Response of the Board of Directors of IFDC to the Recommendations of TAC

Official reply from the IFDC Board of Directors to TAC's recommendation to not include the IFDC in the CGIAR system. Pages 3 and 4 are missing from this copy. Agenda document, CGIAR meeting May 1979

Ukama Ustawi CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Technical Report (Concept Note)

One of the major underlying reasons for poor agricultural performance in East and Southern Africa (ESA) is the low efficiency of agricultural value chains and lack of resilience against climate shocks. Many agricultural value chains are fragmented and characterized by instability of relationships between off-takers and smallholder and emerging farmers. The ones that suffer the most from these inefficiencies and threats are the farmers. There are significant hurdles to farmers and market systems. These include access to affordable inputs, advisories, logistics, finance, and market linkages. Agribusinesses are addressing these challenges through their products and services, and supporting farmers to improve productivity, incomes, and resilience to climate change. This is particularly important in East and Southern Africa, where farmers are engaged in maize production which is vulnerable to climate change and projected to face not only 15% climate-related declines in yield without adaptation, but also challenges from diminished cropland suitability and poor agronomic inputs and management; degraded environmental bases with declining soil fertility and degraded water systems. The mission of Ukama Ustawi is to support developments that transform the ESA agrifood system through sustainable intensification to maize-mixed systems and crop diversification to de-risk other systems. In addition, to a) empower more women and young farmers, agribusiness owners, and value chain actors; b) promote healthier diets; and c) protect the natural environment from further degradation

Applied agricultural research for small farms in Asia

노트 : International Seminar Workshop on Applied Agricultural Research and Development for Small Farms (13-18 May 1985 : Los, Banos, PH

A training module for the international course on the management and utilisation of field genebanks and in vitro collections: Held at TARI, Fengshan, Taiwan on 16 -20 May 2011

The module focuses on good management practices for the conservation and utilization of material in field and in vitro genebanks. It aims to equip lecturers, practicum instructors, and technical staff in-charge of maintaining germplasm collections in field genebanks and in in vitro collections with the latest knowledge and best practices for managing these collections.This module is divided into 2 parts: lectures and discussions and practical hands-on sessions

Nitrogen-neutrality: a step towards sustainability

We propose a novel indicator measuring one dimension of the sustainability of an entity in modern societies: Nitrogen-neutrality. N-neutrality strives to offset Nr releases an entity exerts on the environment from the release of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the environment by reducing it and by offsetting the Nr releases elsewhere. N-neutrality also aims to increase awareness about the consequences of unintentional releases of nitrogen to the environment. N-neutrality is composed of two quantified elements: Nr released by an entity (e.g. on the basis of the N footprint) and Nr reduction from management and offset projects (N offset). It includes management strategies to reduce nitrogen losses before they occur (e.g., through energy conservation). Each of those elements faces specific challenges with regard to data availability and conceptual development. Impacts of Nr releases to the environment are manifold, and the impact profile of one unit of Nr release depends strongly on the compound released and the local susceptibility to Nr. As such, Nneutrality is more difficult to conceptualize and calculate than C-neutrality. We developed a workable conceptual framework for N-neutrality which was adapted for the 6th International Nitrogen Conference (N2013, Kampala, November 2013). Total N footprint of the surveyed meals at N2013 was 66 kg N. A total of US$ 3050 was collected from the participants and used to offset the conference’s N footprint by supporting the UN Millennium Village cluster Ruhiira in South- Western Uganda. The concept needs further development in particular to better incorporate the spatio-temporal variability of impacts and to standardize the methods to quantify the required N offset to neutralize the Nr releases impact. Criteria for compensation projects need to be sharply defined to allow the development of a market for N offset certificates Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/ERL/9/115001/mmediainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards sustainable agriculture: fossil-free ammonia

Citation: Pfromm, P. H. (2017). Towards sustainable agriculture: Fossil-free ammonia. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 9(3), 034702. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4985090About 40% of our food would not exist without synthetic ammonia (NH3) for fertilization. Yet, NH3 production is energy intensive. About 2% of the world's commercial energy is consumed as fossil fuels for NH3 synthesis based on the century-old Haber-Bosch (H.-B.) process. The state of the art and the opportunities for reducing the fossil energy footprint of industrial H.-B. NH3 synthesis are discussed. It is shown that even a hypothetical utterly revolutionary H.-B. catalyst could not significantly reduce the energy demand of H.-B. NH3 as this is governed by hydrogen production. Renewable energy-enabled, fossil-free NH3 synthesis is then evaluated based on the exceptional and continuing cost decline of renewable electricity. H.-B. syngas (H2, N2) is assumed to be produced by electrolysis and cryogenic air separation, and then supplied to an existing H.-B. synthesis loop. Fossil-free NH3 could be produced for energy costs of about $232 per tonne NH3 without claiming any economic benefits for the avoidance of about 1.5 tonnes of CO2 released per tonne NH3 compared to the most efficient H.-B. implementations. Research into alternatives to the H.-B. process might be best targeted at emerging markets with currently little NH3 synthesis capacity but significant future population growth such as Africa. Reduced capital intensity, good scale-down economics, tolerance for process upsets and contamination, and intermittent operability are some desirable characteristics of NH3 synthesis in less developed markets, and for stranded resources. Processes that are fundamentally different from H.-B. may come to the fore under these specific boundary conditions

Survival and development of Campoletis chlorideae on various insect and crop hosts: implications for Bt-transgenic crops

The parasitic wasp, Campoletis chlorideae is an important larval parasitoid of Helicoverpa armigera a serious pest of cotton, grain legumes and cereals. Large-scale deployment of Bt-transgenic crops with resistance to H. armigera may have potential consequences for the development and survival of C. chlorideae. Therefore, we studied the tritrophic interactions of C. chlorideae involving eight insect host species and six host crops under laboratory conditions. The recovery of H. armigera larvae following release was greater on pigeonpea and chickpea when compared with cotton, groundnut and pearl millet. The parasitism by C. chlorideae females was least with reduction in cocoon formation and adult emergence on H. armigera larvae released on chickpea. Host insects also had significant effect on the development and survival of C. chlorideae. The larval period of C. chlorideae was prolonged by 2-3 days on Spodoptera exigua, Mythimna separata and Achaea janata when compared with H. armigera, Helicoverpa assulta and Spodoptera litura. Maximum cocoon formation and adult emergence were recorded on H. armigera (82.4% and 70.5%, respectively) than on other insect hosts. These studies have important implications on development and survival of C. chlorideae on alternate insect hosts on non-transgenic crop plants, when there is paucity of H. armigera larvae on transgenic crops expressing Bt-toxins