Month: April 2022

These policies encourage many farmers to purchase and use pesticides on their farms with little or no knowledge of the safe use and management of pesticides.The same situation was also found in Buea, where small-scale tomato farmers identify a high dependency on different formulations and combinations of pesticides as the major means to control pest and plant diseases on their farms.Some farmers still practice the traditional methods of applying a mix of wood ash, animal droppings, and water to their crops, removing weeds with hands, cutlasses and hoes, and harvesting what is left after pests and diseases infestation at the end of each planting season. These traditional farming practices are not common inBuea.Insects have been identified as a major hindrance to tomato production in this area . Buea farmers are very aware of the damages caused by pests to tomato production which has led to almost all small-scale farmers to use pesticides as the major means to control pests and plant diseases. Unfortunately, no Buea farmer was able to identify receiving any formal training on the suitable choices of pesticides and their proper application.

This leads to concerns that many farmers use the chemicals incorrectly and unsafely which are supported by this study.Pesticides are expensive, especially for small-scale farmers. The use of pesticides has been encouraged by pesticide vendors who divide pesticides into small sachets and containers which are sold to the farmers without labeling . This practice is worrisome for correct and safe use of pesticides is extremely important and the directions on the label are essential to providing information addressing safe and effective pesticide use. Many countries mandate that pesticides are labeled with required instructions and warnings.In the analytic rating game, the farmers identified 28 pesticides being used with insecticides being most used and herbicides least used.This lower herbicide use may be the result of farmers able to manually weed their farms with their family members or friends using hands,4×8 flood tray cutlasses and hoes on the smaller farms.Most Buea farmers (83.8%) anticipate pest infestations and began spraying the plants from the nursery to few weeks after transplanting. This practice shows that the farmers target any organisms that may pose as threat to the tomatoes. The problem is that natural organisms are killed which benefit the ecosystem, including earthworms which render the soil airy and ease water and other minerals absorption in the crops.A concerning finding was that almost 95.0% of Buea farmers used indiscriminate chemical combinations with repeated application of pesticides in hope of acquiring rapid and improved results.

Yet, some of these combinations have been shown to facilitate the development of pest resistance to the chemicals , as well as building toxic residues in plants, vegetables and fruits which could also pose a health threat to consumers. In Ghana,these practices have been found to have left insecticide residue in vegetables .A knapsack sprayer (83.8%) was the main pesticide application equipment used by the famers. But, only39.8% of farmers were able to afford a knapsack. The other farmers must depend on either renting or borrowing this equipment from friends. Those farmers having no access to sprayers (16.1%) use hand sprinkling by improvising methods of attaching brushes, mesh, leaves of plants on a wooden short stick to sprinkle their pesticides after mixing in an open container (bucket or bowl).It is important to keep knapsack sprayers in good condition and operating properly. Sprayers have been known to spill or leak, especially when overused on rotational bases. An association has been shown between knapsack leakages and human health effects  . Toxic residues on the skin and clothes can cause acute pesticide poisoning.

The closed and open-ended questions were given to key informants and households grouped in agricultural and beekeeping cooperatives. The data were analyzed with the support of SPSS . In general, the survey was designed to know the impact of agricultural practices on honey production, and potential impact of pesticides and inorganic fertilizer to bees. The observations on field were conducted several times, in order to identify beepers, agriculturists in surrounding areas and their location, key factors to include such as socio-economic and environment aspect,taking notes and recording data. In Village of Gakeli, Kavumu Cell in Ruhango Sector, about 51 respondents were beekeepers formed UNICOAPIGI cooperative and 73 were farmers grouped in Njyambere agricultural cooperative who use great amount of pesticides, such as Lambdabex, Rocket and inorganic fertilizers, Diamonium Phosphate and Urea to raise corn crops, which affect honey productivity and also the findings of Gary , illustrated the effect of applying the methamidophosin agriculture at rate of 14 g/ha  in alfalfa field caused honey reduction.

