Bamboo is an important agroforestry and forest plant managed and utilized by rural communities in some countries in the Asia Pacific region, which can generate various benefits to meet social and environmental needs. In rural areas of China, as a lar...
Coffee production is the main economic activity for smallholder farmers in Rwanda; it is also a major export crop. However, Rwandan coffee production has been facing structural changes with a significant decline in production. Considering the importa...
Small-scale dairy farming plays a pivotal role in the development of rural economies and has become a key source for job creation and poverty alleviation. However, the survival rate of these enterprises is compromised due to multifaceted challenges....
The rise of supermarkets in Indonesia since the end of the 1990s have been transforming the food retail sector and providing further market opportunities for small-scale farmers, in which most of Indonesia’s farmer falls into this category. The aim o...
5 December 2022
As one of the key technologies to ensure the safety of agricultural products, the national traceability platform is being widely promoted in China. However, it has not yet been widely adopted among farmers, especially small-scale farmers. Farmers are...
30 December 2016
The unsafe use and misuse of pesticides in China are major threats to farmers’ health and the environment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate small-scale farmers’ practices with regard to pesticide use and identify the determinants of their beh...
The adoption of conservation agriculture among small-scale farmers is still low despite the proven economic and environmental benefits of the technology. This study was conducted in Ingwe Municipality in Kwa-Zashuke, Ward 8, in KwaZulu-Natal province...
Enormous Literature indicates that agriculture remains a source of livelihood for about 86% of rural people and generates job opportunities for approximately 1.3 billion small-scale farmers and landless workers. Over the past couple of years, the Sou...
An intervention recently made in Zambia is the promotion of small-scale irrigation using simple weirs, which aims to encourage small-scale farmers in the country’s rural areas to engage in irrigated food production throughout the dry season. Th...
China is vigorously promoting agricultural energy conservation and carbon reduction and accelerating the transformation of traditional agriculture towards green development, which is a key measure adopted by the Chinese government to advance agricult...
Agroforestry practices support agricultural resilience against climatic variability, increase soil productivity, can diversify and increase farmers’ incomes, and support native fauna in agricultural landscapes. However, many farmers are still r...
13 September 2013
During October, November and December 2011 (when highest sales of Agri-Hub fresh produce are observed), irrigation water, compost, lettuce and spinach sampled from four different farmer cooperatives supplying the local Agri-Hub in uMbumbulu (KwaZulu...
Nowadays, the agricultural sector is poised to undergo significant transformations towards sustainability. Small-scale farmers’ restricted accessibility to resources hinders their ability to effectively adapt to such advancements. This research...
Globally, climate change remains one of the most pressing challenges, and it is also an obstacle to the fundamental achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of the study was to examine the determinants of small-scale farmers&rsqu...
Inadequate consumption of micronutrient-dense foods such as vegetables and meat are an important contributing cause for anemia and deficiencies of iron and vitamin A in rural communities of Tanzania. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 to e...
The problem of food insecurity is generally associated with developing countries, but at the household level it also occurs in developed countries, especially in socially vulnerable groups, such as small-scale farms. However, the issue of food insecu...
Entrepreneurial skills are fundamental to the success of agricultural production units. Since small-scale farmers have developed production skills but not market-oriented skills, it is necessary to assess their entrepreneurial skills to provide a ref...
In the past decade, to improve crop production and productivity, Ethiopia has embarked on an ambitious irrigation farming expansion program and has introduced new large- and small-scale irrigation initiatives. However, in Ethiopia, poverty remains a...
The increasing use of tractors and implements is replacing manual labor, but adds financial burdens on small-scale farmers due to rising costs. Many farmers have turned to leasing and renting machinery to mitigate these expenses, while repair and mai...
The excessive use of fertilizer has resulted in serious environmental degradation and a high health cost in China. Understanding the reasons for the overuse of fertilizer is critical to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture, and large-sc...
This article aims to investigate the mechanisms of farmer professional cooperative (FPC) operations and to understand their role in promoting low-carbon production among small-scale farmers in China. Agricultural carbon emissions account for 17% of t...
There is interconnectedness between small farmers’ productivity, climate change, and the state of food security in Africa south of the Sahara. The neglect of small farmers amidst climate change challenges in the Global South suggests the existence of...
Inclusive agribusiness considers social and environmental goals in global value chains in agribusiness. However, not all small-scale farmers may be able to benefit from such arrangements. To find out about possible reasons for exclusion, this study i...
Lost in the debates about the appropriate scale of production to promote agricultural growth in Africa is the rapid expansion of medium-scale farmers. Using Zambia as a case study, this article explores the causes and consequences of this middle-tier...
The COVID-19 outbreak forced governments to make decisions that had adverse effects on local food systems and supply chains. As a result, many small-scale food producers faced difficulties growing, harvesting, and selling their goods. This participat...
