With suitable agroclimatic conditions, low labor costs, and good infrastructure, the Northwestern uplands of Vietnam have the potential to move from the production of low value staple crops into the production of high value fruit and vegetables. Vegetable production in the area is increasing, albeit slowly. The change in production systems requires coordinated action on the part of farmers, input suppliers, government agencies, and vegetable traders. In 2014, Humidtropics set up an Innovation Platform on vegetables to promote this process, enhance collaboration, and build trust among the … [Read more...]
Involving Farmers in Research to Facilitate Adoption of Agricultural Innovations
The ultimate goal of research on agricultural innovation is that it will be useful to farmers to enable them to enhance their productivity, income and living standards. Experience from Northwest Vietnam demonstrates that improving farmers’ participation in research will enable research uptake. Researchers found that farmers’ participation in research will increase their ownership of results and motivation to change their agricultural system for long-term benefits. Scientists can also benefit from farmers’ local knowledge. This was what we learned from the project Agroforestry for … [Read more...]
A Decision-Making Tool to Efficiently Manage Smallholder Farms
Smallholder farms, all over the world, have diverse activities and a highly variable management capacity. In the last few decades, across Central America, partner organizations, national research institutes and CGIAR Centers have developed, tested and implemented many tools to help smallholders improve their decisions regarding various aspects of crop and livestock management. However, to date the tools remain dispersed and have not been integrated in a user-friendly way for routine use of diversified smallholder farms with multiple cropping/livestock activities. During the recent … [Read more...]