In addition, the 73 farmers identified depended on the farming activities with application of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers to raise the corn yields through JYAMBERE cooperative in Kagondero Village, Rukaragata Cell in Kigeyo and the plot size owned by household farmers was less than 0.5 hectares.With comparison to the District report of National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda, about 78% of population are farmers with plot size less than 0.3 hectares and the 49% of income are generated from agriculture and these results showed the effort of human interaction with the nature in terms of exploitation of the environment and also previous researches reported on the assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services illustrated that around 25% of the plant and animal species were threatened with extinction,mobile vertical farm as the result of anthropogenic activity . The necessity for income between beekeepers and farmers in the study area created the form of land competition where the beekeepers were the most vulnerable due to the decline of honey production resulted from pesticide application.

As 73 were household farmers contacted, 75.78% of them reported that they used pesticides and fertilizers to carry out their agricultural activities and this is in line with the strategies of the district for consolidating the land where about to 80% of arable land are consolidated with intention of increasing the rate of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used in the District. In addition, 5 staff from local Government and management of the Gishwati Forest national park provided the adequate information on the threats that caused the decline of honey production. They pointed on the usage of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers by focusing on the positive correlation existing between high yield of agricultural crops and inputs. Table 1 illustrated that after 2008 year,the quantity of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides were started to be applied as a new strategy to raise corn production and in 2000 year the quantity of chemical fertilizers applied was 0 Kg whereas pesticides used was 0 Litres with 1508 Kg of honey yield. In general the quantity of pesticides and inorganic fertilizers increased within timeframe, therefore in 2018 year the quantity reached 9856 Kgfor inorganic fertilizers and 98.55 liters for pesticides with shrinking in honey production to 596 Kg .

The climatic characteristics in Sokode, with the annual rainfall minima of 964.5 mm, the maxima of 1645.1 mm, and the averages of 1270.49 mm, do not favor the occurrence of the dense forests. According to Chevalier the dense forest occurrence requires a minimum annual rainfall of 1500 mm distributed all over the year, and a dry season less than three months . However, the dense forest occurs in patches within the savanna ecosystem. This dense forest predominate the savannas in the lower latitude like in the Prefecture of Blitta, as well as at the rivers and water streams’ banks.The area presents a great potential for ecological biodiversity. In fact, an inventory of protected areas in 1993 , recorded 14 protected areas covering a total of 252,087 ha. In addition, the region hosts two of the major protected areas of the country including the protected area of Fazao and that of Aboudlye. At the economic stand points, the Central region along with the Plateaus region of the country supply wood to satisfy the national demand and for exportation. The agriculture is the major economic activity. This small holding agriculture is practiced in shifting cultivation, and in rotation of crops from one year to another.

Although an opportunistic aquatic pathogen, it has been isolated from vegetables, meat, milk, and their derivates.Several studies have shown that this species is resistant to commercial antibiotics by genetic mutations  owing to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in fish breeding and other aquatic food products. Since A. hydrophila is resistant to antimicrobial agents and frequently occurs in food, it is a threat to public health .Martineli et al.   assessed bovine carcasses in the state of Sao Paulo,Brazil, and reported that 38 out of 285 samples were positive for Aeromonas spp.Antimicrobial resistance tests revealed that all isolates were resistant to ampicillin and cephalexin. Resistance to antimicrobial agents is a concern, because, in the case of Aeromonas spp., their indiscriminate use may lead to the development of multidrug-resistant bacteria. In addition, several species are pathogenic to humans. In this specific analysis, the authors focused on the care that must be taken to overcome the occurrence of A. caviae , the most prevalent in the study and one of the species defined in the literature as an etiological agent of gastroenteritisin humans.

A study conducted in the types of cheese showed total multidrug resistance to 15 antimicrobial agents in Aeromonas spp. isolates.These findings suggest concern due to threats to public health .Clinical investigations conducted in Malaysia evidenced resistance to antimicrobial agents by the genus Aeromonas . A study by Odeyemi & Ahmad , in2015, on Aeromonas strains retrieved from aquatic environments showed a pattern of multi-resistance between isolates and 21 different phenotypes. Among the antimicrobial agents analyzed, ampicillin, novobiocine,stackable planters sulfamethoxazole,and trimethoprim resistance was noted in all the isolates. They are sensitive to other antimicrobial agents such as tetracycline. The indiscriminate use of antibiotics may have caused the emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria of the genus Aeromonas . The above constitutes a public health issue, since these species are pathogenic for humans and aquatic animals Furthermore,as several Aeromonas species are pathogenic and may cause diarrhea, they should be included in routine bacteriological tests .In Israel, a study evaluated the prevalence and virulence of Aeromonas by using molecular methods by analyzing 1033 samples of diarrheal feces. The etiological agent was identified to be Aeromonas spp. in 17 samples by using rpo Dgene sequencing.

