Conservation agriculture (CA) systems are based upon minimal soil disturbance; crop residue retention and crop rotation and/or intercrop association are increasingly seen to recycle nutrients, increase yield and reduce ...

In southern Africa, semi-arid areas (here simply defined as areas with less than 700 mm but more than 350 mm of rainfall per annum) can be found from around 100 m to over 1,400 m above sea level. The semi-arid areas most ...

In the last six to eight years, farming systems adaptive research has contributed much to the understanding of maize production constraints on smallholder farms in southern Africa. It has contributed less to the development ...

Three on-farm experiments were conducted during 1984-85, 1985-87 in Siabuwa, Zimbabwe to test 1) earlier maturing food sorghums with pearly white grain and 2) fertilizer application as possible solutions to production ...

Lisungwi Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Mwanza Rural Development Project (RDP) has insufficient rainfall for optimum maize growth. The soils are generally low in organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, and magnesium. Farmers ...

Most intercropping research has been conducted on experiment stations with the aim of proving or understanding the efficiency or advantage of intercropping systems, or of designing new systems on the basis of biological ...

Natural conditions and major resource differences such as farm size are commonly used in on-farm research to define homogeneous 'recommendation domains' within which new technologies are tested. Successful trial results ...

Maize accounts for 70% of Zimbabwe's cereal growing area. Its productivity, particularly in the communal areas, is limited by both soil and moisture constraints. Most soils in communal areas are coarse-textured sands derived ...

Virtually all current strategies to implement modern, sustainable crop management production practices involve conservation/zero tillage prior to seeding, some form of crop residue retention and management, fertilizer ...

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 ...