Science, Policy and Politics of Modern Agricultural System

Agricultural and food system can unequivocally be described as major agent of global change since it has been responsible for more environmental externalities than any other technology in a variety of ways. This system has also had a major impact on humanity, notably through the process of development with which it is intimately associated. In the meantime, the converse aspect of the relationship between agriculture, environment, and people means that the environmental, socioeconomic, and technological developments have had, and will continue to have, repercussions for agricultural and food system. Thus, the real agricultural and food challenges of the future will differ according to their geopolitical and socio-economic contexts. From a policy viewpoint, however, it is also critical to understand the degree to which agriculturally related activities may contribute to global-scale environmental change and the extent to which policies to prevent, mitigate, or adapt to environmental change may themselves affect agriculture and food security. With reference to this multidimensional approach, the present chapter analyses the interactions between agriculture and global environmental change and highlights the related dynamics pertaining to socio-economic drivers, science and technology. Policy implications are underlined within the perspective of making these interactions sustainable and human security-oriented.

The ecological significance of sustainable development has increased dramatically since the so called ‘green economy’ and organic production have been turning into sources of competitive advantage for the country in the international markets. For its part this undoubtedly leads to stronger economic competitiveness. All government’s measures to overcome the consequences of the world economic crisis should aim at directing the economy toward sustainable development and low carbon-emission intensity. The opposite would mean unstable and insecure future, growing production costs as a result of dynamic energy prices and problems in terms of climate changes. Bulgarian economy is strongly dependent on tourism and agriculture. These two sectors show enormous potential for developing ‘green economy’. Adequate macro-economic policy aiming at developing these sectors would serve as an additional incentive for creating competitive advantage. Organic agriculture as a sector provides various opportunities due to the well-established traditions. The production of oil-yielding crops, fruit, vegetables, wine and meat has always had excellent world markets. What would really stimulate and intensify the development of this branch is the establishment of a national fund with the aim to finance the development of new environmental technology and innovation? Eco fees (including the newly introduced carbon dioxide tax) can contribute significantly to this fund. Stimulating the development of ‘green’ production should involve different fiscal and other economic instruments. Long-term tax reliefs and favored development of eco-innovations and biotechnologies facilitate the integration of the environmental aspect in the system of economic, industrial and social policies.

The chapter highlights the environmentally sound and commercially sustainable agriculture development in Nigeria. It provides basic information about Nigeria and addresses the present status of agriculture, use of agricultural inputs, environmental degradation, commercial farming and its pre-requisites, paradigm shift and sustainability. Nigeria has the capacity to produce crops ranging from cereals to trees and fruit crops, therefore, it has good potential for sustainable development of commercial agriculture. This can be achieved through the expansion of cultivable areas and use of external inputs to achieve maximum yields per hectare in commercial farming.

The participation and contribution of agricultural extension can be the most useful approaches to ensure greater dissemination and sustainability of gains for the Thai farmers. The objectives of this study therefore were to ascertain farmers’ participation and involvement of agricultural extension programs, to identify some factors affecting farmers’ participation of extension program, and also to clarify constrains toward the prevention farmers’ involvement and association toward agricultural extension programs and services. The data were collected from 190 farmers household in Surin province, northeast Thailand. The semi-questionnaire structures were used as tools for data collection. One way ANOVA is used for analysis the statistic. The results coming from this study showed that the farmers had the neutral pagination level of the participation. Moreover, some socio-economic data of farmers merely educational level is significantly influenced reasons toward their participation. The main obstacles among farmers observed in this survey include lack of leaders/representatives for farming group activities of the participation. This study also suggested that agricultural mobility service should meet farmers often in order to motivate more famer’s participation in extension activities and get more information and knowledge.

