Organic Farming Manual

Miracle Farm Blueprint

Michael Sherman is the author of Miracle Farm Blueprints. It is a step-by-step guide depicting how you can create your own Miracle farm, a necessary step in surviving any tough disaster or crisis. It entails simple techniques you can use to invent a miracle system together with your family. With it, you can make the best, delicious protein-rich vitamin-packed food all day every day. This system will help you get more food than you can actually eat daily to last through the toughest of times. As a result of this, it will help alleviate your grocery bills. Imagine having a fresh non-disturbed food supply without any restrictions. Here you are going to find a life-changing technique for creating an automated supply of fresh, high-quality organic foods ever! The product is presented to you in the format of an e-book guide. It is designed for anyone who would be interested in making their effort in food production. Continue reading...

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Gender Approaches in Agricultural Research

Participatory approaches to agricultural research can be more beneficial if they give special emphasis to the involvement of women in the dialog. The case of Malawi is instructive about the benefits of taking into account the viewpoints of rural women in both research and extension throughout the 1980s and early 1990s uptake of . improved maize varieties was disappointing. . the vast numbers of farmers producing maize for home consumption were reluctant to adopt them for several reasons. They required expensive fertilizers and pesticides to grow successfully which women and poor farmers could not afford, they were not as drought resistant as local varieties of maize and hence posed a risk to food security, they were much harder to store and pound into meal so placed extra demands on women's scarce time and they did not have the favored taste characteristics of local maize which women knew their family preferred . .

International Agricultural Research Centers

International R&D programs using modern biotechnology are being conducted by the international agricultural research centers (IARCs), particularly the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). The Center for International Forestry Research also uses biotechnology in the characterization of forest diversity in its Asian program. The International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management is using new technologies in the improvement of fisheries and aquaculture systems. ILRI is initiating a program on Asian livestock improvement. The CGIAR centers invest approximately 30 million per year in modern biotechnology. Further details of the way the IARCs use biotechnology in their crop improvement programs are given in Appendix 11.

Management Of Pest Flies On Organic Farms

Fly management is essential to maintain good animal welfare but organic farmers cannot use synthetic insecticide sprays or impregnated ear tags. This factsheet provides information on some of the alternatives available. The first step in any management program is to know the pest. For organic farmers there are four main strategies and all should be used simultaneously. A multi-prong approach using all methods outlined in this fact sheet gives the best results.

The Financing of Agricultural Research

Sources of financing for agricultural research, as well as the institutional makeup of research, need to be diversified. Public sector budgets alone will not be sufficient to support the required increases in research effort and quality. In addition to research financed purely by the private sector and research funding allocated through the mecha In the Honduran case mentioned in the box overleaf, the foundation has emphasized research in non-traditional crops and has supported trials by farmers. It has been successful in promoting the export of non-traditional crops in that country. Farmer associations are represented on its board of directors, along with the government and USAID. In the long run, the establishment of an appropriately endowed agricultural research foundation represents one of the best responses to the dilemma of financing the research programs.

Importance of Organic Farming in Terms of Food Safety

Organic farming includes production systems which are friendly to environment and livings and which aim to reestablish the natural balance lost as a result of misapplications. To this end, organic farming has been developed as an alternative production system whose all production stages from production to consumption are under control and registered, and which aims for the protection of soil and water resources in all kinds of growing techniques and inputs which are used beginning from the preparation of seedbed. In development targets where the balance between human and nature is in the forefront, it is aimed to secure sustainability in agriculture avoiding from the factors polluting soil, air and water in agricultural activities. The main aim in organic farming is to get maximum yield per unit area by protecting the productivity of soil and water resources providing the continuity for nature.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Organic Farming Methods

With the emergence of Organic Farming methods a number of farmers in USA, UK, Australia, and India and across the world have been diverted to it from traditional farming. The rising demand of organic food is also a factor which influences the farmers to use this technique. If you are interested in this type of farming then surely you want to know the advantages and disadvantages of organic farming. For you information, I'm going to shed light on all positive and negative aspects of Organic Farming, so you can decide whether to opt it or not people interested in organic farming Advantages of Organic Farming Easy Transition One of the main advantages of organic farming is the easy transition that's mean if a farmer wants to switch to this kind of farming from the conventional farming then he can perform this job quite easily. There is no complexity involves in such transition for the farmer.

A few easy pest control recipes for organic farming

Pests are usually a particular headache for the aspiring organic farmer, you want to get rid of the little bugs but since the conventional chemical insect destroyers are off the limits you feel you have to choose between giving up on organic farming or risking your whole production. But we've prepared a little guide on how to control pests for your organic farming experiments with little effort. Many kinds of aromatic plants are used as repellents by organic farmers. The most common plants for this kind of solutions are Sage, Tansy and Thyme. These sprays also repel some of the leaf eaters.

Policies Regarding the Sale of Agricultural Land

Among policy makers, sales of agricultural land have generated as much concern as rentals. A principal concern is that beneficiaries of agrarian reform may try to sell their plots, and the pattern of landholdings could become skewed once again. Independently of agrarian reform, the issue is that many smallholders may be forced to sell their land when they confront periods of temporary economic hardship, in order to provide subsistence to their families, and as that occurs inevitably landholdings will become concentrated over time. Platteau states the case In other words, a bad harvest, or a serious health problem, is more likely to force a small landowner to sell than a large landowner, because of wealth differences.

On-Farm Vermicomposting and Vermiculture

Appendices Vermiculture

Why should an organic farmer be interested in vermiculture and or vermicomposting The answers are several and may not apply to all organic producers. In summary, they are as follows Vermicomposting and vermiculture offer potential to organic farmers as sources of supplemental income. The Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC) has recently completed a pilot project, funded by Environment Canada's EcoAction Program , wherein three Nova Scotia farmers It is certain that there is sufficient evidence of the benefits of vermicompost to justify further research, both at the University and on-farm levels. Whether the evidence is sufficient to interest an individual organic farmer in trying out the process for him or herself is an individual decision. For more information in making such a decision, see Section 6.2 below, as well as Appendix B, Sources of Information.

The Impact of Roundup Ready Alfalfa on Organic Systems

Alfalfa has great importance as a forage in both organic and conventional agriculture due to its high protein content and yields that surpass other legume forages (Figure 1) (Canadian Organic Growers 2001). As a nitrogen-fixer, alfalfa also plays an integral role in replenishing nitrogen in the soil through its capacity as a green manure, or by being cycled through livestock as manure (COG 2001). Organic farmers rely on alfalfa to maintain soil nutrient levels and organic matter, prevent nitrogen leaching, and to be a valuable source of livestock feed (COG 2001) (Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada 2003). Of course, alfalfa can only be considered useful to the organic farmer for on-farm and saleable feed and seed if it can be confirmed to be free of contamination from genetically modified (GM) organisms.

Raising Calves On Organic Dairy Farms

On many organic farms there is little difference in approach between the methods used to rear dairy calves and those used on non-organic farms. Calves are separated soon after birth and raised in some form of individual housing only being grouped with others after weaning. The key differences, dictated by the Canadian Organic Standard, address welfare concerns The experience of farmers and veterinarians who have worked with nurse cows indicates that their use warrants serious consideration by organic farmers and further research by the scientific community. Vaarst, M., S .Roderick, V. Lund, and W.Lockeretz, Eds. 2004. Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Agriculture. CABI, UK.

Cover cropping with fall rye? Careful!

