Agriculture & Food Security最新文献

{"title":"A way forward for the South African quail sector as a potential contributor to food and nutrition security following the aftermath of COVID-19: a review.","authors":"C M Mnisi, M Marareni, F Manyeula, M J Madibana","doi":"10.1186/s40066-021-00331-8","DOIUrl":"10.1186/s40066-021-00331-8","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Commercial quail (<i>Coturnix coturnix</i>) farming has recently gained recognition from the South African poultry industry as a potential source of protein, which can be used to alleviate protein-energy malnutrition as well as food and nutrition insecurity in rural South Africa. Over six large-scale and hundred small-scale farmers are currently producing various quail breeds for commercial purposes in South Africa. However, these farmers face challenges of high feed costs, diseases, poor health care, low demand (for quail meat and eggs) and limited access to the markets. In addition, the lack of a pre-existing local market for quail meat and eggs has seen most farmers exporting these products to other countries, but with low profit margins owing to the slow growth experienced by world economies. Furthermore, the socio-economic crisis brought by the global Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exacerbated these challenges as most of the countries enforced nationwide lockdown to mitigate the spread of the virus. Although this initiative was taken to save lives, it left quail farmers not knowing where to trade their stock due to large uncertainties in the social and economic domain, compounded by the fact that many South African citizens are traditionally accustomed to chicken products. Moreover, the size of the quail in relation to its market price when compared to that of chickens continues to lower its demand causing a lot of quail businesses to collapse. Thus, it is imperative to explore strategies that can reduce the cost of producing quail, while increasing their demand and popularity. Non-conventional feed ingredients and phytogenic feed additives that are inexpensive, locally available, and readily accessible should be identified and evaluated in quail diets to deliver sustainable production systems that will ensure that these birds continue to play a significant role in food and nutrition security of humans. In addition, extension service workers and quail farmers need to form a collaborative team to increase awareness about the benefits of quail products and build a long-lasting and profitable quail business. In this work, we present potential rearing methods for commercial quail production, nutritional benefits of quail products, as well as nutritional solutions for a sustainable and profitable quail business. Lastly, we review prospective awareness programs and marketing strategies that are aimed at successful commercialisation of quail using various networks.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"10 1","pages":"48"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8654503/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39812401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating farmers' perception toward the effectiveness of agricultural extension services in Ghana and Zambia.","authors":"Albert Novas Somanje,&nbsp;Geetha Mohan,&nbsp;Osamu Saito","doi":"10.1186/s40066-021-00325-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-021-00325-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>In this study, we present the current situation and the role of agricultural extension services for farmers and indicates the potential solutions for the optimum effectiveness of these services. Thus, we investigate the vital determinants influencing the farmers' attitudes toward using agricultural extension services in Ghana and Zambia.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>In this study, we used a mixed-method research analysis of data from a household survey of 240 farmers and 8 key informant interviews in the Upper West Region of Ghana and the Southern Province of Zambia.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The significant factors affecting the association of agricultural extension officers with farmers are regular meetings, demand for services and productivity, and the adoption rate of technology. Notably, approaches based on information communication technology indicators include owning cell phones; further, having radio access significantly affects agricultural practices. However, the role of gender, access to credit, and owning a television would influence food safety and nutrition.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Understanding the critical determinants will provide potential solutions to national agricultural research institutes, private research entities, and policymakers to scale-up the effectiveness of agricultural extension services, particularly in Ghana and Zambia.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"10 1","pages":"53"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8610613/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39763154","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Challenges for food security and safety: a qualitative study in an agriculture supply chain company in Iran.","authors":"Ahmad Kalateh Sadati,&nbsp;Mehdi Nayedar,&nbsp;Leila Zartash,&nbsp;Zahra Falakodin","doi":"10.1186/s40066-021-00304-x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-021-00304-x","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Food supply chain companies are major link for safe food production and distribution. Food safety ensures reduced food losses and, therefore, contributes to food security. Although there have been extensive studies on the food industry with different perspectives, no study has so far been conducted on the challenges in terms of the food security. The present study is a qualitative one conducted in 2019 in one of the largest agricultural production chain companies in Khorasan Razavi province, Iran.