The study hinged on the socio-economic analysis of inorganic versus organic practices in Irish potato production in Kisoro District, Uganda. The study comprised of field surveys and desk reviews using materials gathered from various departments at Kisoro District Local Government (KDLG), NGOs, agro inputs dealers, Key Informants (KI) and farming communities. Production per hectare was looked into since it gives a clue to the types of farming systems employed, which determines the use of inorganic amendments. The findings showed that the use of inorganic practices in Kisoro District is associated with immigrant farmers from Rwanda, NGOs and agricultural extension personnel. Actual adoption is determined by farmer income and type of farming—commercial farmers and farmer associations remained active because of financial capability. The high population pressure, the need for more output, intensive cultivation and reduced soil productivity per ha have led to the use of inorganic practices in Irish potato production. The practices face different challenges such as inability to continuous purchase and judicious use of inorganic fertilizers, threats to human and ecosystem (environmental) health that are paving way for traditional organic farming. The latter contains several benefits including good quality potatoes, low health risks to humans and ecosystems and sustained soil fertility.

Agriculture is the principal lever of economic and social development in Morocco. Since 1998, drought has become structural in the country and climatic conditions, especially rainfall, were marked by an imbalance among different regions and a heterogeneous distribution between seasons. This generates problems of agricultural production in rural areas especially in Southern Morocco which is characterized by arid climate. The rural world in general is confronted to major challenges due to natural risks (drought); low economic growth; high poverty rate and jeopardized natural resources sustainability due to overexploitation. Some production systems so-called “traditional” have shown their adaptation to environmental constraints. It would be necessary to identify them and evaluate their capacity to cope with climate change. Rural areas of Southern Morocco are underprivileged in terms of infrastructure and water resources availability. Nevertheless they present an important bio-geographic diversity of natural resources namely, Argan tree, prickly pear, honey, olives, dates, capers, almonds, carobs, saffron, roses, medicinal and aromatic plants, etc. This local richness, combined with a culture of local know-how, offers a variety of regional products adapted to the arid climate. From the economic point of view, Southern Morocco and its products constitute an important source of income or at least of essential nutrition for the local population and are by themselves a pillar of a traditional agricultural system, which needs to be preserved and valued with the aim of promoting the economic development of these regions. The National Initiative for Human Development and the Green Morocco Plan launched in Morocco in 2005 and 2008 respectively, are policies to encourage rural and social development projects with the objective of improving the income of small farmers by infrastructure development, rural youth training and technical assistance. These initiatives contribute in an effective way to the stabilization of the populations in rural zones while improving their living conditions.

The study measured the economic impacts of climate change on wheat production in Bangladesh using Ricardian approach. Panel data on wheat yield and climate variables were used to estimate the model. Results indicated that most climate variables had a significant impact on the income of wheat production. The marginal increase of temperature during January and February reduced the net revenue by Bangladeshi Taka (BTk) 18,885 ha−¹ (USD 239.05) and BTk 9,603 ha−¹ (USD 121.56) respectively, whereas, marginal increase of temperature during December increased it by BTk 7,045 ha−¹ (USD 89.18). Increasing rainfall during December and January increases the net return by BTk 128 ha−¹ (USD 1.62) and BTk 543 ha−¹ (USD 6.87) respectively. The study used predictions from five different Global Circulation Models (GCM) for two IPCC emission scenarios and found that impacts on net revenues for these two scenarios are mixed depending on model predictions. Net revenue will decrease for both A2 and B2 emission scenarios using precipitation and temperature predictions for 2030 for three of the models, while it will increase for two models. At the same time, for 2050, net revenue will fall when temperature and precipitation of one of the models are used for the rest net revenue will rise. This means that while our study provided marginal effects for temperature and precipitation changes on farm’s net revenue, understanding about the climate change impact requires better climate modeling for the local situation. This is important to accurately predict the impact of climate change for future years.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the most water deficit countries. The country is not suitable to support sustainable agriculture. Even though to achieve food security, the agriculture sector receives prime importance in the national developmental plans. Water remains an essential input for crop production, and hence it has to be used wisely and economically. Farmers in the Kingdom are still using old traditional methods to irrigate their farmlands. However, to conserve and maintain the precious water resources, it is important that farmers use modern irrigation methods. The present research primarily aims at studying the farmers’ attitude towards the use of different irrigation methods, in the region of Tabuk. Data were collected through the structured questionnaire and administered personally after checking its validity and reliability. Simple random sample technique was used to take a sample of 320 farmers which represents 7.9 % of the total population of farmers employing irrigations in order to meet the study objectives. The questionnaire phrased in simple language consists of sixteen questions to measure the attitudes of farmers towards irrigation methods. The correlation between some personal characteristics and socio-economic conditions of the farmers and their attitudes towards the use of both traditional and modern methods of irrigation were studied. Data were subjected to statistical analysis by using SPSS (2009). Findings of the study indicate that farmers have the positive attitudes towards the use of modern irrigation methods. Therefore, sufficient quantity of water can be saved by the farmers by replacing the old traditional irrigation methods with the modern ones. The study suggests the need for awareness campaigns among the farmers. Launching of agricultural extension education programs on efficient and water saving irrigation methods could be very suitable and viable option for conserving and maintaining water resources of the kingdom.

