Ex-post Impact Assessment of Fertilizer Microdosing as a Climate-Smart Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa

Microdosing refers to the application of small quantities of fertilizer with the seed at planting time or as top dressing three to four weeks after emergence. Microdosing provides sufficient nutrients especially on poor soils or degraded lands in amounts that are not too costly and are not damaging to the environment. Microdosing has been identified as a climate smart technology (The Montpellier Panel, 2013). Apart from being a climate smart technology, microdosing can be considered a pathway for the intensification of agricultural systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Building on cross-sectional data from a recent survey on 415 smallholder farmers (193 microdosing adopters and 222 non-adopters) located in eight semi-arid districts of Zimbabwe, the results of this study demonstrate that microdosing increase crop production and productivity; reduce output and yield risk as well as improve food security

Balancing economic and ecological functions in smallholder and industrial oil palm plantations

The expansion of the oil palm industry in Indonesia has improved livelihoods in rural communities, but comes at the cost of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation. Here, we investigated ways to balance ecological and economic outcomes of oil palm cultivation. We compared a wide range of production systems, including smallholder plantations, industrialized company estates, estates with improved agronomic management, and estates with native tree enrichment. Across all management types, we assessed multiple indicators of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, management, and landscape structure to identify factors that facilitate economic-ecological win-wins, using palm yields as measure of economic performance. Although, we found that yields in industrialized estates were, on average, twice as high as those in smallholder plantations, ecological indicators displayed substantial variability across systems, regardless of yield variations, highlighting potential for economic-ecological win-wins. Reducing management intensity (e.g., mechanical weeding instead of herbicide application) did not lower yields but improved ecological outcomes at moderate costs, making it a potential measure for balancing economic and ecological demands. Additionally, maintaining forest cover in the landscape generally enhanced local biodiversity and ecosystem functioning within plantations. Enriching plantations with native trees is also a promising strategy to increase ecological value without reducing productivity. Overall, we recommend closing yield gaps in smallholder cultivation through careful intensification, whereas conventional plantations could reduce management intensity without sacrificing yield. Our study highlights various pathways to reconcile the economics and ecology of palm oil production and identifies management practices for a more sustainable future of oil palm cultivation.</p

A million and more trees for science

TreeDivNet is the largest network of biodiversity experiments worldwide, but needs to expand. We encourage colleagues to establish new experiments on the relation between tree species diversity and forest ecosystem functioning, and to make use of the platform for collaborative research

Tree islands enhance biodiversity and functioning in oil palm landscapes

In the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration1, large knowledge gaps persist on how to increase biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in cash crop-dominated tropical landscapes2. Here, we present findings from a large-scale, 5-year ecosystem restoration experiment in an oil palm landscape enriched with 52 tree islands, encompassing assessments of ten indicators of biodiversity and 19 indicators of ecosystem functioning. Overall, indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, as well as multidiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality, were higher in tree islands compared to conventionally managed oil palm. Larger tree islands led to larger gains in multidiversity through changes in vegetation structure. Furthermore, tree enrichment did not decrease landscape-scale oil palm yield. Our results demonstrate that enriching oil palm-dominated landscapes with tree islands is a promising ecological restoration strategy, yet should not replace the protection of remaining forests

Cooperative management and its effects on shade tree diversity, soil properties and ecosystem services of coffee plantations in western El Salvador

We compared how management approaches affected shade tree diversity, soil properties, and provisioning and carbon sequestration ecosystem services in three shade coffee cooperatives. Collectively managed cooperatives utilized less diverse shade, and pruned coffee and shade trees more intensively, than individual farms. Soil properties showed significant differences among the cooperatives, with the following properties contributing to differentiation: N, pH, P, K, and Ca. Higher tree richness was associated with higher soil pH, CEC, Ca, and Mg, and lower K. Higher tree densities were associated with lower N, K, and organic matter. Although we found differences in the incidence of provisioning services (e.g., fruit), all plantations generated products other than coffee. No differences were observed between C-stocks. The history and institutional arrangements of cooperatives can influence management approaches, which affect ecosystem properties and services. Our study corroborates that interdisciplinary investigations are essential to understand the socio-ecological context of tropical shade coffee landscapes

Planting Trees in Oil Palm Plantations: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Palm oil expansion in Indonesia is associated with both a reduction in biodiversity and ecosystem services, and livelihood improvements for smallholder farmers. While this dichotomy highlights the importance of sustainable management options, empirical evidence on which policies are effective in stimulating biodiversity-friendly plantation management is relatively scarce. This paper addresses this gap by presenting results from a Randomized Controlled Trial implemented in Jambi province, Sumatra, in 2016. We focus on tree nuclei planting in oil palm plantations as one sustainable management option. To test whether information and input provision affect smallholders tree enrichment activities, two treatments were designed: the first provided information about tree planting in oil palm, while the second combined information and input delivery. We model adoption in a double-hurdle framework where farmers first decide whether to adopt or not and then how many trees they plant per hectare. Our results suggest that both interventions are effective in stimulating tree planting in oil palm. While input provision in combination with information leads to a higher probability of adoption, farmers plant on average relatively few trees per hectare. In contrast, in the informational treatment, few farmers enrich but they plant more trees per hectare than farmers who received saplings. Acknowledgement : We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) who funded the data collection in the framework of the collaborative German-Indonesian research project CRC990

Adoption of food safety and quality standards among Chilean raspberry producers - Do smallholders benefit?

Villalobos, P (Villalobos, Pablo). Univ Talca, Fac Agr Sci, Dept Agr Econ, Talca, Maule Region, Chile.The growing importance of food quality and safety standards in international markets is influencing production and marketing conditions of farmers worldwide. The effects of this development on small-scale farmers in developing countries are controversially discussed in the scientific debate. While small-scale farmers may benefit from standard compliance in terms of better market access and technology upgrading, non-compliance may lead to market exclusion and marginalization. The present study aims to identify the factors influencing a certification according to food safety and quality standards and the impact on farm management and income among exportoriented raspberry farmers in Chile. Survey data from 57 certified and 169 non-certified Chilean smallholder raspberry producers is analyzed. The analysis of the certification decision shows that small-scale farmers are less likely to implement food safety and quality standards. Once farmers are able to overcome the barriers and implement a food standard, we find that this has a positive effect on their quality performance and net raspberry income. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Social capital and conservation under collective and individual incentive schemes: a framed field experiment in Indonesia

In this study, we explore the effects of payments for environmental services on land use decisions among farmers living in Jambi province in Indonesia. Using a framed field experiment we compare land use decisions in a baseline with no payment with two alternative payments for environmental services (PES): an individual incentive scheme, where each participant receives a flat rate payment for each experimental land unit conserved, and a collective incentive scheme that offers individual payments only if an aggregate pre-determined conservation threshold is passed by the group. We find that individual and collective PES are equally effective on the average to increase environmentally friendly behavior associated with the cultivation of rubber agroforestry. Yet we find that whereas individual incentives work equally well for small and large farmers, collective incentives only work for large farmers. In addition, collective incentives generate an increase in conservation even at low payment levels whereas individual incentives only work when payments are high. Participants with a larger social network cultivating oil palm invest a lower share of their endowment in conservation. These findings highlight how land heterogeneity and social capital influence the success of a PES scheme