A relatively short mat of rye may be directly incorporated in the soil, but as the crop grows beyond about 12 cm, mowing or flail chopping first is advisable. Some organic farmers recommend that green manures should be cut and wilted for several days before incorporation to lessen the acidifying effects of decomposition on the soil. After incorporation the rule of thumb is to wait two weeks before planting - perhaps longer with mature stands.

Ecologically-Based Weed Management

The phrase many little hammers' was coined to describe the multiple strategies available in the organic farmer's toolbox. At the 2012 Canadian Organic Science Conference, Dr. Eric Gallandt summarized the approach as, The idea with many little hammers is that we start looking at multiple points of the weed's lifecycle. We've got the really important crop-weed competition, we've got weed predation that can occur, we've got weed seed decay we've got processes that affect germination. All of these, if stressed appropriately, can reduce the performance of the weed. 1 Dr. E. Ann Clark, former professor at the University of Guelph and longtime advocate for organic farming, defines organic farming as, Problem avoidance by design. Of course, this is the first and arguably most important tool for weed management designing a system that minimizes weeds. What does that look like It ranges from matching your crops to your soil conditions, to practicing crop rotation.

Plant growth and soil fertility comparisons between fertilizer and compost-amended soils

Warman and Havard (1996,1997,1998) conducted an extensive comparison of four vegetables grown organicallyand conventionally using non-rotational practices between 1990 and 1992. At the end of the first year of that study it was decided to maintain one set of six plots using compost and inorganic fertilizer treatments in a long-term (six year) vegetable crop rotation. The author has reported the experimental results for 1995 and 1996 (Warman, 1998) and for 1997 and 1998 (Warman, 2000). This paper reports on the 1999 and 2000 production years, with the objectives to compare the yield and nutrient content of different vegetables grown in a crop rotation system using either composted farmyard manure or commercial fertilizer, and evaluate the extractable nutrient content, pH, total C and N, and CEC of the treated soils. Brandt, K. and J.P. Molgaard. 2001. Organic agriculture does it enhance or reduce the nutritional value of plant foods J. Sci. Food Agric ., 81 924-931.

Control of Lice and Mange Mites in Cattle

When normal behaviour is disrupted by a heavy infection, control measures acceptable for organic production are needed. Always check status before use. Research reports on non-chemical control methods are lacking. There are examples in the literature from India based on the traditional use of medicinal plants, most of which are not found in Canada. Information presented below is from books on natural veterinary care, and reports from organic farmers based on their experience. Controlling external parasites on the organic farm. Organic Valley Coop, Joe Pedretti, Forum s.pdf

Pick Green Manures for Energy Efficient Nitrogen

Green manures allow producers to improve their energy efficiency in a relatively simple and inexpensive fashion. Nitrogen fertilizers made from natural gas account for up to 30 of the energy use in modern agriculture. Replacing such fertilizers with green manures improves the energy efficiency of the farming system.

Where Has All The Phosphorus Gone?

Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for crop growth. Studies from western Canada and around the world tell us that in many cases soil on organic farms is deficient in available P. Is this a serious problem, or are low levels simply a reflection of the way we measure P Phosphorus depletion is a valid concern on organic farms. While the moderately available pools of P can feed the more available pools for a time, depletion is bound to occur when nutrients are exported annually from the system and are not replaced. What can be done about P depletion on organic farms Management options are available to recycle exported nutrients back into the system and help crops make the best use of the phosphorus that is present in the soil. Livestock manure, green manures, and mycorrhizal fungi are all effective P management tools available to organic farmers. A future article will consider these options.

Seeding: To Till or Not To Till

Jennifer Bromm interviewed many organic farmers in Saskatchewan about their tillage practices. She found that judicious spring tillage was often a part of their management systems. Tillage was used more often if fields were weedy, intended crops were weak competitors or soils were cold and wet. Several organic farmers that Jennifer interviewed were reducing tillage. They kept tillage to a minimum and avoided it entirely on light soils and in dry years. They often eliminated pre-seeding tillage, but seeded with a disc, a cultivator and seed drill, or with an air seeder. The limited tillage during seeding was enough to reduce winter annuals and early emerging weeds, aerate the soil and bury crop residues.

Going With The Grains

Roxanne Beavers, Masters student at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College conducted a large scale study on organic farms across Canada. Farmers seeded cereals at conventionally recommended rates, and at increased rates. She found, in general that the higher seeding rates resulted in higher yields. This corresponds well with the usual organic recommendation that seeding rates be increased over conventional, and with the conventional literature that suggests that higher seeding rates reduce weed pressures.Heather Mason took her study a step further, and asked if there were differences in baking quality between organic and conventional wheats, and between varieties when they were grown on organic farms. Heather did find differences. Wheat grown under organic management had similar protein levels, but higher dough strength than wheat grown under conventional management. Conventional wheat had higher test weight and gluten strength.

Fertility status of organically managed fields

For modern organic farmers, particularly those involved in large scale operations, balancing the nutrients that leave the farm with those that are returned to the soil is an ongoing challenge. Recognizing this, Dr. Diane Knight and a team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan, in partnership with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, worked with 39 of Saskatchewan's organic producers on 60 individual fields to determine which of four pre-determined organic management styles (Perennial, Summerfallow, Diverse and Cereal based) had the least impact on soil nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and sulphur levels. Their results, published in the paper Classification and fertility status of organically managed fields across Saskatchewan, Canada in the Canadian Journal of Soil Science, were, Diane acknowledged during a recent phone interview, very, very surprising .

Organic Products Hit Mainstream

That momentous sentence has elicited a mixed reaction from organic players like Jason Freeman, sales and marketing manager of Farmer Direct Co-operative Ltd., a Regina-based, producer-owned co-op representing 65 organic farm families. We had this grand vision so in many ways it is disappointing that we are replicating the conventional agriculture system, she said. Organic Valley Family of Farms, the largest organic farmer co-op in the U.S. and maker of the second leading brand of organic milk, has a deal to supply 370 Wal-Mart stores.

Grow Local Organic

At the same time, Ontario's farmers are facing the most difficult times since the Great Depression, with an average net loss per farm of 15,000 in 20062. Couple the exploding demand for organic food with the growing body of research that organic farming increases economic returns, energy efficiency, and soil fertility, and the opportunity becomes clear. Agriculture and Agri-food Canada defines sustainable agriculture as integrating environmental, economic, and social interests in a way that allows today's needs to be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs, by ensuring a safe and high-quality supply of agricultural products. revitalize rural communities through investment, and job and wealth creation thereby attracting young people and new Canadians to organic farming, enhance consumer awareness of the economic, socio-cultural, and environmental advantages that local organic agriculture offers.

Principal Insect Pathogens

BACILLUS Organic farmers have expressed concerns doses may kill some nontarget insects, but plants with Bt in their stalks, leaves and pollen can poison nontarget insects including beneficials throughout the growing season. Not only may Bt crops potentially reduce biological diversity, say ecologists and organic growers, but these engineered plants also increase the risk of pests developing resistance. That would remove a major weapon in an organic farmer's arsenal.

Types of Erosion and Its Assessment

Allowable Axial Load Coeffient Chart

According to Golubev 2 , the area of cultivated land in the world is 14.3 million km2 . In cultivated areas, drastic changes in vegetation have occurred and instead of dense natural vegetation cover, bare soil often is exposed for most of the year with sparse crop vegetation existing for a few months. These changes in vegetation cover are the main reason for the increase of soil erosion on cropland as compared to that on natural landscapes. Results of computations by Golubev 2 show that soil erosion in the world is 5.5 times more than during the preagricultural period. According to Brown 3 , the world is currently losing 23 billion tonnes of soil from cropland in excess of new soil formation each year 4 therefore, accelerated soil erosion is a serious problem to consider for the development of a sustainable agriculture.