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The research method was based on the conventional content analysis. Triangulation method was used for the data collection being a combination of the participant observations, focus group discussions (17 managers) and semi-structured interviews with the president of the company. Participants believed that their company plays an important role and has a prestigious position in the food security of Iran. However, the main challenges of the company are <i>regulatory system, food safety risks, market unpredictability, traditional management</i> and <i>sanctions</i>.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The company is highly resilient to all these challenges; however, the traditional management is still a serious disadvantage. This leads to the managers' burnout along with the company survival problem, removing unfair sanctions and protecting agricultural development in developing countries is a necessity. In general, paying attention to the modern organizational management of these companies and their survival is an essential policy. For this reason, it is suggested that trust must be established between policymakers and companies on one hand and relationship between the academia and such companies to promote the organizational management on the other hand.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"10 1","pages":"41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8494603/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39513779","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on African indigenous vegetables value chain in Kenya.","authors":"Maurice Juma Ogada,&nbsp;Ochieng' Justus,&nbsp;Maina Paul,&nbsp;Sikei Geophrey Omondi,&nbsp;Adero Nashon Juma,&nbsp;Evans Taracha,&nbsp;Hassan Ahmed","doi":"10.1186/s40066-021-00328-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-021-00328-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>African indigenous vegetables are important for food security and nutrition, and income of the poor farm households. In the era of COVID-19, they are critical for boosting people's immunity. Unfortunately, both production of and trade in these vegetables is likely to be severely affected by the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>This study examined potential effects of COVID-19 pandemic on production and trade of African indigenous vegetables using a cross-sectional survey of 244 farmers and 246 traders from different regions in Kenya.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>COVID-19 has a negative impact on production and trading of AIVs in Kenya. Findings indicate that 75% of the farmers are experiencing declining production due to reduced access to input, farm labour and output market. Secondly, about 98% of the traders have recorded a drop in sales volumes due to containment measures implemented by the government and personal safety precautions. In particular, farmers' production and traders' sales volumes declined by 39 and 65%, respectively, during the first phase of the pandemic.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings indicate that the sub-sector requires targeted interventions which may include input support, careful reopening and control of the open-air markets, reduced taxation and facilitated access to urban markets.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"10 1","pages":"52"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8645349/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"39719304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The nutritional use of millet grain for food and feed: a review.","authors":"Z M Hassan,&nbsp;N A Sebola,&nbsp;M Mabelebele","doi":"10.1186/s40066-020-00282-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-020-00282-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Worldwide, millets are regarded as a significant grain, however, they are the least exploited. Millet grain is abundant in nutrients and health-beneficial phenolic compounds, making it suitable as food and feed. The diverse content of nutrients and phenolic compounds present in finger and pearl millet are good indicators that the variety of millet available is important when selecting it for use as food or feed. The phenolic properties found in millets compromise phenolic acids, flavonoids, and tannins, which are beneficial to human health. Moreover, finger millet has an exceptionally unique, more abundant, and diverse phenolic profile compared to pearl millet. Research has shown that millet phenolic properties have high antioxidant activity. The presence of phytochemicals in millet grains has positive effect on human health by lowering the cholesterol and phytates in the body. The frantic demands on maize and its uses in multiple industries have merited the search for alternative grains, to ease the pressure. Substitution of maize with pearl and finger millets in the diets of different animals resulted in positive impact on the performance. Including these grains in the diet may improve health and decrease the risks of diseases. Pearl millet of 50% or more can be used in broiler diets without adversely affecting broiler performance or egg production. Of late, millet grain has been incorporated in other foods and used to make traditional beverages. Thus, the core aim of this review is to provide insight and comprehension about the nutritional and phenolic status of millets and their impact on human and livestock.