Mapping irrigated areas in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

Mapping irrigated areas in the Limpopo Province, South Africa
Author: Cai, Xueliang
Publisher: International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2017-06-05
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9290908513

This report summarizes the findings of a collaborative effort to map and assess irrigated areas in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study was conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the DAFF-supported ‘Revitalization of irrigation in South Africa’ project. Based on a combination of Landsat and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data, previous irrigated area mapping exercises carried out by DAFF and three-field ground truthing (GT) surveys, a total of 1.6 million hectares (Mha) of cropland were identified, with 262,000 ha actually irrigated in the 2015 winter season. The study also found that only 29% of all land equipped with center pivots was actually irrigated.

Smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province, South Africa

Smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province, South Africa
Author: van Koppen, Barbara
Publisher: International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Total Pages: 40
Release: 2017-06-08
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9290908521

A survey of 76 public smallholder irrigation schemes in the Limpopo Province was jointly conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), South Africa, and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (LDARD), as part of the ‘Revitalization of Smallholder Irrigation in South Africa’ project. About one-third of those schemes was fully utilized; one-third partially utilized; and one-third not utilized in the winter of 2015; however, no single socioeconomic, physical, agronomic and marketing variable could explain these differences in utilization. Sale, mostly for informal markets, appeared the most important goal. Dilapidated infrastructure was the most important constraint cited by the farmers. The study recommends ways to overcome the build-neglect-rebuild syndrome, and to learn lessons from informal irrigation, which covers an area three to four times as large as public irrigation schemes in the province.

Irrigation suitability mapping examples from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya

Irrigation suitability mapping examples from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya
Author: Mabhaudhi, Tafadzwanashe
Publisher: IWMI
Total Pages: 53
Release: 2022-12-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN:

The irrigation suitability classification was achieved by using physical factors that include slope, rainfall, landuse, closeness to waterbodies (surface and groundwater) and soil characteristics for selected districts in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, and Kenya, some of the UU target countries. As cereals form the main food basket of the selected countries, and cereals are not tolerant to saline conditions, the report also provides maps showing high soil salinity areas of Makueni and Nakuru of Kenya, where soils are highly saline. However, soil salinity is insignificant in the other study districts and therefore not mapped. This report provides (a) a conceptual framework and detailed methodology for irrigation suitability mapping, including details of identified boundary maps and geospatial data, and (b) a synthesis model and maps on irrigation suitability mapping for the selected districts in the four target countries.

Speed Breeding Systems For Food

Speed Breeding Systems For Food
Author: Kenny Paul
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2024-10-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 2832555659

Speed breeding systems for sustainable food production offer a promising solution to address food security and environmental sustainability. Speed breeding technologies allow accelerating generation of new plant varieties with desired traits in a short period. These systems include genetic selection, vertical hydroponics and data-driven smart sensor applications. Quick generation of plant varieties is achieved by manipulating photoperiods of a native plant with extended light periods in a controlled environment to fasten the crop cycle. This allows for multiple plant generations to be grown and harvested in a single year rather than the typical one to two generations in traditional field-based breeding. The application of molecular markers in the analysis of crop genomes enables the identification and characterization of genetic variation within a crop species. This, in turn, helps breeders in identifying and selecting plants with desirable traits, such as resistance to pests or diseases, or improved yield. Marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection (GS) are two recent methods that revolutionized plant breeding to improve the efficiency and accuracy of selecting desirable traits. MAS allows breeders to identify desirable traits earlier in the breeding process, without having to wait for the traits to be phenotypically expressed. On the other hand, GS allows breeders to predict the performance of a plant before it is even grown and can help speed up the breeding process by allowing breeders to select plants with desirable traits much earlier in the breeding process.

Towards Sustainable Food Production in Africa

Towards Sustainable Food Production in Africa
Author: Morris Fanadzo
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2023-07-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9819924278

This edited book is focused on Sustainable Development Goal 2. It offers a comprehensive and topical collection of practices, technologies and innovations in the field of sustainable food production and security under a changing climate. It is a one-stop handbook for farmers, researchers, extensionists, policy makers and other stakeholders seeking to identify and disseminate best fit technologies for local and regional landscapes. It offers an understanding of the challenges, risks and uncertainties as well as opportunities to foster productive and sustainable food production. Smallholder farming and agriculture in general is facing a serious threat from climate change that has resulted in erratic and unpredictable rainfall and increased temperatures, among other abiotic stresses. These climate change induced pressures have reduced productivity mainly among the smallholder farmers, who are critical in driving the attainment of sustainable development goals like SDG 2, 12 and 13. The objective of the book is to document effective and practicable practices and technologies that can be adopted by smallholder African farmers as mitigation measures against the effects of climate change. This book is of interest to researchers, agricultural scientists, climate change scientists, capacity builders and policymakers.