Sources of tractordrawn broadcast seeders and spreaders

New Idea 109 Spinner Fertilizer Spreader

They call it a turf care model, but this 310-pound unit with a 7.7 cubic foot, 500-pound hopper capacity falls into the small farm category for us. With a 54-inch-wide coverage, this unit is ground driven and requires a minimum of 10 h.p. to pull it. The spreader is calibrated for seed as well as fertilizer distribution.

Chapman Chemical Company Sapstain Fungicide

MITROL PQ-56 is essentially odor free and of low toxicity copper-8-quinolinolate is one of few wood preservative accepted by Food and Drug Administration for use in contact with food materials such as raw agricultural products. MITROL PQ-57 is accepted by FDA as a preservative for wood that is used or intended for use in holding, transporting or packaging of food product such as raw agricultural products.

Check Row Planting Auve And Well In Nebraska

Trip Row Corn Planter

Editor's note Ron is Codirector with Dennis Demmel for the Small Farm Energy Project at the Center for Rural Affairs in Hartington, Nebraska. This story is about his uncle. Reprinted with permission from Fort Pierce Agricultural Research Center Research Report RL 1974-3, by Norman Hayilip, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.

Method 51 Determination of extractable boron

The predominant form of boron in soil solution is H3 BO3 , but above pH 9.2, H2 BO3 may predominate. Hot-water extraction is the most widely accepted procedure for determining the amount of boron that is available to plants, and correlated best with the incidence of black spot in garden beets (Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station, 1998). The final determination is best performed using an ICP spectrometer, but this may not always be available, so a colori-metric method will be described. Methods using either curcumin or azome-thine-H are possible, but the latter will be suggested here. It is not only the reagent used in the MAFF ADAS (1986, pp. 20-22) handbook, which is the method to be described (with Crown Copyright permission), but has been adopted by the Delaware Cooperative Extension (1995) as being rapid, reliable and requiring less sample preparation and handling than the curcumin method.

Agricultural Engineering With Reference To Zimbabwe

Agricultural Research Service. 1991. Predicting Soil Erosion by Water - A Guide to Conservation Planning with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). Washington DC U.S. Department of Agriculture. 17. Ree, W. O. 1976. Effect of seepage flow on reed canarygrass and its ability to protect waterways. City Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington D.C. 50. Skidmore, E. L., and N. P. Woodruff. 1968. Wind erosion forces in the United States and their use in predicting soil loss. Agricultural Research Service Handbook 346. Washington, DC U.S. Department of Agriculture.

How to Increase Your Farm's Efficiency with a One-Row Planter

Designed for the small farmer, the No. 12 is a garden planter with opening foot and three-point hitch for use with category 0 and 1 tractors. For planting seed in solid stands rather than in rows, a drill is used. For small acreages, however, you can often use small broadcasters much more efficiently, even counting the light disking or harrowing necessary to cover the seed. Generally speaking, the drill gives more precise planting depths than broadcasting and harrow covering and will result in better germination, especially if dry weather follows planting. The drill puts seed into the ground more or less continuously rather than depositing a precise number of seeds at precise spacings the way a row seeder does. It is used for cereal grains and grasses, and sometimes for soybeans if a solid stand is desired. Essentially, the drill is a long planting box with openings every six inches or so, from which planting tubes lead to the disc openers that rim into the ground at planting depth.

North American Sources Of Animaldrawn Equipment

Cumberland General Store Crossville

International Modern Machinery, Inc. manufactures this complete set of implements for the small farm where water buffalo, cows, or oxen are used instead of tractors. The set includes plow, disc, harrow, row maker, cultivator, fertilizer and planter distributing unit, and a piece of equipment used for leveling and draining the field. This set of equipment will allow the world farmer to put in his crop within a six- to eight-day period rather than a forty-five-dav period usually required when using his existing equipment and hand labor, leaving enough time for another crop.

The Axial Flow Threshe1

Drummy Type Threshing Machine

Beaters inside a threshing drum to separate wheat from its hull. A winnowing fan attached under the machine separates straw from the grain but does not leave a cleaned grain an average of 3.5 percent waste is left. There is no bagging arrangement with most of these machines, though adaptations can be made. The Eumiuuuu power needed to thresh with a minimum amount of grain breakage is 470 revolutions per minute, as established by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi. At a lower speed, more breakage takes place.

Illustrations of New Trends in Agricultural Extension

Gilbert, 'Reforming Agricultural Extension in Bangladesh Blending Greater Participation and Sustainability with Institutional Strengthening', Agricultural Research and Extension Network, Paper No. 61, Overseas Development Institute, London, 1996.

Tapping Sweet Sorghum

Hand Roller Laundry Squeezer

Now that the IJSDA (at the Agricultural Research Service Food Crops Utilization Research l,al in V esiaco, Texas) has found a way to remove starch from sweet sorghum so that it can be made into raw sugar, and not just syrup, small growers are bound to get even more interested. Fa per is say that the United States could replace 30 percent of the sugar it now imports with its own sorghum sugar, once the destarching process is perfected.

Valuing Genetic Resources

There are a number of characteristics of genetic resources that must be considered in any valuation model that is intended to be used for policy analysis. These include problems in defining and protecting property rights, significant positive externalities from agricultural research, increasing demand for agricultural products due to population and income growth, rapid technological change, imperfect information and the irreversibility of extinction. Added to these considerations are the potential for declining benefits of existing varieties due to evolution of insect and disease organisms, climate change, more stringent environmental controls and changing consumer preferences. While the introduction of improved crop varieties and farming techniques has increased per capita agricultural production in most parts of the world, continuation of this trend is by no means assured, particularly if there is continued erosion in crop genetic resources.

Government and Agriculture

Then what should be the role of government, if not in production or distribution The non-controversial roles of government have been clear enough protection of property rights, enforcing contractual obligations to foster competition, and the provision of public goods such as agricultural research, technology, information and infrastructure. The more controversial roles involve redistributing assets through forced measures, stabilizing prices, absorbing risks and providing credit. If the government goes where private markets fear to tread, it needs to do so cautiously and with considerable safeguards. there are some goods and services that a competitive market would not supply at all or would provide in less than optimal amounts.

Assorted Tractor Attachments

Dig Pond With Rear Tractor Scoop

A number of tools and implements for the small farm tractor are available for miscellaneous farm tasks which do not fall comfortably under one heading. We thought it would suffice to illustrate these implements with only one representative photograph and descriptive caption since differences between manufacturer's models are slight and because often the function is quite familiar. A middlebuster, designed for the large garden or small farm, gives a full 12 or 15-inch cut. Two-row models are available, and both use a standard A middlebuster, designed for the large garden or small farm, gives a full 12 or 15-inch cut. Two-row models are available, and both use a standard

Discussion 62 Determination of phosphorus in fertilizers

The 'hard-earth' coarsely crystalline forms of insoluble fluorapatite are virtually insoluble if the pH is above 5.5. Their very slow release rates mean that about four times the recommended rates for more soluble forms of phosphorus needs to be applied to correct an immediate deficiency. For the phosphate to be immediately available to plants, they need to be treated with acid to convert them to the soluble superphosphate. Sulphuric acid results in single superphosphate, and phosphoric acid produces triple superphosphate. In about 1840, Liebig proposed treating bone phosphate with sulphuric acid to increase the availability of P to plants. However, the conversion of insoluble hard rock phosphate to soluble superphosphate by treatment with sulphuric acid was patented in 1842 by Sir John Bennet Lawes, who opened the world's first artificial fertilizer factory the same year.