The first clinical record of diarrhea by A. taiwanensis was identified in other species. The species were resistant to betalactam antibiotics,with susceptibility to third-generation cephalosporin antibiotics.A. caviae showed the highest resistance rate . A. caviaeis a pathogenic strain for humans, and its presence in contaminated water and food may cause gastroenteritis mainly in children and immuno suppressed individuals.In Mumbai, India, 154 ready food samples were analyzed for Aeromonas spp.during a 2-year period . The study identified the bacterium in 18 samples, including 22 Aeromonas isolates of seven different species.Since the isolated strains of Aeromonas were positive for virulence factors with high antimicrobial resistance potential, they were a risk to the health of individuals who consumed contaminated raw or cooked food products .Aeromonas strains are known for their increased capacity to acquire and exchange antibiotic resistance genes. There is a strong correlation between aquaculture,Aeromonas diversity, and antibiotic resistance. In addition, robust links exist between the prophylactic and systemic use of antibiotics in aquaculture and the propagation of resistance to antibiotics Resolution 357, published in 2005, states that thermo tolerant coliforms should not exceed 1000 thermo tolerant coliforms/100 ml in water for aquaculture and fishing activity.There is no legislation for total coliform limits in fish.However, the presence of this group in food should be investigated to guarantee the sanitary quality of fish. This mandates the implementation of control measures Aeromonas are pathogenic bacteria classified as emerging ones by the WHO.Studies have revealed that Brazilian legislation fails to establish parameters for the identification or quantification of Aeromonas for research involving food and water.

Soil texture of the rice field was slowly transforming from loam to sandy loam and loamy sand in lower depths below 0.8 – 1 m. Pond was thus draining quickly after every rainfall. In 2013, pond received runoff to almost its full capacity twice but in 2014, it received only once due to lower storm rainfall. However, waterway, pond and rice field channels assured additional water availability to the crop and zero runoff from the watershed. The incoming colloidal sediments with runoff in the pond are expected to clog soil pores with time allowing water to stay for longer time. Part of the sediments received in the pond could also be used as manure in the rice field or elsewhere as necessary. Seepage from An seba river, runoff stored in the pond and irrigation channels and wetness in the rice plots raised groundwater table in the rice field from 3.25 m depth in June end to 1.4 m by 4th week of August, which receded down to 1.7 m by crop maturity . Rate of rise of water table was faster than receding. The water table rose by 1.85 m in about 48 days but receded only 0.3 m in next 75 days.

The water table was oscillating within1.5 ± 0.1 m for about 2 months during grand growth to reproductive stages of rice crop.The shallow groundwater table greatly affected wetness in the root zone. Soil water content in the third week of September showed upward gradient . Whereas surface soil was dry forming cracks, soil wetness below 0.7 m depth was near field capacity and was increasing with depth . Roots of NERICA rice were observed down to 0.8 m and, therefore, parts of the rice roots were receiving water by capillarity from the fluctuating water table and the crop was greener until October . The rising groundwater table due to combined effect of water level in the river and percolation from the pond and rice field may serve as a natural source of sub-irrigation to the rice crop. The crop was harvested in November first week. Although practices to minimize high percolation from rice fields were known and possibilities of runoff farming existed in Eritrea , no systematic efforts were made to cultivate rice due to fear of its high water requirements,nft hydroponic system inadequate rainfall and highly permeable soils. Some experiments were conducted by National Agricultural Research Institution , Eritrea, using NERICA varieties, but conclusions were discouraging. On the contrary, experiments at Hamelmalo Agricultural College under rainfed and life-saving irrigations showed encouraging results . NERICA is a cross of African  and Asian rice ,which has been successfully grown in Africa under limited irrigation conditions  Inadequate rainfall in Eritrea can be supplemented by runoff harvested as additional water for crop use from >82%non-agricultural lands in the watersheds.

