Many local perennial plant genetic resources (P/PGR) are under threat due to over-exploitation, depletion, degradation, farmers’ favoring few cash crops, poor marketing conditions leading to low product prices along with the lack of knowledge about alternative uses and management strategies. Such processes often cause the underutilization and replacement of local P/PGR causing them to become neglected and underutilized species (NUS). The decline of species abundance may cause genetic erosion of these NUS crops and ...

Food security is still sub-optimal in many parts of West Africa calling for more efficient agricultural practices in mitigating food insecurity. Some of the problems faced in West African agricultural systems are bottlenecks in ruminant livestock supply, inefficiency in commercial poultry production, and loss of arthropod diversity. These issues require proper integration of farming systems, demand the closing of nutrient cycles, need diversi cation of production, and require enhancement of ecosystem services. To ...

Agricultural productivity of the millennia-old oasis agriculture in Oman is based on the continuous application of high rates of goat and sheep manure combined with flood irrigation. The high nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) turnover in these systems is a result of year-around high temperatures and continuous soil moisture, but knowledge is lacking on how N and C are transformed under these conditions. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the N movement in different soil N pools. To this end a field experiment was ...

Das Mahafaly Plateau im südwestlichen Madagaskar ist gekennzeichnet durch raue klimatische Bedingungen, vor allem regelmäßige Dürren und Trockenperioden, geringe Infrastruktur, steigende Unsicherheit, hohe Analphabetenrate und regelmäßige Zerstörung der Ernte durch Heuschreckenplagen. Da 97% der Bevölkerung von der Landwirtschaft abhängen, ist eine Steigerung der Produktivität von Anbausystemen die Grundlage für eine Verbesserung der Lebensbedingungen und Ernährungssicherheit in der Mahafaly Region. Da wenig über die ...

In most agroecosystems, nitrogen (N) is the most important nutrient limiting plant growth. One management strategy that affects N cycling and N use efficiency (NUE) is conservation agriculture (CA), an agricultural system based on a combination of minimum tillage, crop residue retention and crop rotation. Available results on the optimization of NUE in CA are inconsistent and studies that cover all three components of CA are scarce. Presently, CA is promoted in the Yaqui Valley in Northern Mexico, the country´s major ...

Agriculture in semi-arid and arid regions is constantly gaining importance for the security of the nutrition of humankind because of the rapid population growth. At the same time, especially these regions are more and more endangered by soil degradation, limited resources and extreme climatic conditions. One way to retain soil fertility under these conditions in the long run is to increase the soil organic matter. Thus, a two-year field experiment was conducted to test the efficiency of activated charcoal and quebracho ...

This research work aimed at investigating the physiological mechanisms of tolerance of pearl millet to low soil Phosphorus availability and drought under the Sahelian conditions.

Urban food production is an important supplier of fresh produce in the rapidly growing West African cities. In year-round vegetable production of the semi-arid tropics, low quality water is often use for irrigation. This results in health risks for producers and consumers, and causes environmental pollution, followed by soil contamination and crop yield reduction. In the presented PhD thesis quality and effects of irrigation water in urban vegetable gardens of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, were examined. The aim of these ...

Water and food security will be challenged by uncertainties related to changing climatic and socio-economic conditions triggered by urbanization. The present studies aimed at (a) investigating the effects of mineral fertilization and biochar amendment at two water quality and quantity levels on biomass production, plant nutrition, and soil moisture in vegetables with a focus on Tamale, (b) assessing nutrient losses via leaching and gaseous emissions and calculated nutrient balance and use efficiencies in Tamale and ...