Categories of Tractors

The diversity of modern agriculture requires many tractor designs. Historically, utility (use) has been the basis of tractor classification schemes. Based on utility, there are six categories of tractors general purpose, row crop, orchard, vineyard, industrial, and garden. The designers of modern tractors have attempted to produce tractors with the broadest possible uses, but these categories are still applicable if a sub-category is added for each type of propulsion system rear wheel drive (RWD), four wheel drive articulating steering (4WDAS), four wheel drive four wheel steer (4WD), tracks (T), and rear wheel drive with front wheel assist (FWA).

Definition of Agricultural Waste

A general definition of 'agricultural waste' is not available in the literature. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), agricultural waste is the byproducts generated by the rearing of animals and the production and harvest of crops or trees. Animal waste, a large component of agricultural waste, includes waste (e.g., feed waste, bedding and litter, and feedlot and paddock runoff) from livestock, dairy, and other animal-related agricultural and farming practices. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defines 'agricultural waste' as waste produced as a result of various agricultural operations including manure and other wastes from farms, poultry houses and slaughterhouses harvest waste fertilizer run-off from fields pesticides that enter into water, air or soils and salt and silt drained from fields.

Economic impacts of aflatoxin

Four potential impacts of aflatoxin have been identified (Lubulwa and Davis, 1994) (i) deterioration of the food and nutritional quality of agricultural products with an accompanying reduction in sensory characteristics, e.g., taste, odor, texture and color, (ii) health-related productivity losses due to mutagenic and carcinogenic effects on humans who consume aflatoxin-contaminated food over an extended period of time, (iii) loss of income from livestock resulting from feeding aflatoxin-contaminated feedstuffs, e.g., higher mortality rates and lower feed to weight conversion ratios for chickens, ducks, egg-layers, and pigs, and (iv) losses of export markets and related economic gains due to regulations that restrict international trade of aflatoxin-contaminated grain. Aflatoxin contamination in agricultural commodities can result in considerable microeconomic losses, e.g., at the farm, household and community levels, as well as macro-economic losses, e.g.

Reclamation Procedures Clu

Steps Become Agricultural Engineer

This technique is based on the idea of using some waste products to deal with the problems caused by others 1 . As a matter of fact, there are many waste products that are good media for plant growth, such as sewage sludge, mushroom compost, farmyard manure and pig slurry, domestic refuse, fuel ash, and mining and chemical wastes. These materials, notwithstanding their different origins, are similar in the sense of being non-toxic and water-and nutrient-retaining.

Agricultural Growth And Poverty Reduction

Klaus Deininger and Lyn Squire at the World Bank assembled a multi-country time series of household income data which permit analysis of the relationship between agricultural growth and poverty reduction for more countries.25 Peter Timmer combined the observations of highest quality from these data with time series on real per capita incomes (for entire countries) adjusted for purchasing power equivalents, to analyze the agriculture-poverty reduction linkage for a sample of 27 countries. His analysis explored the relationship between income per agricultural worker and poverty levels over time, whereas Ravallion and Datt had looked at income per unit of agricultural land.

Revisiting Basmati and the Nature of Biopiracy

Legal claims extend to exclusivity over both the denotation and connotation of such terms as 'basmati' and 'jasmine rice', stimulating hopes that inclusion of agricultural products within the scope of extended protection of GIs under TRIPS may address such cases. The line of argument - initially founded on a claim of sovereignty over GR and an entitlement to equitable benefit-sharing in line with the CBD and FAO Treaty - potentially loops back to TRIPS, perhaps in view of the perceived tensions between these instruments, but in a way that sheds light on the broader conception of misappropriation and apprehension about loss of distinctive cultural identities that can lie behind trade negotiations in this area. Exceptionally within the trade law regime, as seen earlier, TRIPS invokes a conception of legitimate trade and (by incorporating the Paris Convention) requires the suppression of unfair competition (including honest practices established in international trade).

Reuse Of Agricultural Waste Tntroduction

Of agricultural productivity and calories which, if properly harnessed, can impact positively on worldwide food supply, animal production and global food security. Traditional subsistence agriculture led to the production of only limited agricultural refuse, which was generally disposed of untreated to land at zero cost, or actually at a credit because of its use as farmyard manure and soil conditioner. Introduction of cheap inorganic fertiliser obviated much of the need for farmyard manure. Increasing world population and industrialisation led to the introduction of intensive agricultural practices, the latter resulting in accumulation of large quantities of agricultural refuse in small land areas. Recent advances in the field of food technology, and the increasing demand for factory processed foods have led to a considerable increase in the quantity of food industry processing waste.

Weed Management Objectives

Weed Agriculture

Other, broader objectives are also important for weed management systems. Because farming is beset by uncertainties caused by variations in prices, weather, and pests, farmers seek weed management systems that predictably and consistently suppress weeds and reduce risks of crop yield loss. Convenience and profitability considerations lead farmers to seek weed management systems that use a desirable blend of labor, purchased inputs, and management skills. Farmers also seek weed management systems that fit well with other aspects of their farming system, such as crop sequence, tillage, and residue management practices. Over the long term, weed management systems are needed in which the number of effective management options holds steady or increases, rather than decreases. Finally, weed management systems need to protect environmental quality and human health. In the USA, herbicide application to agricultural land has risen nearly fourfold since 1966 (National Research Council, 1989, p.

Objectives Of Land Tenure Policies

Given the increasing scarcity of suitable agricultural land in all parts of the world, and the concerns about deforestation and land degradation, the productivity factor will have to account for an increasing share of the sector's growth in the future, hence the crucial need to use land more efficiently. In addition, through multiplier effects agricultural expansion generates benefits throughout the economy, as commented upon earlier in this book, and so while sustained agricultural growth will not necessarily solve the poverty problem, it can make a uniquely valuable contribution in this regard in both rural and urban areas.

Gender And Agricultural Development

Gender bias is manifested in many different ways, including diminished access to land and credit, little attention to women's needs as producers by agricultural research and extension services, exclusion from most decision-making regarding irrigation systems, and less access than men have to agricultural inputs.12 Bias sometimes is embodied in legal codes that, for example, may Studies have shown that rural women's time is exceedingly scarce and therefore is valuable. As a consequence, agricultural research that is directed toward ways of reducing the time requirements of household duties results in higher agricultural growth rates because more women's time is liberated for agricultural labor (Chapter 8). Country-level studies have shown that

What Makes Perennial Polycultures Different

2 In fact, polyculture including trees (called agroforestry) is often identified as one of the most promising approaches to sustainable agriculture and is widely used in some parts of the world. Said another way, had the first inhabitants of the prairies found that there were enough edible grasses there for their needs, they would not have needed to become annual tillers and sowers. They could have survived simply by reaping what they needed from the prairie year after year. Indeed, when human populations were smaller, many societies did subsist on what wild ecosystems provided. Prairie ecosystems with their perennial polycultures and mixed intercropping required no maintenance, yet provided food for a variety of animals, continuous ground cover and deep root systems to prevent erosion, legumes to provide natural fertilizers, and natural disease and pest control measures.

