Monitoring nutrient flows and economic performance in African farming systems (NUTMON)

Jager, A. de; Nandwa, S.M.; Okoth, Peter F.

doi:10.1016/s0167-8809(98)00130-3

Cited by 92 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Overcoming nutrient scarcity and malnutrition By means of adequate soil management and monitoring of nutrient flows, soil nutrient depletion can be brought to a halt (de Jager et al 1998). Van der Pol (1993) showed for Southern Mali that soil mining in traditional food crop rotations with sorghum and millet was serious, but that rotations with cotton and recommended fertilization rates could reverse nutrient depletion.…”

Section: Overcoming Labour Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agriculture and food security in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: diversity in trends and opportunities

2011

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The World Food Summit in 1996 set the goal of reducing by half the numbers of malnourished people in the world by 2015. It is unlikely that this will be reached, and particularly not in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Food imports in SSA have increased in the past 40 years, since domestic production could not keep up with population growth. Several studies have reported about this stagnating food production in SSA. However, this region encompasses a large number of countries, with a great variety of agroecological zones and large differences in land, labour and other resources. The objectives of this paper are to analyse agricultural production and food security in eight countries in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past 40 years, and to investigate to what extent these countries have followed different agricultural development pathways and are faced with different constraints. The analysis is largely based on statistical data, mainly from FAO, and on other information from various national and international sources. It shows that some of these countries have struggled to achieve and maintain overall national food security, while others have been able to achieve more than that and increased production at a faster rate than population growth. It subsequently analyzes major development constraints, with regard to labour, land and water, and institutions, pinpoints certain positive developments that have taken place in some of the countries and looks at opportunities for the respective countries to improve their food situation. One of its conclusions is that more attention should be paid to country specific constraints and opportunities.

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Section: Overcoming Labour Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agriculture and food security in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: diversity in trends and opportunities

2011

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“…It is evident that the strategies adopted by farmers can have important effects on the environment, on the ecosystems and even on the organisation of human community (De Jager et al, 1998): this leads to extend the level of evaluation from a farm-private one (based on the farmer point of view) to a public-environmental one, (related to any potential negative externalities) and to a social-territorial one (concerning the social sharing of farmers' goals). These enhanced levels of evaluation are even more important when agricultural activities are carried out in particularly vulnerable areas (protected areas, nitrates vulnerable zones, Sites of Community Importance, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Silvestri¹,

Pistocchi²,

Sabbatini³

et al. 2012

Italian Journal of Agronomy

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The farm can be considered as the decision unit in the agricultural land management, therefore it is the most suitable scale to analyse the farmers' strategies of production. In this paper we describe the results of a comparison between two enquiries carried out in 1992-93 and 2009-10 on more than 30 farms, corresponding to about 1500 ha of utilised agricultural area (UAA), within the boundaries of the San Rossore, Migliarino, Massaciuccoli Regional Park (central-western Italy). We calculate a set of agri-environmental indicators both at territory and farm scale in order to point out the changes occurred over almost twenty years in the farms' structure, management and production features. The results showed that the major differences were related to fertilisers management (clearly decreasing), to the reduction of some crop types (industrial crops) and to the strong decrease of the gross marketable production. Furthermore, apparently stable indicators, such as the utilised agricultural area and the farm tractors' power, were actually the result of the compensation of contrasting trends. Farmers' behaviours were substantially homogeneous within the same typology of farm, highlighting common evolution strategies. The desirability of the occurred changes was also evaluated, underlining the improvement of environmental sustainability of the current cropping systems and a greater social acceptability of agricultural activities, while the evaluation from the farmers' point of view was less satisfactory.

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“…Nutmon uses a conceptual model that distinguishes various compartments on the farm including farm section units (FSU), primary production units (PPU), secondary production units (SPU), redistribution units (RU), the household (HH), stocks (STOCK), and the external world (EXT) (see Van den Bosch et al 1998;De Jager et al 1998 for a full description). Land resources are described by FSUs which are land units that are considered homogeneous with well described characteristics.…”

Section: Nutmonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other flows like nitrogen fixation, leaching, and erosion are more difficult to measure and are estimated by means of regression models. Nutmon is originally developed for African farming systems (Stoorvogel and Smaling 1990;Smaling and Fresco 1993;De Jager et al 1998; Van den Bosch et al 1998;Vlaming et al 2001) where numerous studies have been carried out in Kenya (De Jager et al 1998; Van den Bosch et al 1998;Gachimbi et al 2002;Muendo 2006), Ethiopia (Abegaz 2005), Uganda and Burkina Faso (Agwe et al 2007). These studies in SubSaharan Africa reveal, almost unequivocally, alarming nutrient depletion rates (Stoorvogel 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the soil nutrient balance of integrated agriculture-aquaculture systems in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Phong

Stoorvogel

Mensvoort

et al. 2010

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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This study quantifies soil nutrient balances of Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture Systems in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Eleven farms were monitored to collect data on farm activities and nutrient inputs and outputs to compute these balances of the rice-based and high input fish system in O Mon district (R-HF); the rice-based and medium input fish system in Tam Binh district (R-MF); and the orchardbased and low input fish system in Cai Be district (O-LF). For the estimation, the Nutmon model has been adapted to the specific conditions in these integrated systems in Asia (Nutmon-Asia). New regression models of leaching and gaseous losses of nitrogen were applied to fields used for upland crops and paddy rice. Reference values were used for the assessment of nitrogen fixation in paddy soils, wet atmospheric deposition, and irrigation water. The results showed that farms in all three systems have nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium surpluses (84 kg N, 73 kg P, and 69 kg K ha -1 year -1 ). The O-LF system had the smallest nitrogen surplus while the smallest surplus of phosphorus and potassium was seen in the R-HF system. High surpluses of phosphorus and potassium were found in vegetable fields, whereas a negative potassium balance was found in the rice fields of all three systems. The positive farm nutrient balances indicate that it is likely that soil fertility will be maintained although there is a risk for environmental contamination.

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Monitoring nutrient flows and economic performance in African farming systems (NUTMON)

Cited by 92 publications

References 12 publications

Agriculture and food security in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: diversity in trends and opportunities

Agriculture and food security in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa: diversity in trends and opportunities

Diachronic Analysis of Farmers’ Strategies within a Protected Area of Central Italy

Modeling the soil nutrient balance of integrated agriculture-aquaculture systems in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

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