Person: Mcdonald, Andrew
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Mcdonald
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Andrew
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Mcdonald, A.
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0000-0002-2660-3470 6 results
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- A framework for sustainable and inclusive irrigation development in Western Nepal(CSISA, 2022) Urfels, A.; Khadka, M.; Shrestha, N.; Pavelic, P.; Risal, A.; Uprety, L.; Shrestha, G.; Dile, Y.; Mcdonald, A.; Pandey, V.P.; Srinivasan, Raghavan; Krupnik, T.J.
Publication - Towards conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater resources as a response to water access challenges in the Western plains of Nepal(CSISA, 2021) Pandey, V.P.; Ray, A.; Khadka, M.; Urfels, A.; Mcdonald, A.; Krupnik, T.J.
Publication - New frontiers in agricultural extension - volume 1(CIMMYT, 2019) Singh, A.K.; Craufurd, P.; Mcdonald, A.; Singh, A.K.; Kumar, A.; Singh, Randhir; Singh, B.; Singh, S.; Kumar, V.; Malik, R.India’s self-sufficiency in food is widely regarded as its greatest achievement since Independence. The green revolution has played a great supporting role in increasing the income of rural households (HHs) where farms are too small and ecologies are too diverse. The topdown scaling out process was fundamental to the accelerated adoption of green revolution technologies in late 1960s and 70s. However, with the current development of an extensive network of KVKs, Indian agriculture has the opportunity to use diagnostic surveys and analytical tools for planning and implementing scaling-up and scalingout strategies in a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down process. In this book, data based evidence has been utilised for monitoring, evaluation and learning (ME&L) of adoption patterns of technologies. The objective is to achieve accelerated adoption of technologies in different ways, wherein extension also acts as part of priority setting (testing and evaluation at scale plus learning/feedback), and the sum of these components brings the specific technological intervention to focus. This publication on “New Frontiers in Agricultural Extension”, based on a landscape diagnostic survey of approximately 8,000 fields, is the first in series of three publications from the BMGF-funded KVK-CSISA network project being implemented by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The publication provides evidence on how different technologies are being accepted by farmers and how to improve the delivery system of technologies. The challenge has been to analyse how technologies were modified as they diffused and became more reliable and acceptable by a larger proportion of farmers. The Agricultural Extension Division (ICAR), through its Agricultural Technology Application and Research Institutes (ATARIs), hoped to create an end-to-end feedback mechanism for research and extension, as well as a digital transformation based convergence program, that will define the impact pathways of its KVK system and change the way research and extension systems operate. The innovations include: methods to design spatially representative surveys, digital survey data collection tools that enable rapid data uploading, a web-based portal hosted by ICAR to make data visible and accessible, and data analysis packages in open-source software for analysis. Data have enabled us to increase the reach of KVKs, and once properly analysed such data sets can help KVKs and their parent institutions to serve in a better way and a much larger population of farmers. The first volume of this document “New Frontiers in Agricultural Extension” incorporates the main outcomes of landscape diagnostic survey (LDS) of wheat across 29 districts of Bihar and nine districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh with 7,648 data points (wheat) and from Odisha with 400 data points (rice). The project has set a target to conduct the LDS in 110 districts across eight ATARIs with more than 40,000 data points. This volume contains the methodology involved in LDS, data from respondent farmers on the production practices of wheat and rice, and their relationship with existing recommendations. It also contains a priority setting exercise that can be shared with multi-disciplinary research teams in the research institutes including State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and with Department of Agriculture (DoA) in the concerned state. This publication will help in developing a vibrant and faster cycle of research and extension, by improving the linkage with DoAs for better seasonal planning and linking it with research institutions for setting research priorities and strengthening the monitoring, evaluation and learning (ME&L) in NARES.
