Browsing by Author "Giller, Ken E."

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  • Contested Agronomy: Agricultural Research in a Changing World
    (New York, NY: Routledge, 2012)
    Challenges to food security have renewed interest in agricultural research, in which agronomy is a core element. The editors of this book seek to contextualize the production, validation, communication and use of agronomic knowledge through a political analysis of agronomic research which they label political agronomy. In doing so, they aim to understand the incentives, prioritizations, and perspectives of agronomic research as it faces contestation in peer-reviewed journals, in public critique from organizations, and in national and subnational committees. Chapters provide case studies which portray the value of a political agronomy perspective in the analysis of agricultural development, highlighting issues such as conservation agriculture, rice intensification, and biofortification.
  • Failing to yield? Ploughs, Conservation Agriculture and the problem of agricultural intensification: An example from the Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe
    Baudron, Frédéric; Andersson, Jens A.; Corbeels, Marc; Giller, Ken E. (Routledge, 2012)
    Two agricultural intensification policies currently have a foothold in Southern Africa: intensification by plough-based, animal integrated practices and intensification by conservation agricultural practices including natural resource management. The former ideology originated from colonialism while the latter is currently promoted by nongovernmental organizations and development agencies. However, analysis on farmer knowledge relating to both of these practices reveals a predisposition towards extensification, or the farming on more land and using more resources to increase yields, instead of intensification. Other factors include limited cash, elevated risks, fluctuations in labor availability, and high input prices. Interestingly, the authors cite reliance on purely technical fixes, the disregarding of local or placed-based knowledge, and ultimately the lack of innovation on the side of researchers, development agencies, and policy-makers as the true reasons why Africa farmers are "failing to yield."