scholarly journals Apical Rooted Cuttings Revolutionize Seed Potato Production by Smallholder Farmers in the Tropics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter VanderZaag ◽  
Tung Xuan Pham ◽  
Victoria Escobar Demonteverde ◽  
Cynthia Kiswa ◽  
Monica Parker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Culture ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Late Blight Resistance ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Rooted Cuttings ◽  
Income Levels ◽  
Mother Plants ◽  
Young Stage ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
New Cultivars

Potato apical rooted cuttings (ARC) originating from juvenile simple rounded leaf mother plants are a significant new way of transplanting and field growing of seed potatoes under smallholder field conditions in the tropical highlands. The aim of this paper is to highlight the development of the technology by researchers and farmers in Vietnam, Philippines, Kenya and Uganda. The development of cultivars with late blight resistance for which no source of tuber seed was available stimulated the creation of using ARC. The demystification of tissue culture by the 1980s greatly aided this development. The key hurdle was to multiply tissue culture plants in beds of growing media and maintain the physiological young stage of the mother plants from which apical cuttings could be repeatedly taken for several months to produce ARC for sale to farmers who demanded the new cultivars (cvs) with all the desirable attributes. The technology was first developed in warmer climates at lower elevations of less than 1,500 meters above mean sea level (mamsl) but gradually it was successfully developed at cooler climates in East Africa. The technology is well established in the highlands of Vietnam and Philippines. The largest family operation is producing over 4 million ARC annually. These high-quality ARC along with improved cvs have markedly improved yields of smallholder farmers, improving food security and increasing their income levels. In Kenya and Uganda there is a rapid adoption of ARC by seed producers, smallholder farmers and youths. The ARC revolution is bringing a great deal of excitement and promise of prosperity to remote poor highland communities.

Does cooperative membership impact the yield and efficiency of smallholder farmers? Evidence from potato farmers in Mongolia

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ahado ◽  
Jiří Hejkrlík ◽  
Anudari Enkhtur ◽  
Tserendavaa Tseren ◽  
Tomáš Ratinger
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Irrigation Management ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Farm Work ◽  
Agricultural Cooperative ◽  
Education Participation ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on potato production and technical efficiency.Design/methodology/approachA combination of propensity score matching technique and sample selection stochastic frontier framework that addresses potential selection bias due to observable and unobservable attributes is used to estimate the effect of participation between cooperative members and non-members. Using a stochastic meta-frontier approach, the technical efficiency of farmers was estimated and compared.FindingsThe empirical results show that the effect of participation in agricultural cooperatives is associated with increased yield and technical efficiency. A comparison of group-specific frontiers indicates that cooperative members perform better than non-members. Cooperative membership decisions is significantly associated with household and farm characteristics (e.g. education, participation in off-farm work, total farmland, distance to market and geographic location).Practical implicationsThe findings of this study demonstrate that cooperative organisations can be an important tool to enhance the productivity and efficiency of smallholder farmers. Successful cooperative models together with training programs designed to enlighten farmers on the importance and tangible benefits of collective action should be used to enlarge participation in cooperative organisations. In addition, governments and development agencies should implement targeted investment and capacity building programs related to irrigation management, gender-sensitive awareness and development of the internal institutional mechanisms in cooperatives for the transfer of knowledge and mutual learning so that all members benefit from cooperatives.Originality/valueDespite the pervasive evidence of the impact of cooperatives on productivity and technical efficiency in the Asian region, this study is probably the first attempt in the crop sector in Mongolia. It provides a rigorous empirical analysis of the impact of agricultural cooperative membership on potato production and technical efficiency through a counterfactual design.

scholarly journals Interploid Hybridizations in Ornamental Cherries Using Prunus maackii

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-92
Author(s):  
Margaret Pooler ◽  
Hongmei Ma ◽  
David Kidwell-Slak
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Tissue Culture ◽  
Cold Hardiness ◽  
Diploid Species ◽  
Pest Resistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tetraploid Species ◽  
Genetic Base ◽  
Flowering Cherry ◽  
New Cultivars

The United States National Arboretum has an ongoing flowering cherry (Prunus) breeding program aimed at broadening the genetic base of cultivated ornamental cherries by developing new cultivars with disease and pest resistance, tolerance to environmental stresses, and superior ornamental characteristics. Interploid crosses, specifically 2X × 4X, in ornamental Prunus would be beneficial in breeding because they could allow introgression of traits not available in the diploid germplasm (pest resistance, cold hardiness), and could result in the creation of seedless triploids that would not set nuisance fruit and possibly have extended bloom durations. This report documents successful hybridization of P. maackii (Manchurian or Amur cherry), a tetraploid species, with P. campanulata, P. ‘Umineko’, and P. maximowiczii, all diploid species. Chromosomes of one of these resulting triploid hybrids were successfully doubled using oryzalin in tissue culture to create a hexaploid plant.