In Egypt to keep pace with the increasing food requirements for the rapidly growing population, there is an imperative need to reclaim and cultivate more agricultural areas. More attention should be given to increase the productivity of the degraded salt affected soils since they are potentially productive and require less investment, effort and time for restoring their productivity in comparison with other marginal arid lands. At present salt affected areas are either of poor or of low quality mainly due to the occurrence and development of salinity and sodicity problems, which hinder realization of the beneficial results of any agricultural inputs. The management of degraded salt affected areas is a multi-disciplinary strategy and joint efforts between key persons who involved in this process. The transfer of the knowledge from consultants and scientists to landowners and farmers to support their capacity represents the bottleneck for the development of degraded soils at the national level. Therefore, there is a need for an unconventional method to collect and transfer the knowledge and expertise in the degraded problematic soils domain to the general responsible persons who involved in this process. It promises great prospects for application and great economic value to adopt Expert System (ES) as an artificial intelligence and a management tool in accordance with the research results achieved by the degraded problematic soils ameliorating experts and their successful experiences. Therefore, a user-friendly expert system computer program was developed for the management of degraded problematic soils. The developed Management Expert System (HCMEXS) can help users to make appropriate decisions on the management of degraded soils to achieve the goal of soil improvement, it also helps farmer to make correct decisions on agricultural practice.

Ever increasing population and shrinking fertile and productive agricultural land resources are viewed as the biggest threats to sustainability of world’s resources. To feed more mouths, and reverse land degradation, many biological, engineering, and chemical strategies have been tried; unfortunately these have met partial success. Land and environmental degradation is on the increase, declining the productive capacities of the fertile soils. The land issues like soil erosion (water and wind), salinity and waterlogging; and desertification are hammering crop yields and have severely disturbed the ecosystems in Pakistan. In this chapter attempts have been made to enlist factors and causes responsible for land degradation and resultant lower crop-yields. The prime causes of land degradation and low crops yields in Pakistan are: poor irrigation and drainage practices, deforestation, over-grazing, loss of biodiversity, water scarcity, frequent droughts, migration and unending new residential areas, mass-scale agriculture, flash floods, rising populations, prevailing poverty, and weak link between research-extension-farmers. Degraded lands can be rehabilitated by employing an integrated approach comprising physical, chemical, hydrological, and biological methods. However, it would require scientific diagnostics of the degradation level and to be able to make informed decisions to combat the issues in a holistic way. It is imperative that technical programs must be intervened/interwoven with the extension education components aiming at creating awareness, capacity building, and the active participation of farming community including civil society, NGOs, women groups and youth folks.

In recent years, there is a growing interest in biofuels as substitute for fossil oils to counter greenhouse gas emission and global climate change. The Jatropha curcas, a tropical shrub is attracting the interests of policy makers and the energy industry as one of the promising sources of high quality biofuel, extracted from the seeds. Although Jatropha has been publicized as a wonder biofuel with unlimited potential, the key issue is the productivity under different environments and land types. In this regards it is essential to assure that the lands where Jatropha is to be grown has the potential to support such plantation. In Indonesia, we characterized the main producing areas of Jatropha in 2007–2008. The evaluation was made through studying soil morphologies, chemical properties and their relationship with plant growth and Jatropha oil content.The results showed that Jatropha can grow and develop over a wide range of soil textures (3–88 % clay), soil pH (4–8.2), soil available P and exchangeable K, cation exchange capacity, elevation of up to 900 m above sea level, and precipitation from 527 to 4,154 mm per annum. However, Jatropha does not develop satisfactorily at altitude > 1,000 m above sea level and in poorly drained soils. The variations in soil characteristics and climate lead the variation of the oil content (46–61 %), oil viscosity (72–86 centipoise), and the weight of 100 seeds (48.2–72.8 g). It has been generally observed that in areas with higher rainfall, the plant height leaf area, leaf weight and stem diameter were less than those in the low rainfall areas. The longer the dry months (> 8 months), the lower is the oil content. This land suitability criteria can be applied to develop land suitability maps and, in turn, Jatropha development in Indonesia.

