Preference ranking of technology with farmers makes it possible to identify the different concepts or criteria farmers use in assessing the usefulness of new technology components. This Instructional Unit is designed to train professionals and technicians working in agricultural research. The Unit is one of three on farmer evaluations.

An introduction to farmer participatory research; An overview of the projects used as examples in this manual; Participation: identifying the places, people, and procedures for research; Diagnosis of farmers conditions; Evaluation of current and new technological options; Assessing the impact of new technologies.

Background to the study; Farm level impacts of new technologies; The dynamics of technology adoption; Assessing the benefits of new technologies.

The FAO estimated that five out of six farms in the world are operating less than two hectares of land, suggesting that small-holder farmers are producing over one-third of the global food. The cropping systems practiced by smallholder farmers play a vital role in agri-food production systems and help to reduce hunger, improve nutrition, and provide livelihoods to millions across the developing countries. The performance of these cropping systems has a direct impact on achieving the multiple Sustainable Development Goals (2030) of No Poverty (SDG 1), Zero Hunger (SDG 2), and Good Health and Wellbeing (SDG 3). System intensification is now widely recognized as an essential pathway to achieve food and nutrition security in developing countries. The numbers of smallholder farmers are rapidly increasing in both developing and underdeveloped countries, however, they are increasingly facing challenges to run profitably. Cropping system intensification (CSI) could be one of the ways to make such production systems more remunerative for these farmers.

Traditional and Modern Natural Resource Management in Latin America identifies a major problem facing developing nations and the countries and sources that fund them: the lack of attention and/or effective strategies available to prevent farmers in underdeveloped and poorly endowed regions from sinking still deeper into poverty while avoiding further degradation of marginal environments. The contributors propose an alliance of scientific knowledge with native skill as the best way to proceed, arguing that folk systems can often provide effective management solutions that are not only locally effective, but which may have the potential for spatial diffusion. While this has been said before, the volume makes one of the best articulated statements of how to implement such an approach. In this book, which stems from a workshop held in 1995 at the World Bank, the editors make an eloquent case for the relevance of risk prone areas as a subject of study and the special role that indigenous knowledge plays in such poorly endowed regions. The volume is balanced—it does not advocate one approach over another, and it is multidisciplinary, including work by anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and natural scientists. The nine chapters create a natural progression from conceptual issues to theory, applications, and synthesis, and contain a wealth of data, analyses, recommendations, and carefully considered opinions by experts who have been intimately involved over the long term in theoretical and practical work related to systems of natural resource management in Latin America. The volume addresses the topic of sustainability in a logical manner, considering practical concerns and lessons as well as theoretical perspectives. A number of conceptual and case studies highlight approaches that might succeed if World Bank and other multilateral and national funding sources are forthcoming. Traditional and Modern Natural Resource Management in Latin America addresses a topic that has gained worldwide interest, especially in relation to indigenous knowledge systems.

According to the United Nations, 77 million people are expected to face water shortage by 2025, if people continue to use water at the current rate. More water than available would be needed to grow the worlds food during the next decade. As a result of scarcity of water, global annual food production losses could reach 350 million tons by 2025.Di

Witchweeds (Striga species) decimate agriculture in much of Africa and parts of Asia, attacking the major cereal grains and legumes, and halving the already very low yields of subsistence farmers. Several years of research have provided promising technologies, based on the fundamental biology of the parasite?host associations, for dealing with this scourge. However, there is an apparent realization that these technologies will fail because highly successful weeds such as Striga evolve resistance to all types of controls unless proven methods are integrated with each other for a more sustainable solution.Integration is often an anathema to basic scientists who typically deal with single variables and solutions. However, key leaders in the development of the new knowledge-based control strategies, already in the field and under development, recently joined forces to develop strategies and projects in order to integrate the technologies in a symposium in Ethiopia in November 2006. The encouraging results are described in this peer-reviewed book, authored by leaders in the field who have been supplying the basic biology, genetics, biochemistry, and molecular information that have offered insights and generated technologies in how to deal with Striga.