This dataset captures detailed information on vegetable production, consumption preferences, and related constraints across Benin, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. It provides a gender-disaggregated perspective based on data collected through 144 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted in diverse socio-economic and agro-ecological contexts. The dataset emphasizes challenges in vegetable cultivation, including issues with production inputs, labor, mechanization, pest and disease management, marketing, and social and gender norms affecting women’s participation.
More than 60% of Zambia's population lives in rural areas and relies on rain-fed agriculture, with smallholder farmers playing a key role in food production. However, their dependence on the climate makes them vulnerable. It is essential to sustainably increase food production to feed a growing population and address climate change. Sustainable Intensification Practices (SIPs) are a solution that increases productivity without harming the environment. Examples of SIPs include Conservation Agriculture (CA), agroforestry, and the use of improved fertilizers. Although SIPs have benefits such as improving soil fertility and increasing productivity, their adoption is low due to obstacles like competition for crop residues, credit and labor constraints, and technical limitations. Additionally, farmers' risk and time preferences influence the adoption of these practices. To better understand these factors, data were collected from two household surveys conducted in nine districts of Zambia, located in the Eastern (Chipata, Lundazi and Sinda), Northern (Kasama, Mbala and Senga Hill), and Southern provinces (Choma, Mazabuka and Monze), where CIMMYT promotes various SIPs. The surveys were carried out in specific communities using the mother and baby trial approach of the SIFAZ project. Households of farmers hosting mother and baby trials, as well as other farmers in each camp, were randomly sampled. In total, 678 households were surveyed in 2021 and 646 in 2022, achieving a balanced panel of 1292 observations. Adoption refers to the use of CA practices on non-demonstration and non-trial plots that are not supported by external projects. Ethical approval was obtained for both surveys. This study in Zambia uses this data to analyze how risk and time preferences affect the adoption of CA-based practices, concluding that risk aversion and impatience reduce the likelihood of adoption.
Sustainable intensification practices, such as intercropping maize with grain legumes, are essential for smallholder farmers in southern Africa to address climate change and declining soil fertility. A study in Zambia compared different diversification strategies (single-row intercropping, strip cropping, and crop rotation) with sole maize. The results showed that while there were no significant differences in individual yields, intercropping systems provided important nutritional and economic benefits. However, these systems required more labor, which was not preferred by farmers. Soil organic carbon content and pH generally decreased without differences between systems. In summary, maize-legume intercropping can improve food security and agricultural benefits, although it requires more labor, which could be addressed with appropriate mechanization.
Dataset processed from a household-level survey to describe the main farm characteristics, production, and resource allocation in two municipalities across three regions of the country: Surkhet (Gurbhakot) and Khotang (Tuwachung) districts. Data was collected between March and June 2023.
Dataset processed from a household-level survey to describe the main farm characteristics, production, and resource allocation in two municipalities across three regions of Bangladesh: North (Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Rangpur), West (Nawabganj, Rajshahi), and South (Barguna, Barisal, Patuakhali). Data was collected between December 2022 and June 2023.
Sustainable intensification of agriculture (SIA) is promoted by a number of Research-for-Development (R4D) programs and institutions to improve yields, rural incomes, and food security while decreasing or at least maintaining the current expansion of agricultural land and other adverse environmental impacts. One of the major SIA programs was the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), which was established in 2009 with the goal of benefiting more than 8 million farmers by the end of 2020 (https://csisa.org/). After the initial phase, the project shifted its regional focus, toward the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains. The region is characterized by small farm sizes, low incomes, and comparatively low levels of agricultural mechanization, irrigation, and productivity. The project partners with the national universities, State Departments of Agriculture, national-level initiatives, livelihoods programs, state agricultural universities, NGOs, and private sector entities such as agricultural machinery manufacturers, dealers, and local service providers. The current census among rural households was conducted in 2020, as part of CSISA Nepal. The main research question while starting this farmer census was to estimate the farm-level reach and adoption of CSISA-interventions in Nepal. We aimed to show how inclusive these technologies are, and whether there is a need for social targeting. The study was conducted in 9 districts of Nepal Terai region - Banke, Bardiya, Dang, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Kapilvastu, Nawalpur, Parasi, and Rupendehi. These are the districts where CSISA project has been active in the last decade, and they are major cereal producers in the country. Fifty villages were selected in total – 40 were selected randomly, and 10 from the list of villages where CSISA has been active. In all the 50 villages, village census was conducted in which farmer information (name, phone number, etc.) alongside technology adoption details were collected. During the two-month period (2020), about 38,000 rural households were covered as part of the census.