Plant physiological processes are invariably linked to the deleterious influences of climate change. This study seeks to identify the physiological responses of some salt tolerant ecotypes of alfalfa when exposed to salt stress during the mature phase of growth. Five Iranian alfalfa ecotypes representative of three climatic zones were evaluated for their response to salt stress in a split plot trial, with three replications, where the main plots were five ecotypes and subplots were the levels of salinity. The seeds were planted in plastic pots filled with sand and immersed in nutrient solution. After more than 2 months when the plant became mature the EC of nutrient solution was increased gradually by adding sodium chloride. At every 15 days the EC increased by 3 dS m⁻¹, and the final EC was 18 dS m⁻¹. The EC at each stage of salt addition was 6, 12, and 18 dS m⁻¹. At each stage of salinity the physiological characteristics of alfalfa ecotypes were measured including: crop growth rate, photosynthesis rate, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, and chlorophyll fluorescence. The results showed that the physiological parameters were affected by salt concentration and there were varying responses between genotypes. Salt stress resulted in a linear decline in the photosynthetic rate from 21 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ in control to 5 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ at 18 dS m⁻¹. Ecotypes showed similar responses in photosynthesis and stomatal conductance under salt stress. A positive correlation between CO₂ net uptake and stomatal conductance was observed. The chlorophyll content decreased with increasing salinity and there is a significant difference between ecotypes in terms of chlorophyll content. The results of Fv/Fm, ratio showed that up to 12 dS m⁻¹ there were not significant changes in Fv/Fm ratio but after 12 dS m⁻¹ the Fv/Fm ratio decreased with increasing of salt stress. There was a significant difference in Fv/Fm ratio among the ecotypes with increasing salinity. The study indicated that physiological responses to salinity varied among ecotypes, indicating genotypic differences in salt tolerance. In terms of physiological response the ecotype Ghargholough was identified as the most salt tolerant and should be chosen for areas that have become saline as a result of climate change.

Trees and shrubs have provided many benefits. Currently these are disappearing in the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya and affecting the livelihoods of pastoralist depending on livestock production. The climate change will affect it further. The trees and shrubs are under serious threat, especially in the Sahelian zone, owing to increased periodic droughts, rapid increase of population leading to overexploitation. The aim of the study is to assess the feasibility of incorporating Prosopis juliflora seedpods into a typical dryland livestock production system. Twenty weaner Galla goats of similar age (6 months) and weights (11–14 kg) were randomly assigned to four treatments of five weaners each. The treatments were PJP0- No P. juliflora (control treatment), PJP100- (100 g/goat/day P. juliflora), PJP200 (200 g/goat/day P. juliflora), and PJP400 (400 g/goat/day P. juliflora). The experiment lasted for 70 days. All the treatment groups exhibited higher average weekly weight gains than PJP0 (control) throughout the experimental period. However, for the first 3 weeks, these differences were not statistically significant (P < 0.05). From the fifth week onwards, however, the differences in growth rates were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Treatment PJP200 exhibited the highest total weight gain (3.96 kg), followed by PJP400 (2.70 kg). Group PJP0 had lowest weight by the end of the experiment. This study demonstrated that P. juliflora could be used as goats feed up to 200 g/goat/day giving good weight gains and no negative effects on feed intakes and digestibility.