Global Perspectives on Gender and Space

Global Perspectives on Gender and Space
Author: Ann Oberhauser
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2014-03-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1135125252

Feminism has re-shaped the way we think about equality, power relations and social change. Recent feminist scholarship has provided new theoretical frameworks, methodologies and empirical analyses of how gender and feminism are situated within the development process. Global Perspectives on Gender and Space: Engaging Feminism and Development draws upon this framework to explore the effects of globalization on development in diverse geographical contexts. It explores how women’s and men’s lives are gendered in specific spaces as well as across multiple landscapes. Traveling from South Asia to sub-Saharan Africa to North America and the Caribbean, the contributions illustrate the link between gender and global development, including economic livelihoods, policy measures and environmental change. Divided into three sections, Global Perspectives on Gender and Space showcases the following issues: One) the impact of neoliberal policies on transnational migration, public services and microfinance programs; Two) feminist and participatory methodologies employed in the evaluation of land use, women’s cooperatives and liberation struggles and Three) gendered approaches to climate change, natural disasters and conservation the global South. A feminist lens is the common thread throughout these sections that weaves gender into the very fabric of everyday life, providing a common link between varied spaces around the globe by mapping gendered patterns of power and social change. This timely volume provides geographic comparisons and case studies to give empirically informed insights on processes and practices relevant to feminism and development. It illustrates ways to empower individuals and communities through transnational struggles and grassroots organizations, while emphasizing human rights and gender equity, and will be of interest to those studying Geography, Development Studies, International Relations and Gender Studies.

Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets

Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets
Author: Paul Hebinck
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2014-09-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317753771

This book focuses on empirical experiences related to market development, and specifically new markets with structurally different characteristics than mainstream markets. Europe, Brazil, China and the rather robust and complex African experiences are covered to provide a rich multidisciplinary and multi-level analysis of the dynamics of newly emerging markets. Rural Development and the Construction of New Markets analyses newly constructed markets as nested markets. Although they are specific market segments that are nested in the wider commodity markets for food, they have a different nature, different dynamics, a different redistribution of value added, different prices and different relations between producers and consumers. Nested markets embody distinction viz-a-viz the general markets in which they are embedded. A key aspect of nested markets is that these are constructed in and through social struggles, which in turn positions this book in relation to classic and new institutional economic analyses of markets. These markets emerge as steadily growing parts of the farmer populations are dedicating their time, energy and resources to the design and production of new goods and services that differ from conventional agricultural outputs. The speed and intensity with which this is taking place, and the products and services involved, vary considerably across the world. In large parts of the South, notably Africa, farmers are ‘structurally’ combining farming with other activities. By contrast, in Europe and large parts of Latin America farmers have taken steps to generate new products and services which exist alongside ongoing agricultural production. This book not only discusses the economic rationales and dynamics for these markets, but also their likely futures and the threats and opportunities they face.

Sustainable Irrigation and Drainage IV

Sustainable Irrigation and Drainage IV
Author: Henning Bjornlund
Publisher: WIT Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2012
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1845646487

"Wessex Institute of Technology's Sustainable Irrigation 2012 Conference held at University of South Australia in Adelaide"--Preface.

In the Shadow of a Conflict

In the Shadow of a Conflict
Author: Bill Derman
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2013-05-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1779222343

Zimbabwe has cast a powerful regional and international shadow since it became independent in 1980 and more recently, through the crises of the first decade of the twenty-first century. The 2000s were a decade of combined political, economic and social crises in Zimbabwe following what had been a relatively successful twenty years of independence since 1980. The scale, depth and severity of the crises evolving since 2000 have been as dramatic as they have been unexpected. While there has been substantial coverage of the internal consequences of Zimbabwe's crises less attention has been paid to its regional and cross-border consequences. In explaining the ongoing processes stemming from the crises, this book looks at three neighboring countries - Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia - to depict how, over time, they have experienced and interpreted events in Zimbabwe, how they have dealt with Zimbabweans entering their territories, and how they have or have not formulated policies and developed practices to cope with the arrival of new and mainly undocumented Zimbabwean immigrants.