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"10 1","pages":"16"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s40066-020-00282-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"25558792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global survey of rice breeders to investigate characteristics and willingness to adopt alternative breeding methods.","authors":"Bert Lenaerts,&nbsp;Bertrand C Y Collard,&nbsp;Matty Demont","doi":"10.1186/s40066-018-0191-3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-018-0191-3","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Despite the critical role rice breeders play to ensure food security, there is a lack of information regarding their current socio-economic characteristics, constraints and attitudes towards technology adoption. Some key concepts like budget, experience, local ecosystems, level of education and even main breeding method have hardly been surveyed in the past. This not only clouds any policy making regarding scientists in national agricultural research programmes, it also makes it difficult to assess the needs and problems local rice breeders face around the world.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A global online survey was conducted reaching 189 rice breeders from 51 rice-growing countries around the world. The questionnaire was structured according to an adoption framework we proposed from the literature. We specifically investigated their attitudes to adopting an alternative breeding method called rapid generation advance (RGA) (also known as single seed descent). To provide some historical perspective, we compare our results with those reported by Hargrove (Rice breeders in Asia: a ten-country survey of their backgrounds, attitudes, and use of genetic materials, 1978), the only published survey on rice breeders.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Overall, rice breeders are highly educated and have a long experience with their main breeding method. However, a gender gap with respect to education seems to persist. Large variation in resources (staff, land and budget) was observed with a small number of resource-rich institutes and a large number of resource-poor institutes. Most rice breeders are focused on breeding for irrigated conditions. Most breeders have a relatively high degree of risk taking and time preference towards shorter breeding cycles. The majority of breeders are aware of RGA and its benefits with more than half having observed RGA in practice. Finally, breeders are confident in the RGA technique and estimate its resource savings to be substantial.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Breeders' willingness to adopt RGA was remarkably high. Surprisingly, adoption of RGA remains low (4% as main method). This may suggest that the benefits of using the RGA method still need to be further demonstrated in rice breeding. Our results could be useful to develop targeted extension material or interventions for implementing new technologies, which could be useful to high-level agricultural managers, international research centres and aid agencies.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"7 ","pages":"40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s40066-018-0191-3","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38526556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Characteristics of maize cultivars in Africa: How modern are they and how many do smallholder farmers grow?","authors":"Tsedeke Abate,&nbsp;Monica Fisher,&nbsp;Tahirou Abdoulaye,&nbsp;Girma T Kassie,&nbsp;Rodney Lunduka,&nbsp;Paswel Marenya,&nbsp;Woinishet Asnake","doi":"10.1186/s40066-017-0108-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-017-0108-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Maize is the most important cereal and most widely cultivated staple that plays a key role in the food security of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although some countries have achieved significant gains in maize productivity, the SSA average yields are far below what could be obtained with improved cultivars under good crop management. Low cultivar turnover is one among many contributing factors to low maize yields in SSA. At present, there is a critical knowledge gap on the identity, number, and age of maize cultivars currently grown by smallholder farmers on the continent.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>This study revealed that nearly 500 maize cultivars were grown in 13 African countries surveyed in the 2013/2014 main crop season. Sixty-nine percent of the cultivars each occupied <1% of the total maize area; only two cultivars occupied >40% and four occupied >30% area. Approximately 32% of all the cultivars were hybrids, 23% were improved open-pollinated varieties (OPVs), and 46% were locals. Eastern Africa (EA) and southern Africa (SA) accounted for about 43 and 38%, respectively, of all the cultivars reported, whereas West Africa's (WA) share was 19%. The average area planted to modern cultivars in the surveyed areas was estimated at 57%-with EA, SA, and WA estimates of 82, 55, and 36%, respectively; however, increased adoption was not necessarily always related to improved productivity, as the latter depends on many additional factors. Each household planted an average of 1.781 cultivars (range 1-8). The overall weighted average age of the cultivars was 15 years, with hybrids and OPVs being 13 and 18 years, respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Maize variety turnover in SSA is slower than what is practiced in the USA and other world regions such as Latin America and Asia. The substantial variations among regions and countries in all parameters measured suggest a tailored approach to mitigation interventions. Findings of this current study pave the way for replacing the old cultivars with more recent releases that are tolerant or resistant to multiple stresses and are more resilient.</p>","PeriodicalId":512658,"journal":{"name":"Agriculture & Food Security","volume":"6 ","pages":"30"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1186/s40066-017-0108-6","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38526555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}