Introduction Of Agricultural Waste

Agricultural waste can be defined as the residues from the growing and first processing of raw agricultural products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy products, and crops. Although agricultural waste is a general term used to describe waste that is produced on a farm through various farming activities, these activities can include other activities such as seed Given the broad connotations associated with the term 'agricultural waste', the focus in this chapter is placed mainly on those agricultural wastes derived through animal farming practices and on the environmental implications of applying the waste onto land. In addition, utilization of agricultural waste to obtain environmental and economic benefits is also briefly discussed.

Current Status of Agricultural Biotechnology in Asia

Several emerging economies in Asia, including the PRC, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam, are making major investments in modern biotechnology to further the aim of improving food security and reducing poverty. In addition, several regional and international programs and a growing number of private sector companies are working on biotechnology. National biotechnology programs in Asia are being assisted through various bilateral and multilateral programs. Most support is country-specific and directed toward providing infrastructure, equipment, and postgraduate training. Multilateral assistance comes from ADB, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and the World Bank. World Bank projects have supported the extensive development of human resources and infrastructure for biotechnology in India and Indonesia.

Grassroots resistance and failed agricultural reform in the Soviet Union

In response to the shortcomings of the ACC reforms, Gorbachev attempted to introduce even bolder reforms in the late 1980s. In particular, new regulations in 1988 allowed individual farmers to lease land, hire labour, and own tractors, trucks, and other capital assets. Rental brigades (arendnyi podriad) had more discretionary power, and they increased in number in 1988 and 1989. As in the case of the ACC reforms, however, the effect of the reforms never materialized during the Soviet era.7

Mediterranean Agriculture

Mediterranean agriculture is found in the areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and in areas with a similar climate, characterized by mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers 5 . There are four land-use patterns that characterize the traditional Mediterranean farming system 5

The Historical Development of Extension in LDCs

In the 1950s and the early 1960s, the agricultural extension service tended to be subordinated to multipurpose rural development programs. Extension agents carried out a variety of functions, ranging from credit delivery and input distribution to sundry coordination duties. And because extension agents were among the few government officials available at the village level, they were often asked to undertake clerical, statistical, or even political chores. Typically the service had only weak connections to agricultural research. Looking back, the rural development movement was the victim of a poor enabling environment for agricultural development. Eventually it fell into disfavor as lack of profitable technical packages and an overly broad agenda led to a thin spread of resources, excessive administrative costs, and slow agricultural production growth (Picciotto and Anderson, 1997, p. 250).

Seed banks and gene banks

12 centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), which placed most of their collections (some 500,000 accessions) into the International Network. The participants agreed to hold the designated germplasm in trust for the benefit of the international community, and not to claim ownership, or seek intellectual property rights, over the designated germplasm and related information.

Case Studies in Biopiracy Pharms and Farmers

The stories of hoodia, neem and rosy periwinkle are contrasted with a more explicitly agricultural hypothetical situation. A commercial plant breeder in the USA develops a pest-resistant variety of soybeans. Although public support for plant-breeding research has declined in the USA (see Frey, 1996), publicly sponsored agricultural research spans a broad spectrum of advanced genomic technologies (compare Service, 1998, with Pollack, 2001, p. A1). Nevertheless, perhaps aware that classical plant breeding continues to hold the key to food security in a world with a burgeoning population (see Knight, 2003 Thro and Zankowski, 2003), the breeder in question eschews transgenic modification in favour of conventional techniques such as cross-breeding and chemical mutagenesis. In developing the new variety, the company draws on older public varieties, available free of charge from the nearest land grant university 7 U.S.C.

Regulatory and Institutional Challenges

Appropriate government policies can facilitate both secured and unsecured lending. One of the greatest hurdles to the expansion of secured lending in rural areas of developing countries is the lack of formal title to land which could be used as collateral, as discussed in Chapter 5. From the viewpoint of financial transactions, there are two aspects of a land title which are crucial confirming the ownership of the property, and registering all liens against it. The latter is essential so that lenders may perfect their claims, or establish publicly the priority of them. For this reason, it is important both to title agricultural lands and to develop effective systems of land registry. of livestock, the risks include not only the possibility of decimation of a herd through disease but also the possibility that the borrower could sell the crop or animals without advising the buyer that a lien exists.

Technology Transfer in Agriculture Mechanisms and Agents

Technology in agriculture may be transferred in many different forms in a commercial or market context, in a nonmarket or public good context, or by a combination of market and nonmarket mechanisms. Technology may be in the public domain and freely available to all, or it may be proprietary. It may be transferred through the purchase of an end product (seeds or machinery), or as an input into the agricultural research process (e.g., a patented genetic mapping technique or a patented gene). The most common form of transfer of genetic technologies is probably the purchase or import of seeds, principally for cereal and forage crops, fruits and vegetables, and planting material for floriculture products. This applies (i) where countries have an important commercial farming sector, (ii) where a large share of planted area is sown to hybrids, and (iii) where countries are major exporters of particular kinds of agricultural products.

Agriculture Based on Stewardship

The concept of stewardship in agriculture is steeped in ues than the present business perspective. Throughout history have worked the land have been serf, peasant, migrant farm man, pioneer, homesteader, tenant farmer, family farmer, nessman. In each role, social position and self-image affects and attitude towards the land. Currently migrant farm wo ploited class, struggling to earn wages in a market economy, trolled by economic contingencies, the agribusinessman must, see labor, land and crops as commodities, and machines and primary strategies for maximizing profits. Both for him and 1 A successional farm is most likely to be a small acreage farm inten- vely worked. The opposite of monoculture, it uses a number of diverse lements to establish the symbiotic relationships which lead to overall sys-iin productivity, health, and integrity. Components will include market-ble fish, vegetables, herbs, forage crops, bees, poultry, livestock, fruit, nuts, nd other economic trees.

Preface For Cropping Systems

Meir, Stephen Moss, Kristen Nelson, Stewart Smith, Marty Strange, James Sumberg, John Teasdale, Mark Vellend, and William Vorley. Any errors, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors. We also received ideas, information, or help with technical questions from Doug Derksen, Elizabeth Dyck, Sana Gardescu, Stephen Moss, and Jacob Weiner. Loden Mohler prepared the line drawings in Chapter 4. Frank Forcella generously provided the data for Figure 10.1. CLM was partially supported while writing this book by Hatch funds (Regional Project NE-92, NY(C)-183458) from the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station. Finally, we thank our families for their patience and support during the long process of preparing this book Laura Merrick, Chan Liebman, Marika Liebman, Carol Mohler, Ariel Mohler, Loden Mohler, Jan Salick, Carla Staver, and Benjamin Staver.

Share Tenancy Contracts

Behrman and T. N. Srinivasan (Eds), Handbook of Development Economics, Vol. 3B, H. P. Binswanger, K. Deininger and G. Feder, 'Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural land relations', pp. 2713 and 2714, Copyright (1995), with permission from Elsevier. 181. Reprinted from J. Behrman and T. N. Srinivasan (Eds), Handbook in Development Economics, Vol. 3B, H. P. Binswanger, K. Deininger and G. Feder, 'Power, distortions, revolt and reform in agricultural land relations', p. 2716, Copyright (1995), with permission from Elsevier.

Abebe Menkir Robert L Brown Ranajit Bandyopadhyay Zhiyuan Chen and Thomas E Cleveland

Ear-rot-causing fungi, including Aspergillus and Fusarium spp., are common in maize in West and Central Africa. These fungi contaminate maize with mycotoxins that pose serious potential health hazards to humans in these areas. A collaborative germplasm screening project was initiated between the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC) of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in 1998 to develop maize germplasm with resistance to aflatoxin contamination. In a laboratory screen, some IITA inbred lines had potential levels of resistance to aflatoxin production as high as or higher than the best lines from the United States. These results prompted the initiation of a breeding project to combine resistance factors from the IITA lines with resistance factors from the US inbred lines. Several crosses and backcross populations were made from selected resistant or potentially resistant inbred lines from the US and IITA.

