Gender, Agriculture and Rural Development in the Information Society
Posted: 23 Apr 2008 05:06 PM CDT
Saturday 31 May 2008
Friday 30 May 2008
Knowledge sharing in agricultural research
Knowledge sharing in agricultural research
Posted: 29 May 2008 01:58 PM CDT
Thursday 29 May 2008
Tuesday 27 May 2008
African languages technology offers new opportunities for farmers' queries
Image via WikipediaAfrican languages technology offers new opportunities for farmers' queries
Posted: 26 May 2008 08:37 AM CDT
2008/05 - FARA Secretariat Blog
Sunday 25 May 2008
Saturday 24 May 2008
Monday 19 May 2008
New appointments at CABI in Knowledge for Development and Knowledge Management - 18 May 2008
New appointments at CABI in Knowledge for Development and Knowledge Management - 18 May 2008
CABI has appointed two new Global Directors to oversee our work in developing and managing knowledge. Dannie Romney has been appointed Global Director – Knowledge for Development and Elizabeth Dodsworth has been appointed Global Director
Sunday 18 May 2008
Monday 5 May 2008
Sunday 4 May 2008
Beginning / New Farmers
| Half of all current farmers in the U.S. are likely to retire in the next decade. Enlisting and supporting new farmers is essential to the future of family farms, the farm economy and healthy rural communities. | |||
| List of Alternative Crops and Enterprises for Small Farm Diversification USDA. NAL. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center. Detailed list of farming alternatives - crops, livestock, value-added enterprises, agritourism - currently utilized by U.S. farmers. Links to Extension and other farmer-friendly sources that help evaluate and start non-conventional farming enterprises are included. | ||||
| Evaluating a Rural Enterprise. Marketing and Business Guide National Center for Appropriate Technology. ATTRA - National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Summarizes selected enterprise planning guides about business, financial and marketing plans. Suggests helpful books, periodicals, Web sites and organizations. | ||||
| Informational Toolkit for Beginning Farmers Iowa State University. Cooperative Extension Service. Value Added Agriculture Program. General information about farm leases and farm management, new farmer loan programs, beginning farmer training programs, mentoring programs for beginning farmers and more specific information about developing agricultural business and marketing plans. Predominantly from Iowa, but additional resources from the upper Midwestern U.S. and Canada also included. | ||||
| Growing New Farmers New England Small Farm Institute. Programs, services and resources for new farmers in the 12 Northeast states and beyond. Includes: directory of programs and services for new farmers, reports about new farmers and their service needs, tools and resources for new farmers and for working with new farmers and programs/projects for new farmers. | ||||
| Beginning Farm Center Iowa State University. Cooperative Extension Service. Iowa resources for new farmers looking for support, land, training and contacts. | ||||
| National Farm Transition Network National Farm Transition Network. The network supports programs that foster the next generation of farmers and ranchers. Site includes information and state contacts for "Land Link" programs – programs that match retiring farmers/land with new farmers seeking land and support. | ||||
| USDA Service Center Agencies Online Services United States Department of Agriculture. USDA service agency contacts, tools and eforms for farmers from the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rural Development. Specific services include loans and mortgages, payment options, real estate sales and Farm Bill tools. | ||||
Livestock dominates agric sector
SEROWE - Livestock production is reported to be dominating the agricultural sector though pastoral farming was in the past bedeviled by frequent droughts and diseases.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Dr Motshudi Raborokgwe, said the livestock sub-sector contributed about 80 per cent of the agriculture’s share of Gross Domestic Product.
He said at the Sandveld Ranchers Association farmers’ field day at Xarojena ranch over the weekend that Botswana was likely to remain heavily dependent on livestock production as a source of food, income, employment and as an investment opportunity.
He mentioned the beef sector’s strong linkages with the BMC, which is entrusted with export monopoly, adding the commission was faced with challenges that include the outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD), the European Union requirements (EU) on beef sale, the age of the plant and low throughput.
BMC has the capacity to slaughter 1 200 cattle a day but he said it only managed 650, which is 54 per cent capacity utilisation, with the same cost of slaughtering 1 200 cattle. He blamed the situation on some factors, erratic arrival of cattle.
Another challenge, according to Dr Raborokgwe, was that of low weights.
“Animals are received in very poor conditions and our markets prefer cuts from animals that weigh more than 200kg,” he said.
He however said the national herd was valued at more than P2 billion. Though BMC is a business competing internationally, it is unable to recruit the best personnel in the market because of salary constraints.
“We are not able to compete with the mines and the private sector in
Dr Raborokgwe said citing other obstacles outside the BMC such as low productivity of the national herd, difficulties for farmers to get permits to sell to the commission and rampant FMD outbreaks. He complained about poor physical infrastructure that supports the beef industry.
“The capital costs to start livestock farming are very high, especially when utilities like water, telecommunication and electricity are not supplied,” he added.
Dr Raborokgwe termed selling to the BMC a hassle because a farmer has to coordinate transport, go through the veterinary officers and the police before accessing the commission.
“Consumers who buy our beef are worried about the welfare and environmental issues”, saying the commission has to meet their demands before they buy beef.
Saturday 3 May 2008
Dual-purpose canola—a new opportunity in mixed farming systems
Dual-purpose canola—a new opportunity in mixed farming systems
The term dual-purpose canola describes the use of a canola crop for forage before seed production. It could potentially provide a profitable and flexible break-crop option for mixed farms, but there have been no studies to test the concept in Australia. We investigated the feasibility of using canola in this way in field experiments near Canberra, Australia, from 2004 to 2006, using European winter and mid–late maturing Australian spring canola varieties. Winter varieties sown from early March to mid-April produced 2.5–5.0 t/ha of biomass providing 0.3–3.5 t/ha of high-quality forage grazed by sheep in winter. The spring varieties produced similar amounts of vegetative biomass from April sowing but were unsuited to the earlier March sowing as they flowered in early winter and did not recover from grazing. The canola forage was readily eaten by sheep; alkane-based estimates of diet composition indicated that >85% of the organic matter intake consisted of canola. Canola forage was also highly digestible (86–88%) and Merino hoggets grew at 210 g/day from a dry matter intake of 1530 g DM/day. The canola generally recovered well when grazed in winter before bud elongation. Delays in flowering associated with heavy grazing ranged from 0 to 4 days when grazed before buds were visible, to 28 days if the crop had commenced flowering. Significant delays in flowering (>14 days) associated with winter grazing did not reduce seed yield or oil content when favourable spring conditions allowed compensatory growth. Yield loss was observed when winter and spring conditions were unfavourable for compensatory growth, or if grazing continued too late into spring (late September) irrespective of seasonal conditions. The yield loss was more than offset by the value of the grazed forage and the mean gross margin for dual-purpose canola over the four experiments was $240 to $500 higher than for grain-only canola depending on the value assumed for the forage. The study indicates there is considerable scope to capture value from grazing early-sown canola crops during winter without significant, uneconomic trade-offs with seed yield. Further investigations in other medium to high rainfall environments in southern Australia are warranted.
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