scholarly journals Forage-Fed Insects as Food and Feed Source: Opportunities and Constraints of Edible Insects in the Tropics

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Andrea Espitia Buitrago ◽  
Luis Miguel Hernández ◽  
Stefan Burkart ◽  
Neil Palmer ◽  
Juan Andrés Cardoso Arango
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Insect Species ◽  
Edible Insects ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Tropical Forages ◽  
Insects As Food ◽  
The Tropics

Farmed insects can provide an alternative protein source for humans, livestock, and fish, while supporting adaptation to climate change, generating income for smallholder farmers, and reducing the negative impacts of conventional food production, especially in the tropics. However, the quantity, nutritional quality and safety of insects greatly relies on their feed intake. Tropical forages (grasses and legumes) can provide a valuable and yet untapped source of feed for several farmed insect species. In this perspective paper, we provide a viewpoint of how tropical forages can support edible insect production. We also highlight the potential of tropical forage-based diets over those using organic agricultural or urban by-product substrates, due to their versatility, low cost, and lower risk of microbial and chemical hazards. The main bottlenecks relate to dependence on the small number of farmed insect species, and in public policy and market frameworks regarding the use of edible insects as food, feed and in industrial processes. This perspective will serve interested stakeholders in identifying urgent issues at the research, ethical, marketing and policy levels that can prevent the emergence of new, insect-based value chains and business models, and the nutritional, economic and environmental benefits they promise.

The Semi-Market and Semi-Subsistence Household: The Evidence and Test of Smallholder Behavior

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Vance
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Profit Maximization ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Land Use Decisions ◽  
Strong Focus ◽  
Staple Foods ◽  
Profit Maximizing ◽  
The Tropics

Understanding household farming behavior among smallholders is an essential element of land-change studies inasmuch as a considerable portion of the world is dominated by land-users of this kind. Smallholders (peasants in some literature) are especially important within the tropical forests of Mexico, and the southern Yucatán peninsular region is no exception. This region, as elsewhere in the tropics, is characterized by underdeveloped markets and the consequent partial engagement of frontier farmers as market participants. Sparse exchange opportunities resulting from remoteness, low population density, and poorly developed infrastructure constrain these farmers to maintain a strong focus on consumption production, especially in terms of staple foods. Indeed, until the late 1960s, households in the region were totally subsistence-based and had virtually no experience with the agricultural market. Today, smallholder farmers retain consumption production, though a growing proportion also produce crops for sale. While this dual position in the market and in subsistence is an increasingly prevalent feature of smallholder farmers throughout the developing world, studies of deforestation commonly ascribe to them a wholly commercial orientation by employing profit-maximizing theoretical structures as a basis for econometrically modeling their land-use decisions (e.g. Chomitz and Gray 1996; Cropper, Griffiths, and Mani 1999; Cropper, Puri, and Griffiths 2001; Nelson, Harris, and Stone 2001; Nelson and Hellerstein 1997; Panayotou and Sungsuwan 1994; Pfaff 1999). In essence, the assertion of profit-maximization rests on the assumption that agents are fully engaged in markets, from which it follows that production, being strictly a function of farm technology and exogenously given input and output prices, is entirely independent of consumption and labor supply (Barnum and Squire 1979). This chapter explores the implications of relaxing the perfect-markets assumption for the modeling of semi-subsistence and commercial land-use decisions. By introducing variables measuring the consumption side of the colonist household, evidence is presented to suggest that, consistent with mixed or hybrid production themes (e.g. Singh, Squire, and Strauss 1986; Turner and Brush 1987), farmers operating in a context of thin product and/or labor markets do not exhibit behavior corresponding to that of a commercially oriented profit-maximizing farm.