Rural Development And Poverty Alleviation

Better management of irrigation systems (Chapter 6), and community participation in agricultural research and extension (Chapter 8). However, it is always valuable to coordinate policies and programs under a rural, spatial focus. Rural development can become another integrating dimension of an agricultural strategy and at the same time carry its policy prescriptions beyond the sector. It goes without saying that the linkages between agricultural and non-agricultural activities in rural areas are strong, and the latter constitute significant sources of employment and income for rural families

Why Land and Water Use Planning Are Important

In Chapter 1, it is stated that a traditional way of increasing agricultural production is by means of land and water engineering. After a few decades of improving the conditions in favor of people and agriculture, a new view of this matter has arisen, namely the use of the resources of this earth in a sustainable way 1 . If we continue to produce in the same way as we have since the start of modern agriculture, the soil will be exhausted and then it will be impossible to produce food, resources for shelter, and other products that are necessary to sustain human health, safety, and welfare. It is, therefore, necessary to look well at how we use this earth and its resources, if we do not want to get ourselves (further) into trouble.

Irrigation by country

Small farms Small farms Small farms Small farms Small farm Small farm The central foothills, home to many small farming communities, face a water shortage during the dry season. Because the shallow and often stony soils present no real problems for soil water dynamics, the development of water storage facilities is most relevant to this area. However, the area is most conducive to irrigation systems with high water use efficiencies for the production of rice, vegetables and papaya. Water quality is good throughout the dry season although the supply is low. The northern plateau, with its diverse land systems, is characterized by lagoons, creeks, swamps, subsurface storage in limestone aquifers and slow and sluggish flowing rivers. Availability of water for dry season use is good, but access to surface and groundwater sources poses problems for domestic and agricultural use in small farming communities.

From Agriculture to Industry

Raises the issue of whether the agricultural sector is at all relevant for the transition to manufacturing. At least in theory, the agricultural sector may have little to do with industrialization because a nation can always follow a dualistic pattern of development that is, it might export the products of its urban sector for agricultural products from other countries, thereby ignoring its own agricultural sector except as a pool oflabor. European industrialization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries did not feature such a pattern of dualism but, in the twentieth century, examples include states such as Hong Kong and Singapore, which had almost no agricultural sectors at all. More common cases of dualism include cases where the agricultural sector was neglected and the new factories were located in the towns so that income differences between urban and rural areas widened dramatically.1

Conditions on Titling

In all parts of the developing and transitional world, titling agricultural land has the potential to create undesirable side-effects. If such effects are anticipated, both administrative and judicial mechanisms can be put in place to avoid or minimize them. One hazard noted above is the appropriation of land rights by those who are well placed in the politico-administrative system. This hazard can be reduced by campaigns of rapid and widespread dissemination of information about a titling program and its implications, and the greater involvement of civil society (including NGOs) in those programs. Such campaigns can be supported by international agencies. Political will in the country concerned, expressed at the highest levels, also can do a great deal to reduce this danger. Financing the costs of titling programs is another issue that requires resolution.

Why Agricultural Policy

In some cases, the economic environment in rural areas may be conditioned in part by the historical legacy of a different economic era, as in cases of pervasive State ownership of agricultural land or antiquated rural land registry systems. In contrast, land ownership or long-term leases are almost universally available in urban areas. Whatever the reasons for the differences between rural and urban economic environments, they exist. Reforming rural economic institutions so that they are more conducive to business activity, and at the same time facilitate a reduction in poverty, is normally a long-term undertaking but no less essential for that reason.

What Is Terminator Technology and Why Was It Created

Cific traits, terminator, which uses seed sterility as the basis of its use restriction, provides no productivity or agronomic benefits to the farmer who buys the seed. Still worse is that it is actually a net loss, because it restricts freedom, and offers no compensating gains as did hybrid corn and as the so-called trait-specific GURTs promise to provide. In light of this, it seems reasonable to ask will terminator have serious negative impacts on developing country farmers, food security and agricultural research targeted at the poor

Gender in Agricultural Extension

As in agricultural research, agricultural extension has been slow to recognize differences in gender 73. M. Kalim Qamar, 'Effective Information Systems for Technology Transfer Challenges of Transformation for Conventional Agricultural Extension Services', in Agricultural Research and Extension Interface in Asia, Asian Productivity Organization, Tokyo, Japan, 1999, p. 52. returns and a failure to achieve development objectives such as food security, sustainable agricultural growth and poverty alleviation. Closing the gap between the existing and potential productivity levels of female farmers may be one of the most important ways of promoting . overall agricultural development. For example, in Kenya following a nationwide information campaign targeted at women under a national extension project, yields of corn increased by 28 , beans by 80 and potatoes by 84 .77

The Issue of Support for Agriculture

There is widespread agreement that agricultural protection in rich countries depresses world prices for many commodities. . World prices for staple grains do not reflect the importance to countries of maintaining food security. . The special role of the agricultural sector in alleviating poverty is ignored in the market value of agriculture . . .7 Equally, attention should be directed to possibilities for raising more revenues to support infrastructure development, agricultural research and other programs in the sector. Commodity taxes are not advisable because of their distortive effects on incentives. Often efforts are made to improve the administration of income taxes, but with the lack of reliable accounts on most farms in developing countries, that route to revenue collection always will be difficult in rural areas. Among the more viable options are rural land taxes (on a per hectare basis), which are discussed extensively in Chapter 5, and partial user fees for services.

Children in Agriculture

Agriculture encompasses the bulk of the world's poor, who work long hours for meager returns and under hazardous and difficult conditions. In India, the combination of poor nutrition and agricultural work in childhood has resulted in decreased stature, which impairs earning ability later in life. Children working on family-based vegetable farms in the Philippines have been exposed to infections from biohazards and chemicals in soil and water, and back problems from the heavy lifting of watering cans. They often work without protective clothing. Children working in South America peeling, cutting, and grading cashew nuts are exposed to cuts, skin irritation, and back pain from sitting or standing for long hours (2,3). Children's work in agriculture often goes hand in hand with debt bondage, where the poorest families have no land or too little land to meet subsistence needs and become trapped in debt to their landlord or another person.

Macroeconomic Policy Options For Agriculture

For the past five decades most economic policy in the developing world has displayed a pronounced bias against agriculture. T. L. Vollrath, citing the work of R. Bautista and A. Valdes, reported that 'the trade, macroeconomic, and sector-specific pricing policies adopted in the developing countries since the early 1950s have given rise to the following incentive biases against the production of tradable goods and in favor of non-tradables within the tradable goods sector, against exports as compared with import-competing goods within the export sector, against agricultural products compared with manufactured goods and within agriculture, against export crops compared with food crops'.63 Furthermore, the 'empirical record shows that agricultural growth had a more pronounced impact on increases in developing-country income than did growth in the nonagricultural sector.

That poor families have access to sufficient food to avoid malnutrition

The autarkic approach to achieving the first goal - of attempting to achieve national self-sufficiency in producing basic foods - is now recognized as a costly approach for most countries 'it has been impossible since the early 1980s to speak credibly of food security as being a problem of food supply, without at least making reference to the importance of access and entitlement' (Maxwell, 1996, p. 157). Rather than pursue complete national food self-sufficiency, generally it is much more economical for a country to produce, and also export, the classes of goods in which it has an international comparative advantage, and import some of its food needs.

