Bridging the Gap between Farmers and Researchers through Collaborative Experimentation. Cost and Labour Reduction in Soybean Production in South-Nyanza, Kenya

The Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of the International Centre of Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT) introduced dual purpose soybean varieties in south-west Kenya both to improve soil fertility by nitrogen fixation and to provide a source of better food and income. Since the start of the project in 2005, the Uriri Farmer Cooperative Society was successful in spreading the seeds over the district. Nevertheless, farmers still had problems with soybean agronomy. We therefore started a Collaborative Experiment (CE) Approach in March 2006 to make soybean production more accessible to farmers. The approach consisted of four stages: 1) information sessions; 2) participatory rural appraisal; 3) collaboration in the whole process of experimentation, from problem identification, to the design and analysis; 4) handing over to farmers. In this case study, farmers identified two main constraints to the recommended soybean production methods: 1) high labour requirement 2) lack of income to purchase the inputs. The results and discussions with farmers during the field days allowed demonstrating that the CE approach had been successful on two main aspects. First, CE was successful in defining problems and yield enhancing treatments which are accessible to deprived people. During field days, all farmers felt there was at least one of the treatments accessible to them. The second main success of the CE process was the increased awareness and interest about soybean. After less than a year of collaboration, farmers saw that soybean can bring a better life, cash for school fees and better health. The number of farmers registered in the soybean cooperative also increased from a few hundreds to 4500 that year. Several farmers started their own experiments to further adapt the recommendations to their own needs. The CE approach was thus successful in bridging the power-relations and knowledge gap between researchers and farmers and in designing appropriate technologies.Collaborative research, soybean, participation, Crop Production/Industries, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Land reclamation using reservoir sediments in Tigray, northern Ethiopia

Accelerated soil erosion leads to sedimentation in reservoirs and a decline in their life span. As many reservoirs in northern Ethiopia are dry at the end of the dry season, we were able to evaluate the potential of using reservoir sediments for land reclamation. Stripped land from which construction material for the reservoirs had been excavated was covered with 0, 15 and 30 cm of sediment and planted with a local garlic cultivar (Allium sativum). The applied reservoir sediments had low to medium organic C and total N contents and were high in available P and exchangeable cations. The yield of garlic increased with additional available water and the application of sediments. The results show that total biomass and bulb yield were three times higher on the reclaimed plots than on the control ones (11.7 t/ha vs. 3.6 t/ha for the biomass; 7.7 t/ha vs. 2.0 t/ha for the yield). When sediment transport and labour costs were taken into account, plots with 15 cm of sediments had in the first cropping season a cost-benefit ratio of 3, whilst those with 30 cm had a cost-benefit ratio of 0.9. This study demonstrates that the use of relatively small quantities of reservoir sediments is an economically viable strategy for land reclamation. The result can be improvement in income for resource-poor farmers by as much as 76%, and the life expectancy of the reservoirs is also increased

Determinants of soil organic matter chemistry in maritime temperate forest ecosystems

While the influence of climate, vegetation, management and abiotic site factors on total carbon budgets and turn-over is intensively assessed, the influences of these ecosystem properties on the chemical complexity of soil organic matter (SOM) remains poorly understood. This study addresses the chemical composition of NaOH-extracted SOM from maritime temperate forest sites in Flanders (Belgium) by pyrolysis-GC/MS. The studied forests were chosen based on dominant tree species (Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus robur and Populus spp.), soil texture and soil-moisture conditions. Differences in extractable-SOM pyrolysis products were correlated to site variables including dominant tree species, management of the woody biomass, site history, soil properties, total carbon stocks and indicators for microbial activity. Despite of a typical high intercorrelation between these site variables, the influence of the dominant tree species is prominent. The extractable-SOM composition is strongly correlated to litter quality and available nutrients. In nutrient-poor forests with low litter quality, the decomposition of relatively recalcitrant compounds (i.e. short and mid-chain alkanes/alkenes and aromatic compounds) appears hampered, causing a relative accumulation of these compounds in the soil. However, if substrate quality is favorable, no accumulations of recalcitrant compounds were observed, not even under high soil-moisture conditions. Former heathland vegetation still had a profound influence on extractable-SOM chemistry of young pine forests after a minimum of 60 year

Lessons from contemporary trials of cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Meta-analyses of cardiac rehabilitation trials up to 2010 showed a significant reduction in all-cause mortality but many of these trials were conducted before the modern management of acute coronary syndromes. Methods: We undertook a meta-analysis of contemporary randomised controlled trials published in the period 2010 to 2015, including patients with other forms of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, to investigate the impact of cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation on hard outcomes including survival. Results: 18 trials randomising 7691 patients to cardiovascular prevention and rehabilitation or usual care were selected. All-cause mortality was not reduced (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.88 to 1.14), but cardiovascular mortality was by 58% (95% CI 0.21, 0.88). Myocardial infarction was also reduced by 30% (95% CI 0.54, 0.91) and cerebrovascular events by 60% (95% CI 0.22, 0.74). Comprehensive programmes managing six or more risk factors reduced all-cause mortality in a subgroup analysis (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.43, 0.93) but those managing less did not. In the three programmes that prescribed and monitored cardioprotective medications for blood pressure and lipids all-cause mortality was also reduced (RR 0.35, 95% CI 0.18, 0.70). Conclusions: Comprehensive prevention and rehabilitation programmes managing six or more risk factors, and those prescribing and monitoring medications within programmes to lower blood pressure and lipids, continue to reduce all-cause mortality. In addition, these comprehensive programmes not only reduced cardiovascular mortality and myocardial infarction but also, for the first time, cerebrovascular events, and all these outcomes across a broader spectrum of patients with atherosclerotic disease

Breaking up data-enabled design: expanding and scaling up for the clinical context

Data-enabled design (DED) is a promising new methodology for designing with users from within their own context in an iterative and hands-on fashion. However, the agile and flexible qualities of the methodology do not directly translate to every context. In this article, we reflect on the design process of an intelligent ecosystem, called ORBIT, and a proposed eval- uative study planned with it. This was part of a DED project in collaboration with a medical hospital to study the post-operative behavior in the (remote) context of bariatric patients. The design and preparation of this project and the process towards an eventual study rejection from the medical ethical committee (METC) provide rich insights into (1) what it means to conduct DED research in a clinical context, and (2) where the boundaries of the method might lie in this specific application area. We highlight insights from carefully designing the substantial infrastructure for the study, and how different aspects of DED translated less easily to the clinical context. We analyze the proposed study setup through the lenses of several modifications we made to DED and further reflect on how to expand and scale up the methodology and adapt the process for the clinical context