Best Practice

This technology description introduces crop rotation as a fundamental principle of conservation agriculture. The basic principles and aspects to consider when transitioning to crop rotation are discussed. Crop rotation is the alternation of subsistence, cash and green manure/cover crops (GMCCs) with different characteristics, cultivated on the same field during successive years, and following a previously established sequence.
This technology is part of a series on conservation agriculture.

Shamba Shape Up is produced by The Mediae Company, an organisation dedicated to addressing the informational needs of East Africans through sustainable media productions that are entertaining, educative and help improve livelihoods.

Other Mediae shows include the popular soap drama Makutano Junction, the children’s educational series Know Zone, and more recently, Don’t Lose the Plot, which aims to encourage youth into agribusiness.

This guide was prepared as a result of training sessions conducted between May
and August 2012 in Kenya and Tanzania for extension agents from the Ministry of Agriculture, Landcare and World Vision in Kenya; and from the Ministry of Agriculture
& Food Security, Division of Forestry & Beekeeping, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism in Tanzania as well as those from World Wildlife Fund (WWF). These agents work in partnership with the IFAD funded EverGreen Agriculture (EGA)project areas of Machakos County in Kenya, and Mbarali District in Tanzania. It is expected that they will be able to stay in touch and support farmers with knowledge gained at these trainings, to increase the adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Agroforestry (AF) as well as participation in Landcare approaches.

CABI and FRI’s Upscaling Technologies in Agriculture through Knowledge and Extension (UPTAKE) project uses SMS messages to increase awareness and adoption of agricultural technologies in maize value chains. The project seeks to strengthen the adoption of improved maize varieties. Continuous learning and improvement of the SMS campaign strategy is at the foundation of the success of the project. Lessons from farmers, extension agents and the entire maize value chain are being incorporated in the system regularly.

There are rich communities of beneficial insects, spiders, and diseases that attack insect pests of rice. The beneficial species often control insect pests, especially in places where use of broad-spectrum pesticides is avoided. Without these beneficial species the insect pests would multiply so quickly that they would completely consume the rice crop.

Pests have high reproductive capacities to offset the naturally high mortality that they face in nature. For example, a brown planthopper female produces many offspring, but because of the action of predators, parasites, and diseases, only about 1 or 2 will survive after one generation. It is not unusual for 98-99% mortality to occur; otherwise, a pest population explosion can be expected.

Natural enemies also have enemies of their own. Parasites and predators each have predators, parasites, and pathogens. Most predators are cannibalistic, a behavior which ensures that, in the absence of prey, some will survive.

The natural balance between insect pests and their natural enemies is often disrupted by indiscriminate use of chemical insecticides. Although insecticides are needed in some cases, they must be used judiciously to save these vulnerable natural control agents.

The main purpose of Tsetse Plan is to provide a computerised simulation of the interactive help that would be available if farmers, an NGO or general veterinarian were able to chat with a tsetse control specialist on-site, to assess the situation in their area, draw up the strategy for bait control, identify technical specifications prepare a budget and provide general notes on implementing the plan.

The potential of forage legumes to increase the productivity of crop–livestock systems has been studied by ILCA under different ecological and management conditions. In the Ethiopian highlands, species within the Vicia, Trifolium and Medicago genera show promise. Among these the Vicia genus stands out with its relatively high dry-matter yields, high N content, and consistently high residual effects which make it very attractive for intercropping. In the subhumid zone of West Africa, Stylosanthes species show good potential, especially if the danger from anthracnose can be eliminated. Of the various legume–cereal technologies tested, the cut-and- carry method, intercropping, sequential cropping and alley farming are most likely to be adopted by farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

With the concept climate-smart agriculture (CSA) being relatively new, there is a need to test and develop practical and systematic methodologies and approaches for documenting and evaluating CSA practices in the field. The implementation of CCAFS’ Climate-Smart Villages (CSV) involves identifying, assessing and selecting climate-smart farming practices. This report contains three sections: (i) a framework for identifying and assessing CSA in the field with a long list of CSA indicators in identifying and monitoring CSA interventions; (ii) cost-benefit analysis of some selected climate-smart farming systems; and (iii) the participatory process of prioritizing CSA options with the villagers. The work builds on our experiences from the My Loi CSV and its scaling domains in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province, in the north-central region of Viet Nam.

Of the more than one billion global poor, 75 percent live in rural areas and most of these people depend on agriculture to survive. Enhancing farmers’ and agricultural workers’ livelihoods is thus key to addressing global poverty. While there are many problems, poor farmers regularly identify the most important as: 1) access to credit, 2) access to better market prices and 3) access to credible, relevant information.

The aspect of information access has received increasing attention, especially in terms of the potential role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to connect farmers with the information they need. ICT has already been shown to have the capacity to dramatically expand communication and improve access to information (and facilitate monetary transfers). However, the question more recently has been, how can the promise of ICT be realistically harnessed to help the world’s rural poor?

The Compendium provides examples of more than 20 different approaches of how agricultural extension can support climate-smart agriculture, with contributions from seventeen institutions and over 30 contributors worldwide.