The History of Cacao and Its Diseases in the Americas

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (10) ◽  
pp. 1604-1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge R. Díaz-Valderrama ◽  
Santos T. Leiva-Espinoza ◽  
M. Catherine Aime
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Breeding Programs ◽  
Center Of Origin ◽  
Republican Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Broom Disease ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Frosty Pod Rot

Cacao is a commodity crop from the tropics cultivated by about 6 million smallholder farmers. The tree, Theobroma cacao, originated in the Upper Amazon where it was domesticated ca. 5450 to 5300 B.P. From this center of origin, cacao was dispersed and cultivated in Mesoamerica as early as 3800 to 3000 B.P. After the European conquest of the Americas (the 1500s), cacao cultivation intensified in several loci, primarily Mesoamerica, Trinidad, Venezuela, and Ecuador. It was during the colonial period that cacao diseases began emerging as threats to production. One early example is the collapse of the cacao industry in Trinidad in the 1720s, attributed to an unknown disease referred to as the “blast”. Trinidad would resurface as a production center due to the discovery of the Trinitario genetic group, which is still widely used in breeding programs around the world. However, a resurgence of diseases like frosty pod rot during the republican period (the late 1800s and early 1900s) had profound impacts on other centers of Latin American production, especially in Venezuela and Ecuador, shifting the focus of cacao production southward, to Bahia, Brazil. Production in Bahia was, in turn, dramatically curtailed by the introduction of witches’ broom disease in the late 1980s. Today, most of the world’s cacao production occurs in West Africa and parts of Asia, where the primary Latin American diseases have not yet spread. In this review, we discuss the history of cacao cultivation in the Americas and how that history has been shaped by the emergence of diseases.

scholarly journals Assessment of the usefulness of selected media used in the rooting process of lavender cotton shoot cuttings

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-200
Author(s):  
Stanisława Szczepaniak ◽  
Zdzisław Guzikowski ◽  
Monika Henschke
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Mineral Soil ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Rooted Cuttings ◽  
Mother Plants ◽  
Medium Type

Abstract Lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus L.) shoot cuttings, obtained from two-year-old mother plants, were rooted in five different media under an unheated foil tunnel. Two ready-made and widely recommended media were used: Hartmann peat substrate and Ceres peat-coconut substrate, as well as three prepared mixtures: high peat + mineral soil, high peat + perlite and high peat + sand. The influence of medium type on the number of rooted cuttings and the quality of the root system was assessed for two cultivation times during a three-year study after eight weeks from the date of cutting. As far as the ready-made rooting substrates are concerned, Ceres peat-coconut substrate turned out to be better when compared with the Hartmann substrate. The number of high quality rooted cuttings was larger when media containing high peat mixed with either mineral soil or sand were used in comparison with the mixture of high peat and perlite.

TISSUE CULTURE BANANA (MUSA SPP.) FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS: LESSONS LEARNT FROM EAST AFRICA

2013 ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Dubois ◽  
Y. Dusabe ◽  
M. Lule ◽  
P. Van Asten ◽  
D. Coyne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Culture ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Musa Spp ◽  
Lessons Learnt

scholarly journals Heritability for Yield and Glycoalkaloid Content in Potato Breeding under Warm Environments

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel A. Gastelo Benavides ◽  
Luis Diaz ◽  
Gabriela Burgos ◽  
Thomas Zum Felde ◽  
Merideth Bonierbale
Keyword(s):  
Tuber Yield ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Narrow Sense ◽  
Narrow Sense Heritability ◽  
Glycoalkaloid Content ◽  
High Heritability ◽  
Heat Tolerant ◽  
Broadsense Heritability ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractHigh temperatures affect potato production in the tropics, putting tuber yield and quality at risk and leading to increased glycoalkaloid concentration the cause of the bitter taste in potatoes and a cause for concern for human health. The International Potato Center (CIP), has developed new heat tolerant clones which are heat tolerant and also resistant to late blight. These clones offer an opportunity to evaluate yield and glycoalkaloid levels after growth under high temperature environments. We evaluated four sets of 16 full-sib families and 20 clones for tuber yield and glycoalkaloid content in order to estimate narrow-sense and broad-sense heritability respectively. We used a randomized complete block design replicated in three locations in Peru; San Ramon, La Molina and Majes At harvest, the number and weight of marketable and nonmarketable tubers were recorded. We analyzed samples of tubers from each clone for glycoalkaloid content using spectrophotometry. Narrow-sense heritability for tuber yield, tuber number and average tuber weight were 0.41, 0.50 and 0.83, respectively, indicating that further gains in breeding for heat tolerance will be possible. Broadsense heritability for glycoalkaloid content was 0.63 and correlation with tuber yield was weak, r=0.33 and R²=0.11 (P<0.01). High heritability and weak correlation will allow us to select clones with high tuber yield and low glycoalkaloid content, to serve as candidate varieties and parents in breeding programs.

Vietnamese farmers use tissue culture for commercial potato production

1983 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 873-879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Uyen ◽  
Peter Vander Zaag
Keyword(s):  
Tissue Culture ◽  
Potato Production ◽  
Commercial Potato
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