A concurrent study was conducted during 2005–2009 to evaluate the utilization of the natural resources available in Lake Manzalah, Dakahliah Governorate. The study was designed to rear silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) fingerlings in cages alternatively with breading calves (males and females) on plankton and common reed (Phragmites australis) respectively. For intensive culture of H. molitrix fingerlings were stocked at a rate of 10 fish m⁻³, and growing calves with a rate of 30 calves (2:1 cow: buffalo) with an initial average body weight of (10 g/fish, 155 kg/animal) respectively. The results showed that average body weight for fish reached 1,250 g/fish and each cage produced about 3 metric tons. However, as for the calves the weight increased with an average daily gain of 0.44 kg day⁻¹. By the end of the 4th year, the annual production reached for fish to 14,700 tons and for calves 53.6 tons of live body weights. The percentage of the annual profitability reached 387 and 88 % for fish and calves, respectively. Thus, the present study indicates that the maximum production capacity reaching within 5 years could produce 34,000 and 808 tons of fish and calves, respectively. The finding of the present study, if applied to the other eutrophic Northern Delta lakes such as Burullus, Edku, and Maruit, this can certainly help ensuring the production of low cost animal protein for human consumption, creating new jobs in the rural areas around these lakes.

A significant increase in the global demand of animal products is expected in the near future, because of changes in food consumption patterns in emerging countries. To fulfil the needs, a “Livestock Revolution” should occur and it will have to target in priority smallholder farms in developing countries, as they are the main actors in supply chains of milk and meat. To achieve an increase in milk yield and live weight gain at farm level, new tools of intervention have to be tested. In fact, in many developing countries, State services are currently withdrawing from their traditional support to farmers, and therefore innovative methods should be set-up. They will also require a more responsible implication of the stakeholders in supply chains, particularly with well-organized farmers’ associations. In areas characterized by water stress and climate change, this should be a top priority issue in the agenda of agricultural development institutions. It is generally acknowledged that livestock production necessitates important volumes of water for forage production and rations conceptions. In this chapter, an example of an intervention research is presented from the Tadla large-scale irrigation scheme (centre of Morocco) as an illustration of intensive cattle dairy production in a semi arid region (less than 300 mm of annual rainfall). Results related to the evaluation of water productivity through cattle farming and trials to increase the average milk yield per cow are presented. A reflection on the possibilities to use “virtual water” and on the generalisation of such methods to whole dairy farmers in a supply basin (i.e. an irrigation scheme) is finally developed with its consequences on the resilience of smallholder units. Thus, a capacity building process is urgently required to upgrade farmers’ performances. This will induce the adoption of on-farm practices, from irrigation systems to soil fertility management and forage biomass production. It will also rely on the continuous design of balanced dietary rations for lactating cows and their impacts on cattle load (number of cattle per ha of forage). Finally, more attention should be paid to the existing farmers’ co-operatives, which would constitute crucial operators in disseminating innovation processes to face the challenges of water shortage in cattle production systems.

Sixty two Border Leicester Merino ewes were scored for body condition weekly till lambing. Body condition score and nutritional status, at lambing showed a suggestive influence on the colostrum concentration collected from the ewes within twelve hours of lambing (P = 0.06). Ewes scored 2.5–3.5 were superior regarding IgG concentration than both of those who scored higher and lower than this category. Lambs that were born to ewes with body condition score of (2.5–3.5) at lambing weaned heavier than those who were born to ewes of either higher or lower BCSL (p = 0.02). Weaning weights (at age of 95 days) for these lambs were heavier because of the quality of colostrum they were fed. Sex of lambs born was not affecting the quality of colostrum. In general, colostrum from ewes gave birth to twins is with higher quality than colostrum of ewes that gave birth to singles. Although not significant, male lambs tended to be born heavier than those female lambs whether they were born single or twins. Male lambs weaned heavier than female lambs (23.7 vs. 20.65 kg).Time of milk collection is a significant factor in colostrum concentration. Samples that were collected closer to the time of lambing tend to have higher colostrum concentration (p = 0.002).

