scholarly journals A Typology-Based Approach for Assessing Qualities and Determinants of Adoption of Sustainable Water Use Technologies in Coping with Context Diversity: The Case of Mechanized Raised-Bed Technology in Egypt

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5428
Author(s):  
Quang Bao Le ◽  
Boubaker Dhehibi

Mechanized raised-bed technology (MRBT) is recognized as an important measure to achieve higher crop productivity and water-use efficiency in intensive irrigated systems. Development efforts on spreading this technology require adequate understanding of the qualities and drivers of farmers’ adoption of MRBT. Research in agricultural innovation adoption has identified the importance of the socio-ecological context (SEC) that influences the livelihood of farmers adopting new technologies. This study introduces an agricultural livelihood systems (ALS) typology-based approach for guiding concrete analytical steps and statistical methods in evaluating the effects of system SEC diversity in two Egyptian governorates. We objectively classify a population of sampled farming households into a limited number of ALS types and use inferential statistics for the whole sampled population and individual ALS types to discover adoption drivers. Values added by the ALS approach confirm the widespread role of common determinants of MRBT adoption across ALS types, household groups subject to the effects MRBT, and show new causal effects. The presented advanced approach and empirical findings will be useful for enhancing targeting and out-scaling of MRBT practices toward achieving sustainable agricultural water uses at scale.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Muhammad Zeeshan Mehmood ◽  
Ghulam Qadir ◽  
Obaid Afzal ◽  
Mohamed Ali Awale ◽  
Rana Numan Ashraf

Rice is the major staple food for billions of people worldwide. It has the social and economic impacts on people lives. Water scarcity is one of the major challenges to rice production and ultimately food security globally. For food security, it is important to explore efficient rice production technology that uses less water. Therefore, in the modern agriculture focus has been shifted towards development of water saving technologies. These methods include direct seeding, alternate wetting and drying, aerobic rice systems, use of mulches etc. These techniques reduce the water requirements and can enhance water use efficiency (W.U.E) of rice. However, yield may be compromised with these techniques, but research has been carried out to reduce yield losses and water use. Biotechnology and breeding approaches are being used to develop rice verities with drought tolerance, improved water use efficiency etc. Development and adoption of these technologies will shift the rice production from anaerobic to completely or partially aerobic systems. These techniques may reduce the water losses. In Pakistan famers are willing to adopt new technologies; however there is a need of dissemination and demonstration to adopt these technologies at farmer level to enhance crop productivity and water use efficiency. Innovative research approaches are required to fill the gaps in technological innovations and adoption


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 822-832
Author(s):  
Halim Mahmud Bhuyan ◽  
Most. Razina Ferdousi ◽  
Mohammad Toufiq Iqbal ◽  
Ahmed Khairul Hasan

Utilization of urea super granule (USG) with raised bed cultivation system for transplanted boro (winter, irrigated) rice production is a major concern now days. A field experiment was conducted in the chuadanga district of Bangladesh to compare the two cultivation methods: deep placement of USG on raised bed with boro rice, and prilled urea (PU) broadcasting in conventional planting. Results showed that USG in raised bed planting increased grain yields of transplanted boro rice by up to 18.18% over PU in conventional planting. Deep placement of USG in raised bed planting increased the number of panicle m-2, number of grains panicle-1 and 1000-grains weight of boro rice than the PU in conventional planting. Better plant growth was observed by deep placement of USG in raised bed planting compared to PU in conventional planting. Sterility percentage and weed infestation were lower on USG in raised bed planting compared to the PU in conventional planting methods. Forty seven percent irrigation water and application time could be saved by USG in raised bed planting than PU in conventional planting. Deep placement of USG in bed saved N fertilizer consumption over conventional planting. Water use efficiency for grain and biomass production was higher with deep placement of USG in bed planting than the PU broadcasting in conventional planting methods. Similarly, agronomic efficiency of N fertilizer by USG in bed planting was significantly higher than the PU broadcasting in conventional planting. This study concluded that deep placement of USG in raised bed planting for transplanted boro rice is a new approach to achieve fertilizer and water use efficiency as well as higher yield and less water input compared to existing agronomic practices in Bangladesh.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1926 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiferaw Feleke ◽  
Steven Michael Cole ◽  
Haruna Sekabira ◽  
Rousseau Djouaka ◽  
Victor Manyong

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has applied the concept of ‘circular bioeconomy’ to design solutions to address the degradation of natural resources, nutrient-depleted farming systems, hunger, and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over the past decade, IITA has implemented ten circular bioeconomy focused research for development (R4D) interventions in several countries in the region. This article aims to assess the contributions of IITA’s circular bioeconomy focused innovations towards economic, social, and environmental outcomes using the outcome tracking approach, and identify areas for strengthening existing circular bioeconomy R4D interventions using the gap analysis method. Data used for the study came from secondary sources available in the public domain. Results indicate that IITA’s circular bioeconomy interventions led to ten technological innovations (bio-products) that translated into five economic, social, and environmental outcomes, including crop productivity, food security, resource use efficiency, job creation, and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Our gap analysis identified eight gaps leading to a portfolio of five actions needed to enhance the role of circular bioeconomy in SSA. The results showcase the utility of integrating a circular bioeconomy approach in R4D work, especially how using such an approach can lead to significant economic, social, and environmental outcomes. The evidence presented can help inform the development of a framework to guide circular bioeconomy R4D at IITA and other research institutes working in SSA. Generating a body of evidence on what works, including the institutional factors that create enabling environments for circular bioeconomy approaches to thrive, is necessary for governments and donors to support circular bioeconomy research that will help solve some of the most pressing challenges in SSA as populations grow and generate more waste, thus exacerbating a changing climate using the linear economy model.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Karthik ◽  
M. Uma Maheswari

