The focus in this paper is on two relatively large maize-based contract farming (CF) schemes with fixed input packages (Masara and Akate) and a number of smaller and more flexible CF schemes in a remote region in Ghana (Upper West). Results show that these schemes led to improved technology adoption and yield increases. In addition, a subset of maize farmers with high yield improvements due to CF participation had high gross margins. However, on average, yields were not high enough to compensate for higher input requirements and cost of capital.

Health-related incentives to reward effort or commitment are commonplace in many professional contracts throughout the world. Typically absent from small-scale agriculture in poor countries, such incentives may help overcome both health issues for remote rural families and supply issues for firms. Using a randomized control design, we investigate the impact of adding a micronutrient-fortified product in contracts between a Senegalese dairy processing factory and its seminomadic milk suppliers.

Existing approaches and methodologies that investigate effects of land degradation on food security vary greatly. Although a relatively rich body of literature that investigates localized experiences, geophysical and socioeconomic drivers of land degradation, and the costs and benefits of avoiding land degradation already exists, less rigorously explored are the global effects of restoring degraded landscapes.

El objetivo del presente estudio fue proponer estrategias de gestión ambiental para la recuperación de la cuenca del embalse Guaremal mediante el desarrollo de sistemas apícolas. Se realizó un relevamiento florístico alrededor de la cuenca tomando en consideración las especies visitadas por las abejas. Se determinaron las especies melíferas más abundantes de la zona en un área mínima de 0,10 ha definida en 7 transectos de 4m de ancho x 50m de largo, distribuidos a lo largo de toda la cuenca.

Este trabalho se refere ao desenvolvimento de um modelo computacional para suporte à tomada de decisão, quanto ao planejamento e manejo de projetos de irrigação e/ou drenagem. O modelo computacional, denominado MCID, é aplicável em nível de unidade de produção, gerando informações sobre como diferentes práticas de manejo da irrigação e configurações do sistema de drenagem afetam a produtividade e o retorno financeiro.

The Agroforestry for Livelihoods of Smallholder farmers in Northwestern Viet Nam project (2011-2016) focuses on agroforestry trials on farms in the northwestern mountainous region of the country. The objective of the study was to make an inventory of the current upland farming systems and identify key strengths and weaknesses of each system, including economic efficiency. The farming system diagnosis was based on participatory assessments and focus group discussions and in- depth interviews with 45 project ‘farmer co-operators’ in 17 villages in Yen Bai, Son La and Dien Bien provinces.