The Appropriateness of Technology

In the end, various kinds of diagnoses of research systems and their effects underscore one central message in the words of Charles Antholt, it is 'the importance of getting the technology right', and the message is valid 'whether the technology is evolved over time by farmers themselves, borrowed directly from other parts of the world, or borrowed and then locally adapted'.26 Reversing the decline in research budgets may be an integral part of any reform to the system, but how to ensure the appropriateness of the technologies developed is the single greatest, and most enduring, issue faced by agricultural research systems. What is right for a few farmers may not be right for the majority. Above all, research programs need to respond to different kinds of farmers and farming conditions. A technology that may be appropriate for large-scale farms with fertile, level land and ready access to production finance may not be as appropriate for small farms on hillsides and with no collateral.

Accuracy assessment of classified images and land cover maps

The level of accuracy needed for agriculture is often higher than for other kinds of land cover. An 85 accuracy is generally considered satisfactory, but 15 inaccuracy in the extent of agricultural land is usually insufficient for the management of agricultural markets or for food security management.

Method 59b Determination of extractable phosphorus automated method

An automated method for the Lachat QuikChem Automatic Flow Injection Ion Analyzer is given in Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station (1998), pp. 27-29, and is available free of charge from Lachat (Lachat Instruments, 1988). Sun et al. (1981) describe a method for the Tecator FIAstar flow injection system. A method for a segmented continuous flow procedure for both phosphate and potassium was devised by Armitage (1965). The parameters for the phosphate analysis using a dilute HCl soil extractant are outlined below. The manifold diagram (Fig. 5.3) has been modified to allow for the fact that Armitage later changed the Sampler I to a Sampler II module.

Chlorpyrifos and Responsible Use

Assisting in the production of high-quality agricultural products, while maintaining human health and environmental safety standards, is a responsibility Dow AgroSciences takes seriously. As new information comes to light or as standards change regulators and registering companies take action to modify use practices and revise labeling precautions.

Impact of Chlorpyrifos Restrictions

Finally, Idaho is among those states likely to be adversely affected by the proposed restrictions on chlorpyrifos use. Agricultural products contribute more than 3.9 billion to Idaho's annual economy, many of which although diverse are nationally important. Sugarbeets, lentils, wheat, sweet cherries, and apples are among the crops for which Idaho is one of the top ten producers in the U.S.

S.510 Could Kill the Real Food Movement

Senate has been working on S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and they hope to have it on President Obama's desk by Easter. The Act tries to address the worst problems in U.S. agriculture, but as it stands, the bill threatens to undermine the best things in U.S. agriculture small farmers producing for local markets. Instead of effectively protecting us from the filthy conditions inherent in factory farming, the one-size-fits-all regulatory policy in S.510 would undermine the rapidly growing local foods movement by imposing unnecessary, burdensome regulations on small farms and food processors everyone from your local CSA, to the small bakers, jam makers, and people making fermented vegetables to sell at the local farmers market. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is focusing on four main problems Your favorite small farmer is counting on you

Time Magazine Explodes the Organic Myth, Kind Of

Turns out, the author had no idea what he was talking about. It became clear very quickly that Kluger did not differentiate between organic (a word with specific legal meanings, as defined by the USDA) and everything else having to do with the Profood movement. He conflated organic with local, seasonal, small-farms, and grass-fed (when talking about meat). He managed to roll all those different ideas up in a single sentence, without even acknowledging the differences. Talking about the organic-vs-commercial debate over meat , he cites the nutritional advantages of eating grass-fed beef, never mind that not all (or even most) organic beef is grass-fed, nor is all grass-fed beef organic. The two standards are completely different. The thing I don't really understand about these articles is the glee they seem to take in bashing the Profood movement.

Power in Community: How a Local Food Movement Changed a City

Asheville, NC prides itself on a thriving farm-to-table scene and flourishing network of family farms. While the city owes that reputation to many active organizations and individuals, one local non-profit laid the groundwork for city's food future. In 1995, Charlie Jackson started what would become the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP). At the time, tobacco was falling out of favor as the tobacco and cigarette industry came under fire. Tobacco was the foundation for many family farms in Western North Carolina, and Charlie feared the worst if tobacco disappeared from community agriculture. Charlie and his wife, Emily, worked with several community members to form ASAP. The organization's goal was to assist family farms as they transitioned from tobacco to food crops. Through education and marketing, ASAP developed and advocated strategies that helped family farms prosper, preserved farmland and provided access to healthy, locally grown food.

Genetically Modified, Certified Organic, Real Food?

The article, Green Genes by Matthew Herper, published in this month's edition of Forbes , begins by relating the story of how plant geneticist Pamela Ronald and organic farmer Raoul Adamchak met, fell in love, got married, and combined their passions to find ways to create GM crops that limit the use of pesticides and fertilizers while still being environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. The struggles of Jose Baer, an organic walnut farmer, are cited as evidence for the value of GMOs in organic farming, if only the regulations would allow them. Baer wishes that someone would come up with a variety of walnut tree that could resist or poison the pests he must fend off without pesticides, and that this sort of genetic modification could be certified organic.

Financing Biodiversity Conservation And Sustainable Use

Concerns have been raised about the impacts of assigning intellectual property rights on the accessibility of knowledge, particularly as an input to the development of new varieties and breeds. Several mechanisms for overcoming these types of barriers are being designed or set up, and are discussed in other chapters of this book (see Chapters 10 and 19 in this volume). Another concern about the privatization of biological and genetic knowledge is the impact on agricultural research and development programs and new variety development aimed at poor populations (see Chapters 3 and 20 in this volume also Smale et al., 2001). Such groups do not represent lucrative markets, and thus their needs will not be targeted under private research programs. As discussed in Chapter 3, this implies a greater need for the public sector to focus on such issues.

Research Trends Crops And Traits

In January 2003, FAO launched an online database (FAO-BioDeC, 2003) to monitor the trends in the status of development, adoption, and application of crop biotechnologies, including GM crops in developing countries. The database encompassed data collected and kindly provided by ISNAR Biotechnology Service (IBS), part of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). Both FAO-BioDec (2003) and IBS ISNAR's Next Harvest Databases (Cohen et al., 2003) show that not only a diverse range of crops important for resource-poor farmers, including food security crops (e.g., rice and corn), are being studied, but also traits important to resource-poor farmers in developing countries (e.g., tolerance to abiotic stresses and quality traits). The number of transformation events was recorded. A transformation event is a unique insertion of the gene into the plant genome.

Implications for Fertilizer Practices

In contrast, most organic farming practices lead to increased organic matter and microbial activity in soils and the gradual release of plant nutrients in theory, this should provide more balanced nutrition to plants. While the amount of nitrogen that is immediately available to the crop may be lower when farmers use organic inputs, their crops' overall nutritional status appears to improve. By releasing nitrogen slowly, over the course of several years, organic sources may help render plants less attractive to pests. Organic soil fertility practices also can supply secondary and trace elements, such as boron, zinc, manganese and sulfur, which are occasionally lacking in conventional farming systems that rely primarily on synthetic sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If, indeed, biochemical or mineral-nutrient differences in organically grown crops enhance resistance, this may explain at least in part why lower pest levels have been reported in organic farming systems.