Food security is one of the major concerns for all developing countries of the world. Even though we had attained the highest food production with the use of new technologies, we may not able to feed the burgeoning population adequately in coming years due to stagnant crop productivity. Natural source of nutrients like organic manures and external source of nutrients, viz. fertilizers, are considered as the two eyes in plant nutrient management. Nutrient use efficiency of fertilizer is very low due to numerous pathways of losses such as leaching, denitrification, microbial immobilization, fixation and runoff. It has been estimated that around 40-70% of nitrogen, 80-90% of phosphorus, 50-70% of potassium and more than 95% of micronutrient content of applied fertilizers are lost in to the environment and results in pollution (Kanjana, 2017). Smart fertilizers like slow and controlled release fertilizers, nanofertilizers and bioformulation fertilizers are the new technologies to enhance the nutrient use efficiency their by improving crop yield in sustainable manner. The use of slow and controlled release fertilizers increase nutrient use efficiency, minimize the risks like leaf burning, water contamination and eutrophication. Nano-fertilizers are the nano-particles-based fertilizers, where supply of the nutrients is made precisely for maximum plant growth, have higher use efficiency, exploiting plant unavailable nutrients in the rhizosphere and can be delivered on real time basis into the rhizosphere or by foliar spray (Priyanka Solangi et al., 2015). The small size, high specific surface area and reactivity of nano fertilizers increase the solubility, diffusion and availability of nutrients to plants and enhance crop productivity. Bioformulation is microbial preparations containing specific beneficial microorganisms which are capable of fixing or solubilizing or mobilizing plant nutrients for promoting plant growth and crop yield. Smart fertilizers are the better option for the farmers to increase their crop yield with low input cost in sustainable way without degrading natural environment.


2008 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 303 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Young ◽  
P.-J. Derham ◽  
F. X. Dunin ◽  
A. L. Bernardi ◽  
S. Harden

We report exceptional productivity and associated water-use efficiency across seasons for commercial crops of rainfed spring wheat and grain sorghum growing on stored soil water in Vertosols on the Liverpool Plains, central-eastern Australia. Agreement between the independently measured terms of evapotranspiration (ET) and the soil water balance (in-crop rainfall + δsoil water) was achieved within acceptable uncertainty across almost all measurement intervals, to provide a reliable dataset for the analysis of growth and water-use relationships without the confounding influence of water outflow either overland or within the soil. Post-anthesis intrinsic transpiration efficiency (kc ) values of 4.7 and 7.2 Pa for wheat and sorghum, respectively, and grain yields of 8 and 7 t/ha from ET of 450 and 442 mm (1.8 and 1.6 g/m2.mm), clearly demonstrate the levels of productivity and water-use efficiency possible for well-managed crops within an intensive and productive response cropping sequence. The Vertosols in which the crops were grown enabled rapid and apparently unconstrained delivery of significant quantities of subsoil water (34% and 51% of total available) after anthesis, which enabled a doubling of pre-anthesis standing biomass and harvest indices of almost 50%. Durum wheat planted into only 0.30 m of moist soil and enduring lower than average seasonal rainfall, yielded less biomass and grain (2.3 t/ha) with lower water-use efficiency (0.95 g/m2.mm) but larger transpiration efficiency, probably due to reduced stomatal conductance. We argue that crop planting in response to stored soil water and management for high water-use efficiency to achieve high levels of average productivity of crop sequences over time can have a significant effect on both increased productivity and enhanced hydrological stability across alluvial landscapes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 836-845
Author(s):  
Rinki Khobra ◽  
Ashutosh Srivastava ◽  
Pinky Raigond ◽  
Alka Joshi ◽  
Som Dutt ◽  
...  

Climate change threatens the global agriculture sustainability. Among different kinds of abiotic stresses, water stress is the most devastating component which curtails potato crop productivity. Our recent knowledge is limited concerning water stress tolerance and water use efficiency in potato. Many efforts are being made by the scientific community to reduce water use and to produce “more crop per drop”. This review elaborates quantitative and qualitative aspects of multiple stress mechanisms and their regulating system related to present scenario of water use efficiency (WUE) requirements. WUE can only be improved by using multidisciplinary promising research approaches like molecular breeding, high throughput genotyping, multi-gene transfer and bioinformatics applications to unleash the information needed to exploitation of required traits in potato.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-231
Author(s):  
Wajid Ali Shahani ◽  
Feng Kaiwen ◽  
Aslam Memon

The crop productivity in Pakistan is very low as majority of the farmers are still practicing traditional farming techniques. The existing crop production technologies do not offer effective and efficient utilization of natural resources, particularly that of water. Moreover, a significant amount of irrigation water is wasted due to uneven fields and ditches. Unevenness of the soil surface also has a major impact on the germination, stand and yield of crops through nutrient water interaction and salt and soil moisture distribution pattern. Therefore, the water use efficiency along with yield per acre could be increase by adopting resource conservation technologies like laser leveling. A sample of 120 growers including 60 wheat growers and 60 cotton growers were selected from Mirpurkhas & Tando Allahyar districts of Sindh province of Pakistan. Study results revealed that about 21 percent irrigation water saved by the adoption of laser leveling technology and also obtained higher yield and profit margins comparatively. Study concluded that adoption of laser leveling technology helps in reducing the farm input costs, improve water use efficiency and enhance crop productivity.


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