Towards mapping Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) research into use in Nigeria

Africa as the second largest continent after Asia is still struggling to feed her teaming population (1.1 billion; 15 percent of world’s total population). Organic agriculture has been identified globally as a potential strategy to solve food and related problems affecting Africans because it integrates sustainability, biodiversity and ecosystem services, while producing affordable, nutritious and safe food. Pillar 1 (Research, Training and Extension) of the Ecological Organic Agriculture (EOA) Initiative is poised to oversee the conduct of relevant demand driven, end user oriented and easily adoptable research projects on EOA that will transform the continent’s agricultural output. Consequently, an activity was carried out in 2016 to document recent researches relevant to EOA in various disciplines, identify the gaps in EOA researches across disciplines and recommend appropriate areas for further research activities to bridge the knowledge gaps in EOA researches. The activity covered 2013, 2014 and 2015 with emphasis on Nigeria. A total of 203 research articles were reviewed across eleven thematic areas/disciplines: Agronomy (Soil science, crop production and management), plant health (plant pathology, nematology, virology, bacteriology etc.), genetics and breeding, molecular genetics, physiology, food quality, extension, socio-economics, policy issues, organic livestock and organic aquaculture. The spread of research efforts revealed as follows: Agronomy (131=65%), Plant health (43= 21%), Food quality (4=1.9%), Extension (10=4%), Socio-economics (3=1.4%), Policy issues (3=1.4%), Organic livestock (5=2.4%) and Organic aquaculture (4=1.9%). No articles were found on genetics and breeding, molecular genetics and physiology. The implication of this spread is discussed in the paper

Suitability evaluation of some peri-urban soils for rainfed arable crop production in Lagos State, Southwestern Nigeria

A study was carried out to evaluate the suitability of some Peri-urban soils in Lagos state for arable crop production. Six pedons classified as Alagba (Rhodic Hapludult), Dodokindo (Plinthic Kandiudult), Idesan (Typic Endoaquept), Owode (Typic Kandiudult), Atan (Fluvaquentic Endoaquept) and Pakoto (Plinthic Kandiudult) Series identified at two study sites located at Igbokuta and Ibomwon communities in Ikorodu and Epe Local Government Areas of Lagos state were evaluated. The land use potentials for maize, cassava and leafy vegetables (Amaranth family) were assessed following the conventional non-parametric and the parametric (square root) methods of land suitability evaluation according to the revised FAO framework. All the pedons were rated as marginally suitable (S3) for maize except Idesan and Owode Series that made up 2.53% and 34.74% of the total area respectively, which were rated moderately suitable (S2). With respect to cassava and leafy vegetables, all the pedons were rated marginally suitable (S3) except Atan Series occupying 19.71 % of the total area, that was rated non-suitable (N1). The major limitations to sustainable crop production in all pedons were low nutrient supply (N, K, P and cations) coupled with high soil acidity (pH of between 3.9 and 5.8). In addition to this, Idesan and Atan series also have waterlogging problem hence may not be used for cultivating the afore-mentioned crops, but could be used for swamp rice. With appropriate liming, soil fertility management and proper drainage, most of the pedons may be rated as being moderately suitable (S2) for the cultivation of these crops. As a peri-urban area with high demand for agricultural products, year-round cropping with irrigation facilities is quite promising in most of the pedons studied

Towards Understanding and Sustaining Natural Resource Systems through the Systems Perspective: A Systematic Evaluation

A bibliometric and network analysis was performed to explore global research publication trends and to investigate relevant policy recommendations in the field of sustainability of natural resources, system dynamics, and systems thinking, to solve water resources issues and enhance water resource management. Overall, 1674 academic research articles data were generated from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, from 1981 to 2019. The findings of this study revealed that system dynamics and systems thinking research has significantly increased over the last decade (from 40 to 250 articles). Countries such as the USA (20%), China (18%), the United Kingdom (5%), Canada, Iran, Australia, and India (4% each) have the most publications and strongest collaborative networks. Sterman (2000) and Forrester (1961) had the most co-cited research while Zhang X had the highest citations, respectively. Results also showed that system theory which includes systems thinking and system dynamics were the most used keywords. The Journal of Cleaner Production was found to have published the highest number of systems thinking and system dynamics related studies, perhaps due to scope relevance. Despite the exponential rise in natural resource sustainability research globally, the result of this study shows that developing countries especially in Africa have low numbers of research publications in the field. Thus, the result of this study serves as a signal for policymakers to increase attention on research publications that could enhance natural resource sustainability, particularly in less developed countries in Africa where the application of systems thinking to natural resource management is limited