Estudio preliminar de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en un cultivo de cerezo (Prunus avium L.) en el valle inferior del rio Chubut (Región Patagonia Sur)

Esta experiencia se llevó a cabo en una chacra que presenta un cultivo de cerezo y otras especies de frutales. El objetivo fue conocer la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en dicho cultivo con fines de poder implementar a futuro acciones de manejo en un marco de sustentabilidad del agroecosistema. Para ello se colocaron en dicho predio trampas tipo veleta distribuidas en el predio, cuyo material capturado era recolectado cada 15 días y conservado en laboratorio, para su posterior clasificación. Se dio especial interés al Orden Hymenoptera. Los resultados en cuanto a los grupos hallados se analizó a la luz de la ubicación de las trampas. El conocimiento de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en el cultivo resulta básico para comprender procesos que podrán resultar claves para el desarrollo de programas de control biológico conservativo.Eje: B4 Ambiente, naturaleza y agroecología (Relatos de experiencias)Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Effet de la combinaison des fumures organo-minérales et de la rotation niébé-mil sur la nutrition azotée et les rendements du mil au sahel

Peu de données existent sur la contribution en azote des légumineuses, et leurs impacts en présence des fumures sur la nutrition azotée des  céréales. Ainsi, pour évaluer les effets du niébé et des fumures organo-minérales sur la nutrition azotée et les rendements du mil subséquent, une expérimentation a été conduite de 2008 à 2009 à Sadoré au Niger. Dans un dispositif en split-plot, trois doses de résidus, de fumier et d’engrais minéraux ont été appliquées dans une rotation niébé-mil. La méthode isotopique de 15N a été utilisée pour déterminer le coefficient réel d’utilisation d’engrais azoté (CRU). En présence de résidus, le CRU a varié de 16 à 23%. Les doses du fumier ont entraîné sa variation de 16 à 22%. Le CRU du mil subséquent était de 30% contre 22% pour le mil en monoculture. Le mil subséquent a prélevé du sol 54 kg N ha-1 contre 38 kg N ha-1 pour le mil en continu. Les doses des fumures et leur  combinaison dans les systèmes de culture, ont augmenté les rendements du mil de 17 à 272%. La nutrition azotée et la productivité des systèmes peuvent donc être améliorées en combinant les fumures organo-minérales et les rotations avec légumineuses.Mots clés : Céréale, légumineuse, rotation, azote, dilution isotopique, Niger

Estudio preliminar de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en un cultivo de cerezo (Prunus avium L.) en el valle inferior del rio Chubut (Región Patagonia Sur)

Esta experiencia se llevó a cabo en una chacra que presenta un cultivo de cerezo y otras especies de frutales. El objetivo fue conocer la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en dicho cultivo con fines de poder implementar a futuro acciones de manejo en un marco de sustentabilidad del agroecosistema. Para ello se colocaron en dicho predio trampas tipo veleta distribuidas en el predio, cuyo material capturado era recolectado cada 15 días y conservado en laboratorio, para su posterior clasificación. Se dio especial interés al Orden Hymenoptera. Los resultados en cuanto a los grupos hallados se analizó a la luz de la ubicación de las trampas. El conocimiento de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en el cultivo resulta básico para comprender procesos que podrán resultar claves para el desarrollo de programas de control biológico conservativo.Eje: B4 Ambiente, naturaleza y agroecología (Relatos de experiencias)Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Estudio preliminar de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en un cultivo de cerezo (Prunus avium L.) en el valle inferior del rio Chubut (Región Patagonia Sur)

