Cognitive tools to support learning about farming system management: a case study in grazing systems

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel Duru ◽  
Roger Martin-Clouaire

The complex challenge of farm management has prompted a search for ways in which scientific knowledge can be acquired and combined with practical know-how and experience to enhance the adaptability, profitability and environmental soundness of agricultural systems. Cognitive tools offer a kind of model-based learning support that facilitates and stimulates critical thinking about the functioning of agricultural production processes and the ways to control them in various and changing situations. The purpose of this paper is to delineate, illustrate and analyse the concept of cognitive tool together with the learning process and conditions in which such a tool would be used. We review three such tools built to help understand, improve, adapt or design grazing management practices in pasture-based livestock farms. For each of them we examine the knowledge content of the tool, the way it is represented, the kind of use and the nature of the support it provides to its users.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Ana Muñoz ◽  
Víctor López ◽  
Vanessa Díaz

The present work aims to propose a model of knowledge management for agricultural teaching based on ontologies. Through identification of the business model, business processes, intellectual capital and ontologies, the relationships between each of the parts of the model are described, and the technological elements that support it are presented. From the point of view of knowledge management and ontologies, the model that guides the innovative university is developed, where Santa Lucía Campus of the Universidad Politécnica Territorial de Mérida (UPTM) is the case study. This model describes the elements that define the knowledge of an Agricultural Production Unit from the university, so that it can incorporate the know-how of knowledge management and collaborative learning articulated with ICT applied to educational-productive management in the agricultural sector. Ontology is used as the main mechanism to represent knowledge, defining within a context or domain the meaning of the terms and their relationships. Through the model the technological bases and knowledge necessary in the teaching of agriculture in a university nucleus are structured.Keywords: Ontology, Knowledge Management, Agro-business, Business Model. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khamphou Phouyyavong ◽  
Shinsuke Tomita ◽  
Satoshi Yokoyama

Lao smallholders are experiencing livestock grazing land constraints due to resettlement, increasing cattle numbers and commercial cash crop plantations. In this paper we describe changes in cattle grazing systems in an upland village in northern Laos, including the role of forage crops and their effects on cattle productivity. We interviewed 92 Hmong and Khmu households about their migration history, cattle grazing practices, cattle productivity and other livelihood activities. In addition, we measured the heart girths of 231 cattle. We found that the traditional free-range cattle grazing has diverged into three distinct systems incorporating fields fenced to different degrees. Although none of the three systems increased cattle body size, the forage pasture and swidden-farming system successfully increased the grazing capacity compared with other systems. Thus, this method appeared to be the most suitable for Hmong smallholders to manage crop and cattle production in the context of land constraints. Efforts should be made to examine how the newly implemented systems could attenuate villager livelihood and pre-emptively address the problems associated with degrading fallow land.


Author(s):  
J. Hodgson

Recent assessments of the relative importance of stocking rate. stocking policy and grazing management on the output from pastoral systems are used as a starting point to argue the need for objective pasture assessments to aid control of livestock enterprises to meet production targets. Variations in stocking rates, stocking policy and other management practices all provide alternative means of control of pasture conditions which are the major determinants of pasture and animal performance. Understanding of the influence of pasture conditions on systems performance should provide a better basis for management control and for Communication between farmers, extension officers and researchers. Keywords: Stocking rate, pasture condition, pasture cover


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