Browsing by Author "United Nations Development Programme"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Conservation agriculture: Case studies in Latin America and Africa
    Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; United Nations Development Programme (FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 2001)
    The purpose of this publication is to show how conservation agriculture can increase crop production while reducing erosion and reversing soil fertility decline, improving rural livelihoods and restoring the environment in developing countries. Soil organic matter and biological activity in the rooting zone, stimulated by continual additions of fresh organic material (crop residues and cover crops) are the basis of conservation agriculture, as described in the first chapter.
  • International technical consultations on pastoral development: Conclusions - No. 2
    Office to Combat Desertification and Drought (UNSO); United Nations Development Programme (Tucson, Ariz.: Office of Arid Lands Studies, University of Arizona, 1996)
    This paper focuses on decentralization and empowerment, conflict resolution, and the provision of services to pastoral peoples. The 1990's have seen a renewed interest on the part of donors, governments and NGO's in pastoral development. This long awaited turn-around has been sparked by results of research and development efforts which show the sustainability and appropriateness of mobile pastoral systems to the ecological realities of drylands, by studies on the economic importance of extensive pastoral production in marginal lands, and by the increasing social, economic and environmental costs of neglect. --author's notes
  • Mucuna cover cropping: Benin
    United Nations Development Programme (Rome: United Nations Development Programme, 2001)
    In Benin, the soils of the southern plateaux have been under increasing pressure in recent years. As population density has increased, fallow periods have become too short to maintain soil productivity. The numerous smallholder farmers in the area have rarely used fertilizer and even when they have, the benefits have been reduced by a degraded soil resource base. One notable consequence of the reduced fallow periods has been the encroachment of Imperata cylindrica- an aggressive weed which requires substantial labour to eradicate by hand and which has forced farmers to abandon fields to fallow.
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    Rice self-sufficiency: Indonesia
    United Nations Development Programme (Rome: United Nations Development Program and the FAO, 2001)