The Green Revolution has led to intensive, irrigated rice-wheat systems across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). The limited turn-around time between rice harvest and sowing of the next crop (wheat) and mechanized harvesting of rice pose a critical challenge for farmers to sustainably handle the surplus rice residues. Because only a few economically viable residue-management alternatives are readily available, a majority of the 2.5 million farmers burn an estimated 23 million metric tons of rice stubble in October and November. The rice residue burning and the resultant increase in air pollution have received significant media attention in the recent past. Residue burning causes emission of short-lived climate pollutants, such as methane and black carbon. More importantly, the decrease in air quality due to rice stubble burning has a significant adverse effect on human pulmonary functions. A solution for residue burning is offered by the application of two fundamental principles of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in wheat – minimal soil disturbance and crop residue retention for mulching. CA is heralded as more sustainable than the traditional tillage alternatives. The first-generation CA technology using conventional zero tillage seeder, although reduced the turn-around time for wheat, was not efficient in handling the surplus loose rice residues present on the soil surface. The second-generation direct-seeders (SGDS), such as Happy Seeder, alongside a superior straw management system (e.g., spreaders attached to the combined harvesters), were subsequently developed to facilitate wheat sowing even under heavy stubble and avoid the need for residue burning, making the farming system more sustainable through curtailing the negative environmental externalities. To map the diffusion process of CA (particularly SGDS) and to identify the constraints faced in disseminating the technology among farmers, we conducted a face-to-face survey among the service providers of Happy Seeders in 2022. The survey was conducted in randomly selected villages (where village surveys were conducted) from 8 districts of Punjab.A total of 385 service providers were included (Barnala 12; Fatehgarh_Sahib 49; Jalandhar 37; Ludhiana 86; Moga 18; Nawanshar 20; Patiala 90; Sangrur 73).
Climate change and soil fertility decline are major threats to smallholder farmers' food and nutrition security in southern Africa, and cropping systems that improve soil health are needed to address these challenges. Cropping systems that invest in soil organic matter, such as no-tillage (NT) with crop residue retention, have been proposed as potential solutions. However, a key challenge for assessing the sustainability of NT systems is that soil carbon (C) stocks develop over long timescales, and there is an urgent need to identify trajectory indicators of sustainability and crop productivity. Here we examined the effects of NT as compared with conventional tillage without residue retention on relationships between soil characteristics and maize (Zea mays L.) productivity in long-term on-farm and on-station trials in Zimbabwe. Our results show that relationships between soil characteristics and maize productivity, and the effects of management on these relationships, varied with soil type. Total soil nitrogen (N) and C were strong predictors of maize grain yield and above-ground biomass (i.e., stover) in the clayey soils, but not in the sandy soils, under both managements. This highlights context-specific benefits of management that fosters the accumulation of soil C and N stocks. Despite a strong effect of NT management on soil C and N in sandy soils, this accrual was not sufficient to support increased crop productivity in these soils. We suggest that sandy soils should be the priority target of NT with organic resource inputs interventions in southern Africa, as mineral fertilizer inputs alone will not halt the soil fertility decline. This will require a holistic management approach and input of C in various forms (e.g., biomass from cover crops and tree components, crop residues, in combination with mineral fertilizers). Clayey soils on the other hand have greater buffering capacity against detrimental effects of soil tillage and low C input.
Conservation agriculture (CA)—the simultaneous application of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and crop diversification—is a key approach to address declining soil fertility and the adverse effects of climate change in southern Africa. Applying the three defining principles of CA alone, however, is often not enough, and complementary practices and enablers are required to make CA systems more functional for smallholder farmers in the short and longer term. Here, we review 11 complementary practices and enablers grouped under six topical areas to highlight their critical need for functional CA systems, namely: (1) appropriate nutrient management to increase productivity and biomass; (2) improved stress-tolerant varieties to overcome biotic and abiotic stresses; (3) judicious use of crop chemicals to surmount pest, diseases, and weed pressure; (4) enhanced groundcover with alternative organic resources or diversification with green manures and agroforestry; (5) increased efficiency of planting and mechanization to reduce labor, facilitate timely planting, and to provide farm power for seeding; and (6) an enabling political environment and more harmonized and innovative extension approaches to streamline and foster CA promotional efforts. We found that (1) all 11 complementary practices and enablers substantially enhance the functioning of CA systems and some (e.g., appropriate nutrient management) are critically needed to close yield gaps; (2) practices and enablers must be tailored to the local farmer contexts; and (3) CA systems should either be implemented in a sequential approach, or initially at a small scale and grow from there, in order to increase feasibility for smallholder farmers. This review provides a comprehensive overview of practices and enablers that are required to improve the productivity, profitability, and feasibility of CA systems. Addressing these in southern Africa is expected to stimulate the adoption of CA by smallholders, with positive outcomes for soil health and resilience to climate change.
Grain yield data collected from Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems across experiments of varying experimental duration, established in trial locations of Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe under an increasingly variable climate. Data contains different agro-environmental yield response moderators such as type of crop diversifcation and amount of rainfall and aims to identify cropping systems that may provide both short-term gains and longer-term sustainability.
