A review on the contribution of crop diversification to Sustainable Development Goal 1 “No poverty” in different world regions

I am grateful to Professor Maggie Gill and Dr Leslie Lipper for initial discussions, to Dr Leslie Lipper for arranging the meetings with the experts at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and to the experts at FAO for the valuable discussions on the topic. I would also like to thank Kirsten MacSween for revising the English. This research has been funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), NE/N005619/1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

institutional framework of in action against land degradation

While econometric and spatial data are increasingly helpful to quantify and locate the extent and costs of land degradation, there is still little understanding of the contextual factors that determine or influence the land users' practices that aggravate or counteract land degradation. In this chapter, we take an institutional economic approach to analyse the persistence of degrading practices, the low adoption of sustainable land management (SLM), or the eventual organisational reaction to land degradation. The chapter reviews four examples of land degradation in different contexts to reveal the multiple driving forces and contextual factors. We then propose a conceptual framework to better understand the incentive structure and factors determining the land users' decision making. A layered analysis of the social phenomena is applied, following Williamson (2000). The chapter shows how actions at different layers can help improve land management. The chapter concludes with practical recommendations for the institutional economic analysis of land degradation

Accounting for the Impacts of Changing Configurations in Temperature and Precipitation on U.S. Agricultural Productivity

The objective of this study is to investigate how changing configurations in temperature and precipitation are transmitted to productivity growth in the U.S. agricultural sector. In doing so, we account for farm heterogeneity in production possibilities and the considerable variations in weather and other physical characteristics of the environment. In contrast, the received literature on productivity growth assumes that firms share the same production possibilities and only differ with respect to their level of inefficiency. We do this by implementing a Random Parameters approach in a Stochastic Production Frontier framework. The resulting parameter estimates are used to decompose a multiplicative TFP index that yields measures of technological progress, technical efficiency change, environmental, and scale-mix efficiency. Our results indicate that even after accounting for knowledge stocks generated from investments in research and development there are significant reductions in productivity growth, primarily driven by weather anomalies. Acknowledgement : This study was partially funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant number 2016-67012-24678 and 2016-67024-24760

Registration of ‘Serenut 6T’ Groundnut

’Serenut 6T’ (Reg. No. CV-136, PI 682726) is a high-yielding, Spanish-type groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L. subsp. fastigiata var. vulgaris) with two seeds per pod. Serenut 6T was released in 2010 by the National Semi-Arid Resources Research Institute, Soroti, Uganda. Serenut 6T was a selection from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) advanced line ICGV-SM 99566, which originated from a cross made between ‘ICGV 93437’ and ‘ICGV-SM 93561’. ICGV-SM 99566 was developed by using repeated bulk selections for groundnut rosette disease (GRD) resistance. Replicated performance trials were conducted in Uganda in 2008 and 2009. Trials were performed in two seasons each year for a total of 24 rainfed trials in Uganda. Serenut 6T matures in 90 to 95 d, similar to the widely grown control cultivar Serenut 4T. Serenut 6T resulted in significantly higher pod yields (43.1%) than Serenut 4T. While the shelling percentage for Serenut 6T was 7.9% lower than Serenut 4T, Serenut 6T is easier to shell by hand, a trait preferred by farmers. The seed testa is tan, and the seed is larger than that of Serenut 4T. The sound mature kernel weight for Serenut 6T was 38.1 g 100−1 seed compared with 29.4 g 100−1 seed for Serenut 4T, an increase of 29.6%. Compared with Serenut 4T, Serenut 6T is a higher-yielding cultivar with more durable resistance to GRD