FAO’s best-selling 2011 publication, Save and Grow, proposed a new paradigm of agriculture, one that is both highly productive and environmentally sustainable. This new book looks at the application of “Save and Grow” practices and technologies to production of the world’s key food security crops – maize, rice and wheat. With examples drawn from developing countries worldwide, it shows how eco-friendly farming systems are helping smallholder producers to boost cereal yields, improve their incomes and livelihoods, conserve natural resources, reduce negative impacts on the environment, and build resilience to climate change. The book will be a valuable reference for policymakers and development practitioners guiding the transition to sustainable food and agriculture.

The book offers a rich toolkit of relevant, adoptable ecosystem-based practices that can help the world's 500 million smallholder farm families achieve higher productivity, profitability and resource-use efficiency while enhancing natural capital.

The System of Rice Intensification, known as SRI, is a management strategy for crop improvement. Its ideas, insights and practices are based on scientifically validated knowledge for increasing the production of not only irrigated rice but of other crops as well. SRI represents a paradigm shift in agricultural thinking and practice toward agroecological farming that can be used by even the poorest smallholding farmers in ecologically fragile regions of the world to achieve food security in the face of the climate-change challenges ahead. When the author Norman Uphoff first learned about SRI in Madagascar in 1993, this production system which offered higher yields with reduced inputs seemed implausible to him. But the professor put aside his skepticism after seeing farmers who had been getting rice yields of just two tons per hectare produce four times more rice-for three years in a row-on their very poor soils, not changing their varieties or relying on agrochemical inputs, and using less water. Now, he's helping to disseminate this dramatically effective methodology with this accessible, easy-to-use sourcebook. It offers explanations, research references, vivid pictures, and concrete examples of the award-winning SRI methodology to anyone interested in the development of practicable sustainable food systems. Now, he's helping to disseminate this revolutionary methodology with this accessible, easy-to-use primer. It offers explanations, resources, and concrete examples of the award-winning SRI to anyone interested in the development of practicable sustainable food systems.

Upland rice plant types; Life cycle of the rice plant; Seeds; Factors that affect seedling growth; What is a good seedling; How to grow good seedlings; Leaves; Roots; Tillers; Panicles; Dormancy; Fertilizers; How much nitrogen to apply; How to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer; Other fertilizers and organic matter; Carbohydrate production; Water; Yield components; Plant type with good yield potential; Factors that affect lodging; Land conservation and crop management; Weeds; Control of weeds; Herbicides; Major diseases; Major soil-borne insect pests; Major insect ests during vegetative phase; Major insect pests during reproductive phase; Other pests; Soil problems; Hot to judgea rice crop at flowering; Harvest and postharvest; Cropping systems.

A growing body of evidence shows that agricultural landscapes can be managed not only to produce crops but also to support biodiversity and promote ecosystem health. Innovative farmers and scientists, as well as indigenous land managers, are developing diverse types of “ecoagriculture” landscapes to generate cobenefits for production, biodiversity, and local people. Farming with Nature offers a synthesis of the state of knowledge of key topics in ecoagriculture. The book is a unique collaboration among renowned agricultural and ecological scientists, leading field conservationists, and farm and community leaders to synthesize knowledge and experience across sectors. The book examines: the knowledge base for ecoagriculture as well as barriers, gaps, and opportunities for developing improved ecoagriculture systems what we have learned about managing landscapes to achieve multiple objectives at a landscape scale existing incentives for farmers, other land managers, and investors to develop and invest in ecoagriculture systems pathways to develop, implement, manage, and scale up successful ecoagriculture Insights are drawn from around the world, in tropical, Mediterranean, and temperate environments, from farming systems that range from highly commercialized to semi-subsistence. Farming with Nature is an important new work that can serve as a foundation document for planners, farm organizations, researchers, project developers, and policy makers to develop strategies for promoting and sustaining ecoagriculture landscapes. Replete with valuable best practice guidelines, it is a critical resource for both practitioners and researchers in the field.