Download or read book Varietal development and the effectiveness of seed sector policies written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seed is an essential input in agriculture, and the availability of quality seed of superior varieties is often critical for improved food security and poverty reduction in developing countries like Nigeria. However, while the Nigerian government recognizes the importance of improving seed availability, its recent focus in the seed sector has mostly been on improving seed quality rather than on varietal development. This report argues that this is partly due to a knowledge gap regarding the relationship between varietal technology levels and the effectiveness of seed sector policies. We first provide a brief conceptual discussion on how the effectiveness of selected seed sector policies, such as certification, subsidies, and private sector promotion, may depend on underlying varietal technology levels. Using rice as an example, we then provide key historical and international perspectives on how varietal technology development by the public sector through intensive rice breeding had pre-ceded the expansion of seed certification and testing, and show that there still is a substantial need for the Nigerian government to develop improved rice varieties through intensified domestic plant breeding in order for its seed certification and seed subsidy programs to be more effective.
Download or read book Seed Business Management in Africa written by and published by CIMMYT. This book was released on with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Community Seed Banks written by Ronnie Vernooy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community seed banks first appeared towards the end of the 1980s, established with the support of international and national non-governmental organizations. This book is the first to provide a global review of their development and includes a wide range of case studies. Countries that pioneered various types of community seed banks include Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. In the North, a particular type of community seed bank emerged known as a seed-savers network. Such networks were first established in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA before spreading to other countries. Over time, the number and diversity of seed banks has grown. In Nepal, for example, there are now more than 100 self-described community seed banks whose functions range from pure conservation to commercial seed production. In Brazil, community seed banks operate in various regions of the country. Surprisingly, despite 25 years of history and the rapid growth in number, organizational diversity and geographical coverage of community seed banks, recognition of their roles and contributions has remained scanty. The book reviews their history, evolution, experiences, successes and failures (and reasons why), challenges and prospects. It fills a significant gap in the literature on agricultural biodiversity and conservation, and their contribution to food sovereignty and security.
Download or read book Seed System Innovations in the Semi arid Tropics of Andhra Pradesh written by National Research Centre for Sorghum (India) and published by ILRI (aka ILCA and ILRAD). This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Study conducted at the Mahabubnagar, Kurnool, Nalgonda, Anantapur districts of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Download or read book Farmers Seed Production written by Conny Almekinders and published by Intermediate Technology Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook covers a whole range of issues relating to local seed supply systems, including participatory plant breeding, and both technical and practical information on seed production and variety maintenance. It suggests new approaches and methods to support on-farm seed production by small-scale farmers in developing countries. The first part of the book describes the functioning of local seed systems and discusses their strengths, limitations and possibilities for improvement. The authors discuss in detail issues of genetic diversity and in-situ conservation, farmers' rights and legislation. The cases presented here illustrate the functioning of local seed systems and experiences with improving them. The second part contains technical information on seed production, selection, storage and distribution, and varietal maintenance and improvement of different groups of important food crops, which can be applied and implemented at the level of small-scale farming. The third part contains practical guidelines about how on researchers and agriculturalists might carry out surveys to investigate local seed systems and their limitations, and how they can involve interested farmers in practical experimentation to improve their crop seed. This book will be of great value and interest to people who work directly with farmers, including extension agents, national and international NGOs, and farmers' cooperative workers.
Download or read book Seeds Toolkit Module 5 written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seeds are the vehicle for delivering the improvements in a crop to the farmer’s field. They are therefore a critical input in agricultural production. Seeds are also unique in that they must remain alive and healthy when they are used and that they are also the input that farmers can produce by themselves. Module 5 Seed Marketing, this module presents the underlying principles for valuing and exchanging seeds. This module describes all the activities which are undertaken in getting seeds from the producers to the end-users or farmers. The reader is provided guidance on how to conduct relevant research of the market for seeds, develop effective marketing strategies, articulate a marketing plan and manage the associated risks.
Download or read book An Analysis of the Bottlenecks affecting the production and deployment of maize seed in eastern and southern Africa written by and published by CIMMYT. This book was released on with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book African Seed Enterprises written by Paul van Mele and published by CABI. This book was released on 2011 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In most developing countries, good quality seed is hard to obtain and farmers struggle to save seed from one year to the next. This title takes a people-centred look at the companies, public agencies and family farms that are taking on this role and making a difference to food security across Africa.
