Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system (QSMAS): Improving crop water productivity, food security and resource quality in the sub-humid tropics

The knowledge and principles generated by CPWF-PN15 confirm that QSMAS can be a model production system for implementing conservation agriculture to achieve food security and sustainable development in drought-prone areas of hillsides in the sub-humid tropics, while providing ecosystem services in the face of land degradation and climate change. As an adoptable option to replace the slash and burn traditional system, QSMAS can improve smallholder livelihoods through eco-efficient use and conservation of natural resources. Participatory validation activities suggest that the conservation agriculture principles embedded in QSMAS can be readily accepted by resource- poor farmers and local authorities in similar agroecosystems

Trend analysis to determine hazards related to climate change in the andean agricultural areas of cundinamarca and boyacá

Recognizing the threat from climate change that is facing and will face agro ecosystems is the first step in determining adaptation to climate change. One way is through Global Climate Models (GCMs), but their spatial resolution is not best suited for making decisions locally, further reducing scale, seen as a way to resolve the resolution problem, has not yielded the expected results. This study puts forth an exercise in which we study the climatic time series of precipitation and temperature to determine if there are effects of climate change on one of the most important national agricultural areas, using the Mann-Kendall analysis to determine the existence of statistically significant trends, i.e. signs of change in the variables analyzed. It was found that the variable that presents the most significant trends is the average maximum temperature, while precipitation and average minimum temperature do not

Advances in Improving Tolerance to Waterlogging in \u3cem\u3eBrachiaria\u3c/em\u3e Grasses

Poor drainage is found on about 11.3% of agricultural land in Latin America where physiography promotes flooding, high groundwater tables, or stagnant surface water (waterlogging). Waterlogging drastically reduces oxygen diffusion into the soil causing hypoxia which is the main limitation that reduces root aerobic respiration and the absorption of minerals and water. Under waterlogging conditions plants can adapt with traits and mechanisms that improve root aeration such as production of aerenchyma and development of adventitious roots. During the rainy season Brachiaria pastures are exposed to waterlogging conditions that can severely limit pasture productivity and hence animal production. The main objective of an inter-institutional and multidisciplinary project was to identify Brachiaria hybrids combining waterlogging tolerance with high forage yield and quality to improve meat and milk production and mitigate the impacts of climate change in the humid areas of Latin America. Researchers at the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) have developed a screening method to evaluate waterlogging tolerance in Brachiaria. Using this method, 71 promising hybrids derived from three Brachiaria species (B. ruziziensis, B. brizantha, and B. decumbens) were evaluated. Four hybrids were identified as superior in waterlogging tolerance. Their superiority was based on greater green leaf biomass production, a greater proportion of green leaf to total leaf biomass, greater green leaf area, leaf chlorophyll content, and photosynthetic efficiency, and reduced dead leaf biomass. These hybrids together with previously selected hybrids and germplasm accessions are being field-tested for waterlogging tolerance in collaboration with National Agricultural Research Institutions and farmers from Colombia, Nicaragua, and Panama

LivestockPlus: The sustainable intensification of forage-based agricultural systems to improve livelihoods and ecosystem services in the tropics

As global demand for livestock products (such as meat, milk, and eggs) is expected to double by 2050, necessary increases to future production must be reconciled with negative environmental impacts that livestock cause. This paper describes the LivestockPlus concept and demonstrates how the sowing of improved forages can lead to the sustainable intensification of mixed crop–forage–livestock–tree systems in the tropics by producing multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. Sustainable intensification not only improves the productivity of tropical forage-based systems but also reduces the ecological footprint of livestock production and generates a diversity of ecosystem services (ES), such as improved soil quality and reduced erosion, sedimentation, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Integrating improved grass and legume forages into mixed production systems (crop–livestock, tree–livestock, crop–tree–livestock) can restore degraded lands and enhance system resilience to drought and waterlogging associated with climate change. When properly managed tropical forages accumulate large amounts of carbon in soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen (legumes), inhibit nitrification in soil and reduce nitrous oxide emissions (grasses), and reduce GHG emissions per unit livestock product. The LivestockPlus concept is defined as the sustainable intensification of forage-based systems, which is based on three interrelated intensification processes: genetic intensification – the development and use of superior grass and legume cultivars for increased livestock productivity; ecological intensification – the development and application of improved farm and natural resource management practices; and socio-economic intensification – the improvement of local and national institutions and policies, which enable refinements of technologies and support their enduring use. Increases in livestock productivity will require coordinated efforts to develop supportive government, non-government organization, and private sector policies that foster investments and fair market compensation for both the products and ES provided. Effective research-for-development efforts that promote agricultural and environmental benefits of forage-based systems can contribute towards implemention of LivestockPlus across a variety of geographic, political, and socio-economic contexts

Trend analysis to determine hazards related to climate change in the Andean agricultural areas of Cundinamarca and Boyacá

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: ";Arial";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Recognizing the threat from climate change that is facing and will face agro ecosystems is the first step in determining adaptation to climate change. One way is through Global Climate Models (GCMs), but their spatial resolution is not best suited for making decisions locally, further reducing scale, seen as a way to resolve the resolution problem, has not yielded the expected results. This study puts forth an exercise in which we study the climatic time series of precipitation and temperature to determine if there are effects of climate change on one of the most important national agricultural areas, using the Mann-Kendall analysis to determine the existence of statistically significant trends, i.e. signs of change in the variables analyzed. It was found that the variable that presents the most significant trends is the average maximum temperature, while precipitation and average minimum temperature do not</span><span style="font-family: ";MinionPro-Regular";,";serif";; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: MinionPro-Regular; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">.</span></p&gt