Publication - Integrated weed management in rice: training of trainers modules(CIMMYT, 2017) Kumar, V.; Yadav, A.K.; Malik, R.; Peramaiyan, P.; Kumar, A.; Krupnik, T.J.; Das, B.N.; Dubey, S.; Gautam, U.S.; Kumar, A.; Mishra, J.S.; Pathak, H.; Panwar, G.S.; Das, A.; Pattnaik, S.; Singh, S.; Mcdonald, A.In India, weeds are responsible for about 33% of total yield losses caused by pests, whereas insects and diseases are responsible for 26% and 20%, respectively. Weeds interfere with crops by competing for light, water, nutrients and space resulting in reduction of crop yield and quality. The yield reduction in any crop through weed competition depends on several factors such as weed flora and density, duration of competition, management practices and climatic conditions. Therefore, timely weed management is crucial for attaining optimal grain yield of a crop. However, none of the single weed control methods are effective for all weeds and to manage weeds effectively and sustainably in the long run, it is essential to develop and deploy flexible integrated weed management (IWM) practices. IWM consists of physical, cultural, chemical, and biological means developed on knowledge of weed ecology and biology. In addition, costs involved in weed management constitute a significant share of total cost of production. Weeds have also become major constraints in adoption of new resource-efficient (labor, water, and tillage) technologies such as direct-seeded rice and reduced/zero-till systems. In eastern India, hand weeding has traditionally been the most common practice of weed control in rice and other cereals crops. In recent years, because of rising scarcity of labor and increasing labor wages, farmers have started adopting herbicides for weed control. However, farmers have limited knowledge on proper herbicide handling, selection of herbicide molecules and their time of application, application technologies for better efficacy, and environmental and human health risks associated with their incorrect use. Therefore, there is a need to train and develop master trainers with a strong understanding of IWM, who will help to pass on this knowledge on to farmers. This training module covers critical topics on the principles and practices of IWM, in the context of Indian agriculture, where the majority of farmers are smallholders. Strong emphasis has been placed on hands-on learning and learning by experience. This module aims to provide guidance to the training facilitators to conduct rapid two-day trainings on IWM, including step-by-step detailed instructions on how to facilitate the training, training materials required for successfully conducting different sessions, and instructions on how to conduct hands-on trainings, field visits and practical sessions. IWM principles can be better learned through multiple training sessions combined with practical sessions, or as part of a farmer field school than a single classroom session covering different aspects of IWM. Hence, while this module covers five training sessions that can be conducted consecutively over two days, they can also be delivered as individual modules, for example, during a season-long farmer field school.
Publication - Book of extended summaries: national dialogue on efficient nutrient management for Improving soil health(TAAS, 2015) Majumdar, K.; Sikka, A.K.; Paroda, R.S.; Mcdonald, A.; Jat, M.L.Improving soil health is a national mission and deliberating on such a topical issues through national dialogue is a collective wisdom of the organizers. Our sincere appreciations to the senior management of the organizing institutions; TAAS, ICAR, CIMMYT, IPNI, CSISA and FAI for their unconditional financial and technical support to organize such an event at the time when global community is celebrating “International Year of Soils”. We are more than confident that such a national dialogue will create awareness among large number of researchers, land users, civil society and policy planners about the soil health and help in developing an ‘actionable road map’ to contribute to the national mission on soil health. We thankfully acknowledge the overwhelming response and commitment of all the distinguished chairs, co-chairs, panelists, speakers and facilitators of various sessions whose intellectual power will make the difference in meeting the objectives of the dialogue. Our heartfelt thanks to the Chair, co-chair and members of the organizing committee and technical committee of the event for their dedicated efforts in organizing this national event. We sincerely acknowledge the support of Director IARI, secretary ICAR and Secretary DARE & Director General ICAR for extending the conference facilities for this event. Excellent logistic and administrative support received from Ms. Tripti Agarwal (CIMMYT), Ms. Simmi Dogra (TAAS) and Mr. Kailash Kalwania (CIMMYT) is highly appreciated.
Publication - Made in Bangladesh: scale-appropriate machinery for agricultural resource conservation(CIMMYT, 2013) Krupnik, T.J.; Santos Valle, S.; Mcdonald, A.; Justice, S.; Hossain, I.; Gathala, M.K.An open-source publication targeted to machinery manufacturers, engineers, researchers and development practitioners, this book describes and provides technical designs for small-scale agricultural machinery developed or produced in Bangladesh to support the sustainable intensification of agriculture by smallholder farmers. The focus is on smart, scale-appropriate equipment - particularly for use with two-wheel hand tractors suited for the small plots typical throughout Bangladesh, but also in many countries where small-holder farmers predominate. Most of the machinery is designed for use with conservation agriculture crop management practices and allows precise and timely seeding and fertilization of crops with reduced soil disturbance. Each chapter includes written descriptions and photographs of the machines, outlining their purpose, performance and field use, followed by detailed, to-scale technical designs and other information to facilitate production of standardized copies or improvements in the original designs. The implements described include zero tillage and strip till seed and fertilizer drills, bed planters, axial flow irrigation pumps, strip tillage blades, improved furrow openers and seed metering mechanisms - all specialized for use with two-wheel tractors.
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