Download or read book Seed Trade in Rural Markets written by Leslie Lipper and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book The Business of Plant Breeding written by G. J. Persley and published by Cabi. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the result of a study on demand-led plant variety design for changing markets in Africa, the purpose of which is to identify and share best practices in demand-led plant breeding from private and public sector breeding programmes worldwide. The intended audiences are professionals in plant breeding and related areas, such as seed production, who have interests in developing and disseminating new plant varieties as a way to increase productivity and profitability in crop agriculture, especially in Africa. The volume is also intended for use as a resource book for the education of postgraduate scholars in plant breeding and genetics, and for the continuing professional development of plant breeders. For this purpose, boxes are included in the main sections of each chapter that summarize its educational objectives and present the key messages and questions that are involved; in addition, there is a final box at the end of each chapter that summarizes its overall learning objectives.
Download or read book Managing Global Genetic Resources written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1993-02-01 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This anchor volume to the series Managing Global Genetic Resources examines the structure that underlies efforts to preserve genetic material, including the worldwide network of genetic collections; the role of biotechnology; and a host of issues that surround management and use. Among the topics explored are in situ versus ex situ conservation, management of very large collections of genetic material, problems of quarantine, the controversy over ownership or copyright of genetic material, and more.
Download or read book Crop Improvement Adoption and Impact of Improved Varieties in Food Crops in Sub Saharan Africa written by Thomas S. Walker and published by CABI. This book was released on 2015-10-26 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following on from the CGIAR study by Evenson and Gollin (published by CABI in 2003), this volume provides up-to-date estimates of adoption outcomes and productivity impacts of crop variety improvement research in sub-Saharan Africa. The book reports on the results of the DIIVA Project that focussed on the varietal generation, adoption and impact for 20 food crops in 30 countries. It also compares adoption outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa to those in South Asia, and guides future efforts for global agricultural research
Download or read book The roles of agroclimatic similarity and returns on scale in the demand for mechanization Insights from northern Nigeria written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2018-12-21 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using farm household data from northern Nigeria as well as various spatial agroclimatic data, this study shows that the adoption of key mechanical technologies in Nigerian agriculture (animal traction, tractors, or both) has been high in areas that are more agroclimatically similar to the locations of agricultural research and development (R&D) stations, and this effect is heterogeneous, being particularly strong among relatively larger farms. Furthermore, such effects are likely to have been driven by the rise in returns on scale in the underlying production function caused by the adoption of these mechanical technologies. Agricultural mechanization, represented here as the switch from manual labor to animal traction and tractors, has been not only raising the average return on scale but also potentially magnifying the effects of productivity-enhancing public-sector R&D on spatial variations in agricultural productivity in countries like Nigeria.
Download or read book Africa s Emerging Maize Revolution written by Derek Byerlee and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 1997 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for policymakers and scholars, the 15 contributions in this volume are divided into two sections: the first provides six country case studies of the evolving maize economies of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. The second part synthesizes major technological, institutional, and policy issues with chapters on research and extension, soil fertility, seed and fertilizer delivery systems, and marketing and price policy. Paper edition (754-0), $29.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Save and Grow written by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2018-06-22 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.
Download or read book Farming Systems and Poverty written by John A. Dixon and published by Food & Agriculture Org.. This book was released on 2001 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.
Download or read book Proven Successes in Agricultural Development written by David J. Spielman and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 648 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world has made enormous progress in the past 50 years toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. While, in 1960, roughly 30 percent of the world's population suffered from hunger and malnutrition, today less than 20 percent doessome five billion people now have enough food to live healthy, productive lives. Agricultural development has contributed significantly to these gains by increasing food supplies, reducing food prices, and creating new income and employment opportunities for some of the world's poorest people.This book examines where, why, and how past interventions in agricultural development have succeeded. It carefully reviews the policies, programs, and investments in agricultural development that have reduced hunger and poverty across Africa, Asia, and Latin America over the past half century. The 19 successes included here are described in in-depth case studies that synthesize the evidence on the intervention's impact on agricultural productivity and food security, evaluate the rigor with which the evidence was collected, and assess the tradeoffs inherent in each success. Together, these chapters provide evidence of "what works" in agricultural development.