Esta experiencia se llevó a cabo en una chacra que presenta un cultivo de cerezo y otras especies de frutales. El objetivo fue conocer la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en dicho cultivo con fines de poder implementar a futuro acciones de manejo en un marco de sustentabilidad del agroecosistema. Para ello se colocaron en dicho predio trampas tipo veleta distribuidas en el predio, cuyo material capturado era recolectado cada 15 días y conservado en laboratorio, para su posterior clasificación. Se dio especial interés al Orden Hymenoptera. Los resultados en cuanto a los grupos hallados se analizó a la luz de la ubicación de las trampas. El conocimiento de la estructura de la comunidad de artrópodos en el cultivo resulta básico para comprender procesos que podrán resultar claves para el desarrollo de programas de control biológico conservativo.Eje: B4 Ambiente, naturaleza y agroecología (Relatos de experiencias)Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Evaluation of the feed quality of six dual purpose pearl millet varieties and growth performance of sheep fed their residues in Niger

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is a staple food popularly cultivated by small farmers in Niger. The stover are also used as feeds for livestock (small ruminant) as basal diet, especially during the cold dry season. ICRISAT has developed many dualpurpose millet varieties that aim to increase feeds for livestock while providing grain as food to farmers. But the nutritional quality of Stover of these varieties for livestock are not known. This research aims to assess the quality of residues of the dual-purpose varieties and their effect on feed intake and live weight changes of young sheep

At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) faces persistent fundamental change in its strategic and operating environments. This report suggests this reality is the product of the United States entering or being in the midst of a new, more competitive, post-U.S. primacy environment. Post-primacy conditions promise far-reaching impacts on U.S. national security and defense strategy. Consequently, there is an urgent requirement for DoD to examine and adapt how it develops strategy and describes, identifies, assesses, and communicates corporate-level risk. This report takes on the latter risk challenge. It argues for a new post-primacy risk concept and its four governing principles of diversity, dynamism, persistent dialogue, and adaptation. The authors suggest that this approach is critical to maintaining U.S. military advantage into the future. Absent change in current risk convention, the report suggests DoD exposes current and future military performance to potential failure or gross under-performance.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1410/thumbnail.jp

Scaling up Land Restoration Approaches to Reclaim the Hardpans of Niger for Agriculture using Sentinel 2 Imagery

Degraded lands, widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, are used mainly for grazing and firewood harvesting and have low agricultural production potential. Such areas have become degraded through overuse and removal of surface cover and associated erosion processes and are termed hardpans. Hardpans with high clay content, high cation exchange capacity (CEC) and water holding capacity have productive potential. ICRISAT has developed and scaled a gender sensitive approach Bioreclamation of Degraded Land” (BDL) that combines water harvesting technologies (planting pits, half-moon and trenches), application of compost and plantation of high value fruit trees and annual drought tolerant indigenous vegetables. In partnership with CRS in Niger, BDL was scaled to over 3000 villages (2014-18) which led to many benefits in food security and income generation for the local population. To scale further multi-spectral remote sensing based imagery of high resolution (10 m) can identify and map hardpans and differentiate higher potential sites for the BDL approach. These maps will be used to quantify the area under hardpans and the potential area in which the interventions can be scaled up

Restoration of Degraded Lands in West Africa Sahel: Review of experiences in Burkina Faso and Niger