Climate change poses a significant threat to global agriculture, particularly for small-scale farmers who often lack the resources and knowledge to adapt. Without effective coping and adaptation strategies, agriculture in Africa is likely to suffer,...
The diamondback moth (DBM), Plutella xylostella, is a global economic pest of brassicas whose pest status has been exacerbated by climate change and variability. Southern African small-scale farmers are battling to cope with increasing pressure from...
The low agricultural productivity of key crops and food insecurity continue to be a problem in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Tanzania in particular. The growing population and climate change further increase the food shortage. Irrigation has been str...
Developing countries with small-scale agriculture have yet to exploit the untapped potential of agricultural mechanization. This is because of the misconception that mechanization is often seen as unworthy in small-scale agriculture. The purpose of t...
This study addresses differentiation among small-scale farmers’ preferences for green agriculture policy incentive mixes. Transforming modern agriculture to ecological fertilization and pest extermination practices is paramount in developing gr...
The transition of farming systems to higher levels of productivity without overusing natural resources is of rising interest especially in African countries, where population growth has often been larger than past productivity increases. This paper a...
In Pakistan, surface water supply for irrigation is decreasing, while water demand is increasing for agriculture production. Also, due to the fast rate of population growth, land holding capacity is decreasing. So, there is a need to develop appropri...
Soil health is at the root of agricultural sustainability, and small-scale vegetable farmers are becoming an increasingly important part of the US food system. These farmers face unique challenges when it comes to managing soil on their farms. These...
Multi-agent-based modelling and simulation provides an adequate environment to study the real world. This paper presents the use of a multi-agent research and simulation (MARS) framework and model design based on the overview, design concepts, design...
Postharvest losses amongst small-scale farmers in developing countries are high due to inadequate resources and infrastructure. Among the various affected crops, tomatoes are particularly vulnerable; however, studies on postharvest losses of most fru...
Sectoral economic growth data in Ethiopia show that the agriculture sector has the lowest growth, which is caused by frequent drought and inefficient technologies, among other factors. As a result, the productivities of land and labor, as well as the...
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizer use comes with unsustainable financial and environmental costs, making it not attractive to small-scale and organic farmers. Poultry manure (PM) when available is a primary fertilizer source for small-scale and organic f...
Manual pea shelling is a labor-intensive task facing small-scale farmers in rural areas, requiring substantial physical effort and limiting productivity. This study employed a Design Thinking methodology to co-design an affordable, automatic pea shel...
Thailand has recently introduced agricultural policies to promote large-scale rice farming through supporting and integrating small-scale farmers. However, achieving these policies requires agricultural tools that can assist farmers in rice farming p...
Small-scale farming production systems are integral drivers of global sustainability challenges and the climate crisis as well as a solution space for the transition to climate compatible development. However, mainstreaming agricultural emissions int...
Smallholder farmers in the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands are highly engaged in small-scale forest management. Participation in this activity can provide a key source of income for the farmers as well as wider benefits to the environment. To gain a...
Developing countries in Asia widely use manual seed broadcasting methods due to a lack of appropriate seeding machinery. The agricultural sector is currently facing labor shortages and high labor costs, especially seasonal labor shortages for broadca...
In a number of developing countries, low productivity and technical inefficiency, with climate change looming in the background, remain a severe challenge for the agricultural sector, especially smallholder farmers. To enhance smallholder farmers&rsq...
Small-scale farming can benefit from the usage of information and communication technology (ICT) to improve crop and soil management and increase yield. However, in order to introduce digital farming in rural areas, related ICT solutions must be viab...
This study compares the aquaponics Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus)—pak choi (Brassica chinensis) system with and without a bacterial biofilter (BF and NBF) in a tropical location. The aim was to determine whether a semi-intensive aquaponics syst...
The increasing pressure on food security and environmental sustainability has emphasized the importance of effective farm resource usage. Precision agriculture technologies (PATs) have been considered as one of the solutions to these challenges. Mult...
This article presents a low-cost insurance system developed for smallholder farms in disaster-prone regions, primarily using free Earth observation (EO) data and free open source software’s (FOSS), collectively termed “sustainable geoinfo...
Facing the continuous loss of family-run farms across Europe, farmers are seeking new pathways to sustainability. One such pathway is involvement in local food supply systems. Often, this requires new forms of cooperation among farmers and with consu...
Climate fluctuations significantly impact small-scale farmers’ farm welfare (food, nutrition and income). This situation highlights an urgent need to invest in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. Climate-smart agriculture has prospects f...
Just how influential is rainfall on agricultural production in the Sudan-Sahel of Africa? And, is there evidence that support for small-scale farming can reduce the vulnerability of crop yields to rainfall in these sensitive agro-ecological zones? Th...
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