Since the 1970’s, the shortage of available and usable resources has been seen as the ‘limit to growth’. Since then, the regenerative-ability of the environment—its ability to absorb harmful substances and waste products, has achieved a similar standing. Critical ecological examination must take not only the beginning, but also the end of the production chain into consideration, and thereby give equal weight to the exhaustion of important production materials (energy, raw materials) as well as to the over-stretching of the ecological reproduction capacity of the Earth. To recognize the carbon influence in production processes, it is necessary to balance anthropogenic material streams. For production processes and material recycling, the smallest common and not further reducible indicator is carbon. With knowledge of requirements, it is possible to reduce carbon consumption as a becoming scarce natural resource and fossil fuel which is used in different production process. Therefore, the material fluxes as the product of density (mass by volume) and hydrologic flow velocity (distance by time) must be known for every place and time of the production process. This investigation shows that the annual input and output of carbon in processes are almost balanced. With this carbon-balance, it is possible to identify resources and depressions of carbon and to point out approaches for optimization. Mostly material streams show a flow of valuable materials which can be merchandized if the quality is still right. This also reflects the strategy of cradle-to-cradle. To evaluate these anthropogenic impacts of pollutants on the environment or material streams in the natural circle, it is indispensable to use the benefits of computer systems—in particular artificial intelligence. Most of impact factors are time related and therefore difficult to calculate and to optimize in a natural environmental system. Use of evolutionary algorithms as a part of the artificial intelligence to simulate, estimate and evaluate pollutants or specific materials makes it possible to evaluate the impact on the environment and to optimize material streams in nature or recycling streams.

The study is conducted in semi deciduous rain forest zone of southern Cameroon to appreciate the impact of cocoa agroforest on plant biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. Twenty-four transects of 1.5 km long and 10 m wide were established in eight villages to evaluate the cover percentage of cocoa compare to other land use system (LUS). Forty five plots of 625 m² (25 m x 25 m) each were surveyed in these villages. In these plots, all the individuals with DBH (Diameter at the Breast Height) greater or equal to 4 cm were recorded. The destructive method was used to evaluate carbon sequestration in different LUS for herbaceous plants, small woody plants, litter and roots, while the allometric equation of Brown was used for all individuals with DBH ≥ 4 cm. Seven LUS were identified in the Yaounde region: 23 % of these were cultivated land, 36 % were fallows, 16 % were cocoa field and 5 % represented the secondary forest derived from the slash and burn practices. In the regions of Mbalmayo and Ebolowa, eight LUS were identified, of which six shared with the region of Yaounde and two different, the degraded forest and swampy forest. Species encountered in cocoa agroforest represent 33.78 % of the total flora of the area. Fruit trees were abundant in those villages which have access to market (Persea americana, Dacryodes edulis, Citrus spp), while in Ambam region, original forest species mostly timber species were encountered (Baillonella toxisperma, Guibourtia tessmannii, Terminalia superba, Milicia excels). This agroforest can accumulate about 251.14 t C/ha. Theobroma cacao hosted about 21.51 t C/ha. The root system of cover species stocks an important quantity of carbon.

Climatic change and demography represent important challenges for agronomists. They have to discover more innovative systems and technologies to fulfill food, feeding and energy demands. Such innovations may mime nature and couple advantages from soil biology and plant diversity and mutual advantages between the whole systems: soil—plant and plant to plant and the ecosystems. Forests systems give us examples of natural performances to discover and transfer elsewhere. Because of negative impacts of monoculture oriented intensification, agroforestry (association of perennial—annual crops and livestock) has created an interest in the international scientific community. This Traditional and also natural innovation has many advantages (preservation of biodiversity, diversification of productions, C sequestration, alternative solution for climatic change, enhancing agricultural land profitability, livestock integration, and erosion control). In Morocco such practice is adopted in the mountainous and oasis regions where water and/or land resources are limited. In these locations many crops are mixed and hence their monitoring is complicated. Unfortunately, few scientific studies were dedicated to such system and someone might describe it as primitive, non productive and must be changed. In this chapter focus has been on, the determination of the importance of olive tree and annual crops association in Saïs region, determination of annual crops cultivated between olive trees, agronomic evaluation of the associations, determination of advantages/ disadvantage according to farmers point of view and our observations, and proposition of some technical solutions to perform olive tree—annual crops associations.

