Can We Define the Term ‘Farming Systems’? A Question of Scale

Giller, Ken E.

doi:10.5367/oa.2013.0139

Cited by 63 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although strongly driven by agro-ecological conditions, this diversity has also been influenced through the interplay of, amongst other things, local cultures, infrastructure, distance to markets, and socioeconomic opportunities outside agriculture. African farming areas have been described at continental scale under 13 main categories (Dixon et al, 2001), but such simplification masks huge local diversity, which makes generalization of productivity-enhancing recommendations for SSA problematic (Giller, 2013). Nevertheless, repeating patterns can be observed across different African farming systems that have important implications for ISFM.…”

Section: Conceptualization Of Local Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa: unravelling local adaptation

Vanlauwe

Descheemaeker

Giller

et al. 2015

SOIL

320

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Intensification of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is necessary to address rural poverty and natural resource degradation. Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) is a means to enhance crop productivity while maximizing the agronomic efficiency (AE) of applied inputs, and can thus contribute to sustainable intensification. ISFM consists of a set of best practices, preferably used in combination, including the use of appropriate germplasm, the appropriate use of fertilizer and of organic resources, and good agronomic practices. The large variability in soil fertility conditions within smallholder farms is also recognized within ISFM, including soils with constraints beyond those addressed by fertilizer and organic inputs. The variable biophysical environments that characterize smallholder farming systems have profound effects on crop productivity and AE, and targeted application of agro-inputs and management practices is necessary to enhance AE. Further, management decisions depend on the farmer's resource endowments and production objectives. In this paper we discuss the "local adaptation" component of ISFM and how this can be conceptualized within an ISFM framework, backstopped by analysis of AE at plot and farm level. At plot level, a set of four constraints to maximum AE is discussed in relation to "local adaptation": soil acidity, secondary nutrient and micronutrient (SMN) deficiencies, physical constraints, and drought stress. In each of these cases, examples are presented whereby amendments and/or practices addressing these have a significantly positive impact on fertilizer AE, including mechanistic principles underlying these effects. While the impact of such amendments and/or practices is easily understood for some practices (e.g. the application of SMNs where these are limiting), for others, more complex processes influence AE (e.g. water harvesting under varying rainfall conditions). At farm scale, adjusting fertilizer applications to within-farm soil fertility gradients has the potential to increase AE compared with blanket recommendations, in particular where fertility gradients are strong. In the final section, "local adaption" is discussed in relation to scale issues and decision support tools are evaluated as a means to create a better understanding of complexity at farm level and to communicate appropriate scenarios for allocating agro-inputs and management practices within heterogeneous farming environments.

show abstract

Section: Conceptualization Of Local Adaptationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa: unravelling local adaptation

Vanlauwe

Descheemaeker

Giller

et al. 2015

SOIL

320

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite Deborah Sands' (1986) warning about the ambiguity associated 7 with the concepts and approaches of FSR, critical engagement with the concept of 8 farming systems has, until recently, inadequately addressed the divergence of 9 'farming systems' definitions (Giller, 2013) …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern Africa

Dixon

Mulenga

Ngoma

2015

Agricultural Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The central tenet of farming systems research is that the farm is the key level at which decisions are made in relation to resource allocation (Giller, 2013). While farmers are highly heterogeneous, repeated patterns emerge among their farm systems, strategies, constraints…”

Section: Conceptual Framework and Operationalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Like a windmill where several vanes contribute to pushing the axis and rotating the millstone, the farm is engaged in various value chains each contributing to the objectives and aspirations of farmers (Dorward, 2009). Farming systems analysis is an appropriate approach to analyse the integrated farming decisions and their effects (Giller, 2013 The objective of our study was to thus evaluate the combined use of farming systems theory and TCE in understanding the choice of various sales arrangements. We investigated smallholder farmers and their sales arrangements in Manica Plateau, Beira Development…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Transaction costs are the costs related to finding the transacting party, costs of information and costs for contract enforcement mechanisms (North, 1990). Farming systems analysis, seeks to understand how farmers structure their production activities and it focuses at the farm as the key level at which decisions are made in relation to allocation of available resources to production activities (Giller, 2013). It recognises that smallholder farmers face widely different sets of opportunities and constraints.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring opportunities for rural livelihoods and food security in Central Mozambique

Leonardo

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Growing awareness of widespread hunger and poverty in many countries in the SSA is spurring a focus on productivity increase in smallholder farming systems. The rationale is that with current production systems many SSA countries are not keeping pace with population growth and changing of peoples' lifestyles. To respond to this challenge the Government of Mozambique developed its Strategic Plan for Agricultural Development (PEDSA) aiming to improve agricultural productivity of the majority of smallholder farmers who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Smallholder farmers are diverse in terms of resources and aspirations. The main objectives of this study are first to understand the diversity among maize-based smallholder farms and their current constraints in improving agricultural productivity in the Manica Plateau, Central Mozambique, and second, building on that understanding to explore options for biomass production either for food, cash or biofuel at farm level and contributions to maize availability in the region. The study was conducted in the Dombe and Zembe Administrative Posts. Farmers in the two posts cultivate both food and cash crops using the same resources, however, distances to the urban market differ, with Zembe close and Dombe far away from the markets. In addition, the agroecological conditions for crop production are more favourable in Dombe compared with Zembe. Using farm surveys, direct observations and on-farm measurements, followed by Principal Components Analysis (PCA) I identified land and labour as the variables that can best explain the variability found among smallholder farms (Chapter 2). Based on these variables I categorised farms into four Farm Types (FT): FT1. Large farms (4.4 ha in Dombe and 2.2 ha in Zembe), hiring in labour; FT2. Intermediate sized farms (1.9-1.2 ha), hiring in and out labour; FT3a. Small farms (1.1-0.9 ha), sharing labour; and FT3b. Small farms (1.0-0.7 ha), hiring out labour. The maize yield and maize labour productivities were higher on large farms (2.3 t ha -1 in Dombe and 2.0 t ha -1 in Zembe; 2.5×10 -3 t h -1 in Dombe and 2.6 ×10 -3 t h -1 in Zembe) compared with small farms (1.5 t ha -1 in Dombe and 1.1 t ha -1 in Zembe;1.4×10 -3 t h -1 in Dombe and 0.9×10 -3 t h -1 in Zembe). The hiring in labour from small farms allowed large farms to timely weed their fields. Small farms were resource constrained and viii hired out labour (mutrakita) for cash or food to the detriment of weeding their own fields, resulting in poor crop yields. Excessive alcohol consumption by small farms also raised concerns on labour quality. Chapter 3 explored options aiming at addressing farmers' objectives of being maize self-sufficient and increased gross margin and the contribution to national objective of producing food. A bio-economic farm model was used to investigate two pathways to increase agricultural production: (i) extensification, expanding the current cultivated area; and (ii) intensification, increasing input use and output per unit of land...

show abstract

Can We Define the Term ‘Farming Systems’? A Question of Scale

Cited by 63 publications

References 26 publications

Integrated soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa: unravelling local adaptation

Integrated soil fertility management in sub-Saharan Africa: unravelling local adaptation

Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern Africa

Exploring opportunities for rural livelihoods and food security in Central Mozambique

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About