 2) Explore constraints and potentials for increasing tree cover on farmland in the research area. 3) Compile a list of most preferred tree species of farmers and reasons for that. 4) Gather local ecological knowledge of propagation techniques used for selected tree species