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Food Crop Production by Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa. Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement

  • Book

  • February 2018
  • Region: Africa
  • Elsevier Science and Technology
  • ID: 4398606

Food Crop Production by Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement evaluates traditional cultivation practices used by smallholder farmers, providing a synthesis of the latest information on increasing crop yield through adoption of research innovations. The book catalogs smallholder cultivation practices and recommends innovative strategies for improving the agriculture sector including: management practices that reduce net carbon emissions; technologies that improve soil structures and conserve the natural resources base; means of empowering female resources along value chains; and government commitment to adopt policies that enhance agriculture productivity by encouraging farmers to use environmentally sound cultivation technologies.

Traditional farming techniques often produce negative impacts on the environment and ecosystem resulting in outbreaks of diseases and pests. In addition to the region's recurrent droughts, these outbreaks of numerous diseases and pests, weeds and other invasive plants put thousands at risk of poverty and hunger, as well as malnutrition. This book presents enhanced agricultural production technologies for ensuring adequate food production, safety and nutritional quality for the population of Southern Africa and forms the basis for an increased SADC regional effort in food production through which financial and trade institutions can improve stakeholder capacities, encourage micro-enterprise development and enhance employment and regional trade.

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Table of Contents

1. General Introduction
2. Climates and Agro-Ecologies
3. Factors Important to Crops Production
4. Diseases and Pests of Food Crops in SADC
5. Smallholding Farms and Farmers in SADS
6. Common Cultivation Practices
7. Pre-and Post-Harvest Field Operations
8. Cereal Production
9. Root and Tuber Crops
10. Leguminous Crops
11. Vegetables Production
12. Fruits Production
13. Perspectives for Improvement
14. Conclusion

Authors

Ambayeba Muimba-Kankolongo Lecturer in Mycology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Ambayeba Muimba-Kankolongo, Lecturer at Carleton Uiniversity in Ottowa, Canada, has worked for more than 30 years assisting National Agricultural Research Services (NARS) and small-scale farmers in Central and Southern Africa. His career began as a researcher in Plant Pathology for a USAID-funded project National Cassava Program (PRONAM) of the Ministry of Agriculture in DR Congo. He is an Agricultural Engineer with MS and PhD degrees in Agriculture, and majored in Plant Pathology with minors in Plant Breeding and International Agriculture at Cornell University.