African Farm Diversity

Agriculture in the North America Traditionally has had an advantage, which was to hire labor from Mexico at very low prices. According to the national Agricultural Worker Survey (NAWS), approximately 70 percent of the farm workers in the United States are Mexico-born. All kinds of agricultural farms in the US have enjoyed an extended period of farm labors with low wages. However, new data tells that involvement of the Mexican labors in the US is decreasing and in the upcoming years, US farms will have to offer higher wages to the labors.

As they can have good incomes from other sectors, they prefer to get migrated into those sectors than the agriculture. Mexico’s per-capita income now exceeds $15,000 per year. Growth in the Mexico’s non-agricultural employment began before the recession and still persists. It is expected that the Mexican workforce will continue moving out of agriculture with the increasing opportunities of non-agricultural sectors.

Solution of the issue:

First solution is to seek workers from other countries with comparatively lower reservation wages. However, the situation of the US-Mexico is unique because two countries have vastly different levels of income and they surprisingly share a common border. The countries in the Central America are small compared to Mexico and they are changing. Importing labor into the US from more distant countries does not appear plausible.

Another effective solution is to invest in labor-saving technologies and transition away from labor-intensive crops. Under this scenario, the US farms will change their labor-management practices; which means they will hire fewer workers at higher wages. Rising farm wages creates and incentive for farmers to make necessary investments to raise farmworker productivity.

Because of the conservation project at Bitkuli village in Chattisgarh, India, the village has turned into a model village. The village has a total population of approximately 250 people and scarcity was the daily companion to these people. Most of the people do farming to secure their lives, however, before the conservation project, there were few who could earn good profit.

Ashok Bhaskar’s family has been growing paddy here for so long, but in the last 4 years, they have managed to get financial benefit from farming. In 2008, an NGO, Shikhar Yuva Manch (SYM), started a water conservation project with Bhaskar and other villagers in Bitkuli and this project has changed their fate.

The earlier farmers here in Bitkuli were struggling so much to produce crop in only season because there was not abundant water. There is 255 acres of cultivate land, but they could grow just one crop in 130 acres due to the scarcity of the water. However, there is now water even in April; which is the result of the water conservation project.

There was once a time when people would go outside the village in searching other works, but those days are gone. Now people are doing farming as there is water throughout the entire year.

Earlier, the sole source of the irrigation was the Dharmasagar pond and no canal was built to supply sufficient water and even the water depth was not good. The villagers said we could somehow manage to bring the water from that pond, but sadly we could only irrigate few acres.

In 2008, SYM, decided to help the poor villagers of bitkuli. The reason why they select this village was because the villagers were poor, lacked resources and knowledge. The project has become successful and brought smiles on the face of the farmers.

An environmental organization Beef and Lamp New Zealand is working hard for the betterment of the farmers. They’ve successfully completed their project on providing various resources to the farmers and now they’re launching their refreshed version of Land and Environmental Planning Toolkit. This toolkit will help sheep and beef farmers to manage land and environmental issues of their farm.

The Minister for the Environment Hon Amy Adams will be the one to launch this toolkit at an event in Christchurch. From a long ago the farmers of New Zealand are taking good care of their farms. They’ve recognized the importance to take care of their farm for the environment. Most of the farmers are managing farms from generations. In New Zealand, the economic growth of most of the families and most importantly the whole countries depend on the betterment of the farming section.

Government has already supported the farmers with various resources to improve the farming sector. Initiative has been taken to raise the awareness among farmers. They’ve been educated with the important knowledge and information from the experts.

Most of the families know the importance of taking good care of the farm. They understand the need to maintain and improve the natural resources of their farms for future generations. This newly launched toolkit will help the farmers to identify which action will be required to improve production. It will help them to take good management of the land, soil and water resources.

Most often farmers need to take innovative steps to require their individual challenges. This newly launched toolkit will be a useful resource to the farmers for identifying their problems and to take exact initiative to solve it.

For the conservation of farmland birds and enhance the landscape in a part of Teesdale a new project has been launched. The project aims to conserve the farmland birds naming Birds and Farm Landscapes Project. This three year project will concentrate working on Bernard Castle and the parishes of Eggleston, Gainford, Barmingham and Bowes. Jennie Stanford is an expert in this field. She has already worked with the former Tyne Tees Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group for around six years. She was appointed as the project officer for this Landscapes project.