Complete Guide How to Fertilization and Choosing Best Fertilizers

The process of adding nutrients to soil, which does not contain sufficient nutrients, in order to increase soil productivity and the quality and quantity of agricultural products is called fertilization and the matters which contain these nutritional elements are called fertilizers .

Buying a Home with a USDA Home Loan

The United States Department of Agriculture is home to a little known mortgage program that's actually quite large. Along with VA loans, USDA mortgages are the only zero down mortgage product on the market today. Homebuyers can finance rural property and even small farms with some of the USDA's mortgage programs.

Organic Warfare, more on organic pest control :

Since our article on organic pest control recipes proved to touch a very common problem, we have prepared a much longer and detailed guide on keeping those bugs away from your innocent plants. It starts with preventive measures and goes on to open warfare. While most of these methods will focus on organic farming ( probably because intensive farming usually involves soaking the land with poison until all the pests are dead ) everyone can benefit from them. Without further ado, here's the first part of the series. To prevent the spread of pests from the environment consider planting trees or fences around your organic farming zone, you can use the repellents or insecticides on these to discourage the intruders from entering. You should also closely watch your plants to spot problems early on and get rid of them immediately to keep the spread as low as possible. Another important measure is collecting the plants as soon as they are harvested.

Vertical Farming Advantages and Disadvantages

Due to these possible vertical farming disadvantages, some farmers still prefer the traditional farming over it. However, a person who wants to do something creative must go for this lucrative idea by paying more attention to vertical farming advantages and less onto its disadvantages.

Why Cowpeas Have a Black Eye

Spend any time in the heirloom gardening scene, and you'll meet people that get giddy talking about cowpeas. This past fall, I attended a seed-swap at the Best family farm and scored Lady, Big Red Ripper, Jacob Day, and Washday cowpeas. A few weeks later, a friend I made at the swap sent me a surprise cowpea delivery Pigott Family cowpeas. This speckled cowpea is supposed to be the best fresh-eating cowpea around. Thanks to Juanita, I'll be able to find out if that's true next summer.

Five Myths about Food Safety and Home Gardens

Can you just prepare your foods at home if you want to avoid being the one out of every six Americans that will get a foodborne illness this year Not quite. There are many human pathogens showing up in our store produce aisles now, including Escherichia coli and Salmonella species, once only associated with uncooked beef and poultry. In contrast to norovirus, these pathogens are far more deadly. They are also contaminating our food as it grows in the field, during harvest, as it washed and packaged, or as it is distributed anywhere along the food chain. When produce is centralized in large industrialized farms or packaging facilities, contamination can easily spread and be distributed widely. The decline of small farms in America is real, and we have heard of too many examples of agricultural operations with unsanitary practices, the result of no longer having to look the consumer in the eye when their produce is sold.

Publications

AgroEcology Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agriculture by Stephen R. Gliessman. 1998. Sleeping Bear Press Ann Arbor Press. http www . agroecology.org textbook.htm Agroecology The Science of Sustainable Agriculture (2nd ed.) by Miguel Alt-ieri. Key principles in case studies of sustainable rural development in developing countries. 39 to Perseus Books Group Customer Service, (800) 371-1669 perseus.orders perseusbooks.com www.westview-press.com Agroecology Transitioning organic agriculture beyond input substitution by Miguel A. Altieri and Clara I. Nicholls. Paper presented to the American Society of Agronomy, November, 2003, Denver, CO. http www . A Whole Farm Approach to Managing Pests. Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). http www.sare.org bulletin farmpest . Lays out ecological principles for managing pests in real farm situations. Free in quantity to educators. To order san_assoc sare.org 301-504-5411.

Root Crops

Root crops like potatoes, cassava, and sweet potatoes, wliich form their fruits under the soil, are usually grown in small acreages so the high cost of specialised harvesting equipment is not justified by the amount of labor saved or the increase in output. However, a number of universal root-harvesting machines have been developed which can be used for a number of similar crops with only minor modifications to some of the parts. This way, the capital cost of the harvesting machine can be distributed over a number of crops, a particular advantage for the diversified organic farm.

Chuck and Mary Smith

Declining public support for tobacco. Like many Kentucky farmers, the Smiths have struggled with their dependence on income from tobacco almost since they started farming. Political pressure and weakening federal interest in the national price support system have caused the market to constrict. At the same time, free trade agreements are allowing cheaper foreign tobacco into the market. No crop commands as much per pound as tobacco, especially one that calls for just a small acreage.

Moisture Management

Dry Weight Basis

Water and its addition to or removal from agricultural products and materials is an extremely important topic in nearly all aspects of agriculture. The moisture contents of grain, feed, or hay to be bought or sold, of crops to be dried, or of meat and dairy products to be processed are but a few examples of products where moisture must be carefully managed. Moisture may be added to or removed from the product depending upon the desired final condition. Moisture is removed from products by drying. Drying usually is done to change the consistency or to extend the storage life of the product. For example, fruits and meats may be dried to Some agricultural products, such as grains and forages, will dry naturally to equilibrium moisture content (the same as that of the environment) if left in the field. But with these and other products good management sometimes dictates that the crop be harvested at a wetter stage and dried artificially.

Mycoprotein as Food

Data from US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 July 2001. Nutrient Data Laboratory (http www.nal.usda.gov fnic foodcomp ) and P. Collins, Marlow Foods, UK. Data from US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 14 July 2001. Nutrient Data Laboratory (http www.nal.usda.gov fnic foodcomp ) and P. Collins, Marlow Foods, UK.

Spatial Conditions

Spatial Condition Diagram

At different levels, the dimensions indicate the economic and, sometimes, social survivability of a farm or a farming system. Almost always, a minimum size is required. For example, the use of mechanical equipment is tied up with the size of the area (the field) that has to be worked. When the field is too small, the investment in a harvester is too high for a single farm or group of farms. The shape is less important as a spatial condition. Its meaning as a factor to determine the suitability of a farm or a field for agricultural production is limited almost entirely to mechanized farming systems. In these systems, the shape of the fields influences the yields and the productivity of the equipment used. The four aspects access, location, shape, and dimensions can be reviewed at different levels. The examples show that access to a field is very different from access to a farming system. Three levels can be distinguished field, farm, and region.

Land Use Planning

When it comes to farming, the development of spatial structures is regarded from a point of view of the modernization of agriculture. Modernization involves the increase of agricultural productivity, that is, more output with less input. During the past few decades, however, a general sense of responsibility toward ecosystems, of which humankind is a part, has resulted in some additional targets. The notion of sustainable development, used by the Brundtland Commission, has become an important issue in agricultural science as well as in most communities throughout the world. It encompasses the idea that humankind has certain responsibilities for future generations, who will need to provide a way of living with the same (or more) possibilities and natural resources as the present generations. The principle of sustainable development also identifies a certain intrinsic value in the natural environment 1 .

Smallscale Farming

Pick up almost any issue of Countryside and read about the people who are prospering on small farms. Of course it's possible. We prove it every month. Most farmers would be surprised to learn that anyone couid be shocked by having their small-farm dreams shattered by an introduction to agribusiness. After all, everyone must certainly know that our farm population has been cut in half since the 1940s, and that the exodus is continuing even now. Everyone (and certainly anyone interested in starting farming) should be aware that only the larger and more-efficient farms are surviving. To begin with, it's important to understand the distinction between homesteading and farming. If you're talking about producing your own food and preparing for the hard times ahead, that's home-steading. It can be accomplished on a large farm, a small farm, or in town, and since many people in rural homes do not produce their own food or prepare for the future, they are not hcmesteaders.

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