scholarly journals Revisiting the link between cereal diversity and production in Ethiopia

Q Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Groom ◽  
Francisco Pereira Fontes

Abstract Studies show that cereal diversity positively affects mean yields, suggesting increased crop diversity as a means of increasing production (Di Falco and Chavas 2009, Baumg¨artner and Quaas 2010). In practice though, agricultural development has relied on non- diverse systems. Using the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey panel we revisit this para- dox and disentangle the effects of agro-ecological zones and composition of crop diversity. We find a positive effect of greater cereal diversity on cereal production, but mostly in specific agro-ecological zones and for households who diversify away from a particular low- productivity crop: teff. These results indicate that the scope of cereal diversity to drive increases in output may be limited. Similar to recent studies of biodiversity—ecosystem function relationships (e.g. Jochum et al., 2020), the results suggest that the composition of diverse systems can be more important than the measured diversity itself. In the case of cereal crops in Ethiopia, differences in the yields of particular cereals in the crop mix explain the diversity effect, rather than diversity alone. Since some combinations of crops add to productivity but others do not, productivity related crop choice may not guarantee in situ conservation of crop-diversity on its own. Alternative conservation solutions may well be needed for that.

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (4II) ◽  
pp. 515-532
Author(s):  
Muhammad Azeem Khan ◽  
Tahir Rehman

Pakistan is deficient in major food products. Self-sufficiency in food has virtually always been a major priority, because imports of wheat, edible oil, sugar, pulses and milk products put a massive burden on the balance of payments for the country. The increase in the production of oilseed has been a priority goal of the agricultural development policy in Pakistan. The oilseed crops have been validated as alternative crops on several target locations of different agro-ecological zones [PARC (1990)]; but the success of this validation work in terms of their dissemination is very limited. The possibility of including these crops in well established systems needed to be well conceived. The selection of farming systems, which have the potential to adopt such crops, is a prerequisite to investigate the problems and prospects of oilseed crops.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (11) ◽  
pp. 2553-2561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Hamann ◽  
Pia Smets ◽  
Alvin D Yanchuk ◽  
Sally N Aitken

We present a comprehensive approach to carry out community-wide assessments of in situ conservation of forest trees based on basic botanical and ecological data. This is a first step, resulting in a consistent framework to set priorities for collection and inclusion of species- specific biological and genetic information. We use botanical sample data to generate high-resolution distribution maps as a basis for a gap analysis of how well each species is represented in protected areas. To account for adaptive genetic variation of tree species we stratify populations by ecological zones that represent different macroclimates. In a detailed example for Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), we show that under certain conditions this approach can pinpoint gaps at the level of genetically differentiated populations without actually using genetic data. In a comprehensive case study, evaluating the outcome of a major protected area expansion between 1991 and 2001 for British Columbia, we demonstrate how extensive results from a community-wide GIS analysis can be summarized and presented for decision-making. We provide methods to identify and efficiently cope with in situ conservation gaps, where lack of data or low protected area coverage requires additional conservation efforts or collection of better data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Lestari Rustiati ◽  
Priyambodo Priyambodo ◽  
Yanti Yulianti ◽  
Eko Agus Srihanto ◽  
Dian Neli Pratiwi ◽  
...  

Way Kambas National Park (WKNP) is home of five protected big mammals including sumatran elephants.  It shares its border with 22 of 37 villages surrounding the national park.  Understanding their existence in the wild is a priority, and  wildlife genetics is a crucially needed. Besides poaching and habitat fragmentation, wildlife-human conflict is one big issue.  Elephant Training Center (ETC) in WKNP is built for semi in-situ conservation effort on captive sumatran elephants that mainly have conflict histories with local people.  Participative observation and bio-molecular analysis were conducted to learn the importance of captive Sumatran elephant for conservation effort.  Through captive sumatran elephants, database and applicable methods are expected to be developed supporting the conservation of their population in the wild.  Participative observation and molecular identification was carried on captive sumatran elephants in ETC, WKNP under multiple year Terapan grant of Ministry of Research and Technology Higher Education, Indonesia. Gene sequence and cytological analyses showed that the captive sumatran elephants are closely related and tend to be domesticated.  Translocation among ETC to avoid inbreeding, and maintaining the captive sumatran elephant as natural as possible are highly recommended. Developing genetic database can be a reference for both captive and wild sumatran elephants.


2013 ◽  
Vol 357-360 ◽  
pp. 2118-2121
Author(s):  
Ling Li Jia ◽  
Heng Cui

In the process of land consolidation in Chengdu Plain, Linpan protection is an important content. At present, some protection types of Linpan have been formed in Chengdu area, such as agriculture, rural tourism, special industry and settlement type and so on. Many protected modes were explored, such as the natural subsidies, in situ conservation, comprehensive development, off-site reconstruction, etc. But there are still some questions, do not pay attention to protect Linpan ecological pattern plate function transformation, the architectural style of hybrid, protection methods are not flexible, evaluation standard is not perfect, the public participation is not enough and other issues, these problems need to be continuously optimized and improved in the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6910
Author(s):  
Adil Dilawar ◽  
Baozhang Chen ◽  
Arfan Arshad ◽  
Lifeng Guo ◽  
Muhammad Irfan Ehsan ◽  
...  

Here, we provided a comprehensive analysis of long-term drought and climate extreme patterns in the agro ecological zones (AEZs) of Pakistan during 1980–2019. Drought trends were investigated using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at various timescales (SPEI-1, SPEI-3, SPEI-6, and SPEI-12). The results showed that droughts (seasonal and annual) were more persistent and severe in the southern, southwestern, southeastern, and central parts of the region. Drought exacerbated with slopes of −0.02, −0.07, −0.08, −0.01, and −0.02 per year. Drought prevailed in all AEZs in the spring season. The majority of AEZs in Pakistan’s southern, middle, and southwestern regions had experienced substantial warming. The mean annual temperature minimum (Tmin) increased faster than the mean annual temperature maximum (Tmax) in all zones. Precipitation decreased in the southern, northern, central, and southwestern parts of the region. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a robust increase in temperature extremes with a variance of 76% and a decrease in precipitation extremes with a variance of 91% in the region. Temperature and precipitation extremes indices had a strong Pearson correlation with drought events. Higher temperatures resulted in extreme drought (dry conditions), while higher precipitation levels resulted in wetting conditions (no drought) in different AEZs. In most AEZs, drought occurrences were more responsive to precipitation. The current findings are helpful for climate mitigation strategies and specific zonal efforts are needed to alleviate the environmental and societal impacts of drought.


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