Objective of this study was to optimize soil compaction and puddling intensity to reduce percolation loss and irrigation requirements of rice under semiarid conditions of Hamelmalo. The farm has inputs and outputs.For the purposes of this proposal,inputs are simplified as time, money, and energy; outputs are simplified as produce,heat, and manure. Time and money are considered the conventional costs of production , while energy is the actual caloric input ; produce is the commodity that the farm is producing , while heat and manure are byproducts. Water may be assumed to input with energy and output with manure.In this paper, the example used is of meat production, which for time, money ,and energy outputs meat, heat, and manure. The efficiencies analyzed will be optimized in terms of money  vs. Calories .While “money” and “Calories” are not listed as a farm outputs, they do serve as inputs and are therefore appropriate units to use in analyzing efficiency,representing how much useful input can be extracted from a given system’s output. In order to ensure that manure is valued as a nutritious compost, the appropriate metric must be used in optimizing the farming process. If an inappropriate metricis used, farming methods will be optimized without regard to useful recycling of energy outputs, and the value of manure can drop until it becomes a hazard:Public health threats, such as antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureī like MRSA, fecal streptococci and coliforms,and Escherichia coli , have been linked with factory farm nutrient outflows. It has also been shown that carrots and lettuce will uptake tetracycline and amoxicillin, further devaluing manure of the factory farm, making it less likely that the waste is to be recycled for useful applications.Antibiotic-impregnated feed can be avoided by keeping livestock in healthy pastures with shelter: a low-stress, clean environment where exercise is possible and nutritious diet available This harnesses animals’ own immune systems to combat infectious diseases. On pasture, manure is a valuable resource that is recycled to fertilize subsequent years’ vegetation.

It raises queries on gains and losses in terms of maintenance of water quality, biodiversity, carbon storage, pest control, pollinators and predators, fisheries and ecotourism in agricultural landscapes. Thus future revolution agricultural productivity must work on the principles of PAR that incorporates accumulated knowledge of ecological processes and feedbacks, disease dynamics, soil processes and beneficial microbial functions . A cyclical approach of PAR is promising in situation, which involves diversity of active stakeholders in research and as agents of positive change. The cyclic process of PAR includes observational, reflective thinking, experimental actions and coevolution through network reciprocity . The duality of the PAR is important to create positive social and environmental change contributing essentially to scientific knowledge gain to stakeholders. It facilitates strategic and potential expansion of PAR linkages among the communities, organizations, researchers and development of network for mutual learning.

However, long- term sustenance of the PAR cycle is challenge by itself due to changing priorities of the stakeholders and re-searchers. It is one of the drawbacks which may add skeptic view to PAR oriented approach to agro-ecological development initiatives. Many options may be created by asking questions in the initiation stage of the PAR process to make the PAR activity adaptable. The relevant questions may range from level of participation, powers of participants, gender issues, caste discrimintions, social roles of participants within the communities, social skills of scientific researchers and interactive forces operating at spatial,grow table geographic and political scales . In PAR approach, much importance need to be paid to benefit the adaptive management strategies  in natural resource management.The typology and the degree of relationship has been suggested  based on participation at the level of 1) Collegial— trust based relationship where researchers work in close association with local stakeholders to strengthen their research, developmental capacities and practice advocacy; 2) Collaborative—a direct collaboration between re-searchers and stakeholder with realizable objective/s; 3) Consultative—researcher orients his approach to need based solving of problem of the stakeholder/s; and 4) Contractual—service oriented contract between the re-searcher and stakeholder . All these relationships can be operational at one time, however need empowerment of local communities of their social capital aiming at positive change as a long and negotiated process .