As the starting, Jennie will conduct a survey on farmland conservation and plan small grants scheme. This project aims to improve habitat and feeding conditions for rare farmland birds. Lots of farmland birds like tree sparrows, grey partridge, yellow hammers and barn owls are facing extinction. This project was initialized for the conservation of these almost extinct species.

Farmers will be encouraged to create wild bird seed mix plots, hedgerow restoration and establishment with this grants scheme. They will also re-wild the field margins. The scheme also encourages farmers to mix wild bird with smaller seeds to benefit the smaller birds. Though the landscape and bird life is still attractive and fairy healthy but it’s been forgotten that these parts are the borders of outstanding natural beauty. She will work with the farmer and inspire them to restore the former glory of these areas.

Already a large number of farmers have shown their interest to work under this project. Tree planting has been begun at Gilmonby. Farmers who’ve put their interest they are communicating with the experts for the appropriate way to boosting this conservation. Hopefully, with the help of the expert team and hard work of farmers the glory will be restored and these areas will once again be the border of natural beauty.

In recent years an innovative project of International Water Management Institute (IWMI) has started to boost the agriculture of Africa. Resource Recovery and Reuse team at the West Africa office of IWMI directly responsible for this project. This project is called ‘Fertilizer Pellet Fertilization Project’.

The goal of this project is to harness human waste and turn it into safe, hygienic fertilizer pellets, which will be safe and suitable for application by farmers. If the formula clicks, this fertilizer will help farmers to develop the organic content and nutrient levels of their poor soils, which in turn can improve the water bearing capacity and crop yields of their cultivating lands.

The raw materials of this project consists a mixture of human waste and other natural products such as organic food scraps and sawdust. By simultaneously turning and resting the mixture, create a natural heat treatment during the composting process that will assist in removing pathogens while minimizing nutrient losses.

‘Fertilizer Pellet Fertilization Project’ isn’t a new concept. For centuries, it has been used effectively in Asia. But it is comparatively new for sub-Saharan Africa; adding organic waste to the soil makes sense in a region particularly vulnerable to climate variability and changes. Rainfall may become far more unusual. Providing smallholder farmers with support to improve water and soil management will be a key strategy to increase their resilience to adverse climatic conditions and hence minimizing poverty in a changing climate.

“Unlike animal manure or farm residue traditionally, the use of human manure in agriculture has been met with some opposition in sub-Saharan Africa,” says Nikiema. “However, this was more at the regulatory level than at the farmer’s end. Farmers appreciate the material.” And Nikiema understands that cultural resistance on using human waste in producing foods is a confounding factor that needs to be addressed.

Small farming has become one of the top supportive ways for the national annual economy. Lots of people are getting interested day by day. If you are one of them and thinking to become a small farmer? Then you need to know some facts for sure and I am here to give you some advises that may help you in the future.

First you have to decide where you’ll start and once you have took that decision of where you will be farming, must contact the other farmers in that area. It’ll save lot of your pressure and you can learn the soil condition, climate, crop verities and more from them. And most importantly, they may give you some secrets of farming for that area.

You’ll learn farming step by step, as it says farming has a long learning curve. You have got advices from local farmers and read all the books of farming so what’s to worry? You’ll be proved wrong and it will take some time to be a successful farmer. For farming, you need to be patient for sure.

Start right now as you have made your final decision to become a farmer. Don’t lose your patience if it takes plenty of time to be a master in this area. If you don’t have enough land for farming right now then start at your balcony with a container. You can experiment with an easy-to-grow crop.

You have to do research on farming, only then you might have known how important soil and climate conditions, and water resources are. It’s wise to go with a particular crop and grow it. Research on the land and analyze which crops can be suitable for the land.

Farming needs great responsibility. If you and corresponding personals are responsible enough then you can make success in farming.

African agricultural sector is improving day by day. African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) is working hard on the development and overall growth in African agricultural sector. AGRF believes private sector investment and support can lead the growth to higher points and they are working as global platform for agricultural productivity and income growth for African Nations.

If the African governments become more helpful and take proper initiative they can gain more success. On a forum meeting AGRF Chairman Dr. Kofi Annan underscored the current progress and urges to extend the helping hand of government personals in this sector.

AGRF is currently working on improvement of smallholder farmers who barely can waver. Women play the important part in maintaining the whole family. They’re care for land and productive nature is the reason behind for present success. But most of them don’t have any expert knowledge or experience. If they can’t find proper support this success won’t long last.

Most of the African people lives below standard income line. Proper utilization of their resource might change the scenario. But for that they need to be expert in productivity. Smallholder farmers can play important role in country’s economy. For that government should support them with knowledge and resources.