While mangroves have since been regarded as natural wastelands, the need for their conservation is strongly felt today as their invaluable services and functions are being unveiled primarily due to increasing demand for their products and the forest land. Appraising various models of management institutions to enhance conservation and sustainability of these valuable resources has thus been advocated over the recent past. Social taboos exist in most cultures, and they demonstrate forms of informal institutions, where traditional norms, rather than state institutions (laws, regulations), determine human behavior toward exploitation of natural resources. Despite the ill-recognition of these traditional management practices by the state organs, traditional communities have for centuries maintained these practices to ensure the survival of the forests on grounds of spiritual and ecological values. In this chapter we reviewed the state of knowledge of the functional conservation values of sacred mangrove forests in Tanzania and how they are being conceived as models for the promotion of community based conservation (CBC). The discussion is based on the perspectives of forest dependency, traditional access and use rights, traditional ecological knowledge, socio-ecological integration of culture and forest, and the traditional power relations. We argue that traditional people, who have maintained strong ties to their cultural norms and kept the sacred groves outshining the contemporary models of conservation, should bear the pride and honor in the renaissance of conservation tenets.

One of the major challenges to enhance food security amongst rural populations in developing countries including Zimbabwe is the continued existence of high postharvest losses, accompanied by low yields due to climate change, among other factors. It therefore becomes imperative to investigate the level of adoption and utilization of ethno-postharvest technologies in a bid to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses to safeguard yields before consumption. Data was collected in Buhera district through triangulation, which involved semi-structured interviews with five elderly people snowball sampled and purposively chosen Agritex officers as well as questionnaires administered to 100 purposively selected smallholder farmers. Crops and technology observations during fieldwork also constituted an important component of the data gathering techniques. Research results show that although some long established and effective traditional methods like “tsapi” were abandoned, there are some residual traditional technologies still in use such as drying on “ruware”, threshing of small grains by cattle trampling and storing all crops in a traditional hut called “hozi” with the aid of pest repellents like cactus ash. Major factors leading to the demise of most traditional technologies include the absence of suitable education and information dissemination structures and competition from vigorously promoted western methods among others. It was concluded that in order to effectively minimize postharvest losses, indigenous technologies must be studied, documented and promoted by both practitioners and external agencies such as Agritex, and non-governmental organizations. Where possible, they can be augmented by modern day technologies to reduce the costs of post harvest storage for marginalized and poorly resourced smallholder farmers in the area.

Due to overemphasis on timber production in past decades, Non-Wood Forest Products (NWFPs) were neglected by foresters and policy makers leading to lack of attention on their values, although their uses are less ecologically destructive than timber harvesting. This study was conducted to emphasize the contribution of NWFPs to rural livelihood in South Kordofan State (Sudan) in terms of their values to provide subsistence, employment and income generation. The state is rich with various tree species which grow naturally. This research focused on the much precious species according to local knowledge, namely, Zizyphus spina-christi., Balantites aegyptiaca, Adansonia digitata, Tamaraindus indica, Acacia nilotica, Grewia tenax, Acacia Senegal, Croton zambesicus and Sterculia setigera. Data was collected through a questionnaire with a sample size of three hundreds households. Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the data using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The study came out with quantitative results declaring the high dependency of households on NWFPs for subsistence and income generation. More emphasis of forest management for such products could contribute to both sustainability and conservation objectives.

With global concerns over climate change and forest degradation, poverty reduction in and around forest areas seem to be less prominent on the agenda, even though there is an intrinsic link between poverty and deforestation. In this highly complex context, where forests must fulfill roles that range from global to local ecological and socio-economic services, forest policies face new challenges, depending on the institutional, legal and economic conditions in different countries. Vietnam has already taken up this challenge to integrate rural development with issues for sustainable natural resource management from the early nineties onward through their Forest Land Allocation (FLA) policy. After almost 20 years of FLA policies implementation, this chapter analyses the impacts of these decentralization FLA policies have on forest protection and socio-economic improvement of selected rural communities in and around the bufferzone of the Bach Ma National Park (BMNP), Central region of Vietnam. It pays particular attention to the effects of FLA policies on long existing customary institutions at the community level to sustainably use and protect forest resources. The research argues that the policy was a good initiative to create resource use rights as well as co-management for local communities. However, local people do not benefit from the implemented “decentralized” measures, shown by continuous illegal encroachment into the core zone of the BMNP. The main reason is that active participation of local people is absent, and policies do not fit the local needs and priorities. This chapter critically examines the process of decentralization as it has taken place in central Vietnam, focusing on the buffer zone surrounding (BMNP), where the Government and international organizations have implemented projects on decentralized forest land management, following along the policy framework and donor agendas. The study emphasizes that the decentralization process in forest management is to achieve success if participation of local people is given more attention.