This is a comprehensive literature review of land restoration activities in West Africa Sahel. Water constraints and the inherent soil poverty are the major factors that limit crop yields and productivity of cropping systems in West Africa Sahel (WAS). Livestock is not well integrated with agricultural activities and crop residues are usually exported from the farm for household needs and animal feeding. In traditional systems, soil fertility maintenance was based on a relatively long fallow period (10-15 years) followed by a short cropping period of 3 to 5 years. But the increased population pressure has resulted in significant changes of the traditional bushfallow system. Lands are now continuously cultivated for long period with low external inputs, leading to soil fertility decline over time (Bationo and Mokwunye 1991; Bekunda et al. 2010). In addition to biophysical aspects, a wide range of socio-economic factors such as the low financial capacities of poor farmers to invest in agricultural inputs, high pressure on ecological resources for food, fodder or energy, also add to the stress on the systems. Failure by the smallholder farmers to intensify agricultural production in a manner that maintains soil productivity is the main cause of land degradation, particularly in the fragile ecosystems of WAS. Land degradation is defined as a process that leads to the reduction of land productivity for useful purposes, and is typically a result of soil, wind, or water erosion; soil salinization; waterlogging; chemical deterioration; or any combination of these factors (Adeel 2003). Land degradation is a global problem, particularly in the dry areas, home to a large population of poor farmers, where land degradation and water scarcity are major threats to food security. The impacts of land degradation are severe on both human society and ecosystems. Desertification is often wrongly attributed solely to droughts, but it is the deadly combination of continued land abuse during periods of deficient rainfall that results in unproductive land, and ultimately desertification (UNESCO 2003). Combating desertification by rehabilitating degraded lands can be done successfully, using existing, often traditional techniques. Land restoration involves restoring the fertility of degraded lands. The social syndrome where diminishing availability of lands, inherent low fertility, continuous soil erosion, and continuous nutrient removal without replenishment, results in a spiraling downfall in productive capacity and a diminished resilience of the soil system to provide a suitable medium for crop growth needs to be addressed. Smallholder farmers are at the center of both soil fertility decline and restoration process. Their decisions to manage, to utilize technologies and to improve or restore soil fertility are guided by the socioeconomic conditions and the overall benefits that will accrue from production (Sanginga and Woomer, 2009; Bekunda et al. 2010). A sustainable management of lands under cultivation and the restoration of degraded lands could be achieved by affordable strategic management innovations; taking into account the socioeconomic conditions of farmers. While individual technologies can contribute; a more integrated systems that combines technologies, crops, and trees such as the agroforestry systems could better contribute for sustainable management of natural resources. Many efforts have been invested to developing strategies and approaches for both sustainable management of natural resources and restoration of degraded lands in WAS. In some cases, farmer communities have developed sound, sustainable approaches to land rehabilitation and management but there is insufficient information on successful restoration in the context of WAS, particular with regards to policy, institutions and socioeconomic conditions under which specific approaches could be adapted and applied successfully (Bunning 2003). The main objective of this review was to investigate the main experiences of regenerating degraded landscapes (RDL) in Niger. Going through the documentation, we found many similarities in experiences across the two countries of Niger and Burkina. Some interesting experiences were found in Burkina, Niger or at the same time in the two countries. We finally decided to extend the review to the two countries as a representative zone of the WAS. The critical issue in taking restoration to scale is that ecological, economic and institutional context varies at fine scales. The main goal of this review is to identify the specificities and the context of the most efficient experiences of RDL that could be widely scaled in the WAS

Intervarietal Differences in Response of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) to Different Mutagenic Treatments

For much of the past century, mutagenesis has gained popularity in plant genetics research as a means of inducing novel genetic variation. Induced mutations have been applied for the past 40 years to produce mutant cultivars in sunflower by changing plant characteristics that significantly increase plant yield and quality. The present study was focused on generating baseline data to elucidate the role of genotypic differences in the response of sunflower to induced mutagenesis with the aim of expanding the applicability of the use of induced mutant stocks in the genetic improvement of the crop and in its functional genomics. The strategy adopted was to estimate the optimal treatment conditions (doses of mutagens) through relating the extent of damage in seedling progeny to the exposure levels of the initiating propagules to mutagens. Seeds of 15 elite sunflower genotypes commonly used as breeding stocks and grown on commercial scales were treated with a range of mutagens: Gamma-rays (γ rays); fast neutrons and with ethyle-methane-sulphonate (EMS) at different treatment doses. The three mutagenic agents affected seedling height, reducing it with increasing dosage. Based on the mutagen damage on seedling height, the 50% and 30% damage indices (D50 and D30, respectively) were estimated for the 15 sunflower genotypes for the three mutagens. The D50 (D30) values for the sunflower lines ranged from 120 to 325Gy (5 to 207Gy) for gamma irradiation; 9 to 21Gy (0.1 to 10Gy) for fast neutrons and 0.69 to 1.55% (0.01 to 0.68%) concentration of EMS