To boost up the agricultural growth and supply possible resources AGRF and Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has announced $10 million support. Government should wisely plan the next step and use it for the best output. Smallholder farmers are eagerly waiting for the next step and ready to attend technical workshop to improve their quality and productivity.

Government should immediately launch special propaganda to keep up this performance. More and more personal should get involved in agricultural sector with a motto to product. Hopefully present situation will change and stable income growth will be obtained.

On farm conservation protects threatened plants in their natural habitats and takes into account social and cultural factors such as farmers’ knowledge. It plays an important role to enable plants to continue to evolve and adapt with the changing conditions. In biological word it means the conservation of genetic diversity of traditional crops in the surroundings where they have developed their distinctive properties in traditional farming systems.

On farm conservation involve the maintenance of genetic diversity in the locations where it is encountered in situ. It is the sustainable management of genetic diversity of locally developed crop varieties by farmers within traditional agricultural, horticultural or agri – silvicultural systems. It involves the maintenance of traditional crop varieties or cropping systems by farmers within traditional agricultural systems.

The conservation of cultivated forms, actual varieties, old cultivars and landraces in the production process is included in on farm conservation, which is a dynamic conservation form, because it’s referring to a continuity of evolution process.

On farm conservation has triple dynamics – environmental factors include climate, edaphic, biotic and global changes, economic factors and social factors. It involves lots of simple activates which depends on the species concerned and their characteristics, distribution, genetic variation, habitats, economic importance, the degree of threat and the resource available.

In on farm conservation either the focus is the conservation of genetic diversity within a particular farming system or is the conservation of the traditional farming system. Dispute the great importance and usability of this method the matter of regret is that there have been only a few attempts to scientifically study on farm conservation and most of the time farmer undertake the conservation not scientists which should have been the other way.

In Guelph area several species are at risk includes birds, amphibians, mammals, plants and insects. Farmers have been summoned in order to protect these species. Species at Risk Farm Incentive Program is taking this initiative for the fifth time in five years. They will provide 50 percent of the funding to farmers who wants to take part in this campaign and help to save these threatened species. Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association in Guelph will administrate the whole program.

For this year, they have raised around $900000 to support the cause. Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources funds the most of it. Interested farmers will submit their project and can receive up to $20000. Every year 130-150 projects run under this program. To safeguard biodiversity and protect species at risk this program has been proven effective from the beginning.

According to Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, almost 30,000 species of animals and plants are in this area. Pollution, habitat loss, spread of invasive species and changing land use activities are the main reasons for the threat of existence of these plants and animals. Every year lots of interested farmers take part in this program aimed to save the endanger species and so far the program is pleasantly successful.

Among various endangered species Jefferson salamander, Barn Owl, Acadian Flycatcher, Louisiana Waterthrush, Black Tern, Snapping Turtle, Mountain Lion/Cougar, Milk Snake, Grey Fox, American Chestnut, Pygmy Pocket Moss and Kentucky Coffee are remarkable. Along with Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association wildlife organizations, academics, conservation groups and governments are working side-by-side in this campaign. The campaign started with the goal to manage good practices both for farming and endangered species. Like previous years, organizers are expecting huge participation from farmers and work with them in smart projects.

All lives on the earth are dependent on water and this is what we use abundantly in our daily lives. We always expect the world to be a perfect world where none will suffer and everyone would be happy. But in order to live a happy life, we need to maintain a natural equilibrium which most us don’t even think. We need adequate pure water to produce our foods; however, most of us don’t have a good idea about water-balancing.

That equilibrium has become difficult to maintain in these days and it will become more difficult with the growing population and increasing demands. Brian Hurd from New Mexico University said that all of we have to be aware of this and proper water-balancing will require an unprecedented cooperation. According to Hurd, we cannot balance it unless we can weigh.

In agriculture, the users must determine how much water it will need to produce an acre of crop. Opportunity costs also have to be determined. They have to indentify the total economic value of water. The total economic value is indeed a powerful concept. We will be able to make good decision by recognizing the resource value.

We will have to use more efficient and effective water use methods. In near future, it may be possible to transfer water to the other users during the time of drought.

The city is trying to balance the demand and supply of water. However, the demands and supply of water greatly depend on the climate and weather. A warmer climate great affects water demand and supply. Temperature affects downstream users because high temperature reduces runoff.

Agriculture must do a great job in using of water in food production. Water is a renewable source so all we need to address these issues technically and effectively.