Located within the Sahel region, Senegal faces several agricultural production challenges. Limited rainfall, poor soil fertility, and insuffi cient agronomic inputs all contribute to low pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] yields. Th is study was initiated to assess the potential for increasing millet yields through intercropping (living cover) and mulching (desiccated cover) practices. During the 2013 and 2014 growing seasons, pearl millet was intercropped with cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.], mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek], or grown under mulch (neem [Azadirachta indica] leaves applied at 2 t ha-1). Field trials were conducted at two sites within Senegal's central milletpeanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) basin, in Bambey (14°41¢38² N, 16°28¢12² W) and Th iés (14°45¢45² N, 16°53¢14² W). Soil moisture and plant N (based on the normalized diff erence vegetation index [NDVI]) were measured in addition to yield. When intercropped with a legume, millet grain yields increased up to 55% compared to millet alone. Th e combined grain yields under intercropping (millet + legume) were always higher than yields of millet alone, up to 67% in Bambey. Mulching increased soil moisture up to 14%, with yield increases of up to 70% over millet with no mulch. Plant N increased in both intercropped and mulched millet, with NDVI increases up to 21% with mulch and 16% when grown with a legume (prior to fl owering). Th ese yield increases were achieved using resources that are available and aff ordable to small-scale producers in the region (seeds and mulch), and did not require the addition of fertilizer inputs.

Summary Seeds can deteriorate rapidly under high heat and humidity, making it challenging and potentially costly to store orthodox seeds effectively in the tropics, thereby affecting agriculture development. This work explores the effectiveness of novel, low-cost technologies for storing seeds in warm, humid, resource-constrained environments, focusing on maintaining the viability of seeds already dry prior to storage. Seeds of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens (L.) DC) were kept for 12 months under roofed, outdoor screened porches. Seed moisture content prior to treatment was 6, 9, and 12% for okra, sorghum, and velvet bean, respectively. Treatments, replicated four times at each of two locations (USA [Florida] and Thailand), were technology suites involving vacuum drawn on glass jars with a modified bicycle pump, vacuum drawn on polyethylene bags with an electric vacuum sealing machine, desiccant (calcium oxide powder or zeolite Drying Beads® at a 2:1 ratio, by weight, of seeds to desiccant) in glass jars, and nontreated seeds in paper bags. Ambient temperature and humidity were variable and high, reaching over 35 °C and 83%, respectively, at both locations. Under these conditions, okra and sorghum germination percentages (across locations) without treatment declined from over 90% initially to 30 and 0%, respectively, by month 12. Both vacuum treatments and calcium oxide maintained high germination of okra (≈ 80%) and velvet bean seeds (nearly 100%) across locations. Glass, however, was superior to polyethylene in maintaining vacuum and stabilizing the moisture content of okra and sorghum seeds. Only zeolite reduced seed moisture below initial values, drying seeds to ultradry levels of <5%. With zeolite, sorghum germination stayed near 70% over time, while okra and velvet bean germination fell to <40 and <20%, respectively, by month 12, suggesting that, with the beads kept with dry seeds in storage rather than removing the beads after reaching a target level of seed moisture, the 2:1 ratio of seed-to-bead weight was too high for seeds that are sensitive to ultralow moisture. Findings have practical implications for inexpensive household- or community-level seed storage to deliver development impact.

Smallholder farmers raising pigs in northern Thailand rely heavily on banana stalks as a fermented feed source, but struggle to reproduce banana plants fast enough to keep up with consumption. This study evaluated a variety of techniques for rapidly multiplying banana plants, using techniques appropriate and affordable to smallholder farmers in order to help meet this demand. Propagation techniques of Musa (ABB) cv. "Kluai Nam Wa" were conducted in greenhouse and field experiments in both lowland and upland areas of Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. In greenhouse experiments, six treatments were conducted during the dry and rainy seasons, while five different treatments were compared in the field. Treatments used various methods of mechanical injury or application of benzyl aminopurine (BA) to induce plantlet differentiation. Number of plantlets to emerge, days to emergence, and circumference of plantlets were observed over a 90-day period. Results indicate that time of year plays an important role in the macropropagation of bananas, as significantly higher numbers of plantlets emerged during the rainy season. Plantlets emerged in 65 days, on average, during the dry season, but took only 54 days during the rainy season. During the rainy season, the presence of BA produced more plantlets than the other treatments, but during the dry season, there were no differences among treatments. Overall, the number of plantlets produced in all treatments evaluated was very low; however we believe this research is an important contribution to the literature and acknowledge that there exists significant opportunity to capitalize on the low-cost appropriate technology benefits that macropropagation of bananas can deliver to smallholder farmers.

While maintaining adequate levels of soil fertility can be a challenge on any farm, maintaining those levels on the resource-limited smallholder farms of the tropics requires options that are also affordable, practical, and appropriate in such challenging conditions. This research endeavor was designed to compare the adaptability and potential of four legume species promoted as Green Manure/Cover Crops (GMCC’s) in Southeast Asia. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), Jackbean (Canavalia ensiformis), Lablab (Lablab purpureus), and Ricebean (Vigna umbellata) were planted in field trials in five diverse countries across Southeast Asia in 2016, including Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. Data was collected to assess the production of above-ground biomass, percentage of ground cover, and timing of growth cycles at each site. Although results varied from country to country based on soil-type, climatic conditions, and growing degree days, Jackbean consistently outperformed other GMCC species in terms of biomass production, yielding up to 12 t ha-1 on a dry-weight basis in Bangladesh and the Philippines. Of the four crops compared, cowpea consistently delivered the shortest growth cycle, reaching the pod formation stage in the fewest number of days across all five sites. These results provide informative answers regarding the growth habits and life cycles of these four crops across five diverse sites, and serve to enhance the capability of smallholders in Southeast Asia to select appropriate species needed for soil improvement purposes in a wide-ranging set of cropping systems.