The uneven power relationships, conflicts, rivalry, multi-ple cultures, caste based discrepancies operate while building PAR for agro-ecological sustainability. Environmental sociology is increasingly becoming in-dispensable in restoration of ecological functions. By definition environmental sociology is “complex symbolic and non-symbolic reciprocal interactions between society and environment, which are influenced by the cultural and social behavior while interacting with the physical and biological elements” . Agricultural landscapes provide ideal systems for environmental perspective analysis of development as human-well being holds the key to sustainability. Agricultural extension is recognized approach for lab-to-land dissemination of research output to farming communities. It fails to consider farm level innovations, which have not been documented but practiced in isolation. In such situation, PAR is best suited to operate in both direction with extension and learning the lessons from traditional experimental farming by the stakeholders. In this view, experts and farmers are guided by a knowledge interest in “technical power of control over an environment” and perceive their participation in environment as a sphere of instrumental rationality. Accordingly the farmers will have habitualized the laws of environment as behavioral rules. Indeed, co-evolution and network reciprocity of the farmers must be characterized as all human knowledge of environment is inevitably tied to the interest in ecological sustenance. Hence, environmental sociology perspective at farm level could be used to reconstruct the theoretical basis for sustain-able development of agricultural landscapes.

There is need for paradigm shift in extension activities and PAR to analyze the current situation and circumstantial changes to agricultural landscapes. Thus far the principles of extension have been aimed at increasing the productivity, which theoretically might negatively impact the sustainability of agricultural landscapes. PAR principles provide a basis for such an approach in the current theory of establishment of farm level sustainability and economic viability of production systems. Thus the meaning of sustainability assumes conservation and capacitating the farming communities through PAR to maintain the ecological services to achieve the new paradigm shift in productive agricultural landscapes. The concept of sustainability and economic rationality seem become inseparable and having their own legitimacy in agricultural landscapes.

While Baganda people have little knowledge of pollination,human communities living in most other ecological zones of Uganda have a good knowledge of pollination. In fact, during a study conducted in western part of Uganda , it was realized that communities  living in the mountainous region bordering Bwindi Impenetrable forest and Mgahinga Gorilla forest national parks were aware of the value pollinators. Most farmers interviewed from that region new how to manage their lands to care for pollinators . Farmers from that region had 5 to 15 beehives each while in central Uganda few farmers own beehives. Bee-keeping is not a common farming practice in central Uganda whereas in western part of the region, it is one of the lucrative activities providing income to farmers. Hence, knowledge of pollination by bees is advanced in west part of the country. Additionally Baganda people were incapable of differentiating bees from other insects. Batwa people had local names for different species of stingless bees.

Different stingless bee species have distinct names according to Batwa nomen-clature: Maranga , Obwiza , Obugashu , Obuzagali  and Obuganza . It was there after assumed that the high level of knowledge pollinator species and pollination by human communities from western part of Uganda may be linked to the fact that their agricultural systems is largely depending on inputs including pollination and fertilizers. Overall, the increase in level of knowledge of pollination by farmers seems following a gradient from the edge of Lake Victoria to Western part of the country. Differences in perceptions and knowledge of pollination constitute a major obstacle in farmer–researcher cooperation and collaboration which is necessary for sustainable management of pollination services in rural farmlands. The aim of this study was to understand knowledge and perceptions of the importance of pollinators and pollination services in coffee production. Farmers’ perceptions were investigated in order to harness their knowledge in the participatory development of conservation strategies of pollination services. Findings indicated that farmers’ awareness of pollinator importance in coffee yield increase was extremely low and gender biased with males having high knowledge than females.

One of the greatest challenges for the conservation of Apoidea fauna in farmlands of central Uganda is the great ignorance of the role played by bees in crop production enhancement including coffee. Ironically,vertical grow table small scale farmers in central Uganda are involved in all activities related to the destruction and conservation of natural resources. Obviously, farmers can play significant role in the conservation of bees if they are made aware of the importance of bees to the improvement of their livelihood and sustainability of their agricultural systems. African farmers are aware of insects as pests but not as important factor in the agricultural productivity. Bees are taken for granted by farmers, just like the air and the light. However, the “free pollination service” provided by “God” to human survival is irreplaceable and it will be difficult for scientists to find a technology that can replace it in the nature. In Uganda, many people and farmers believe that if there is a yield loss, it will be attributed to anything but not to pollination deficit. However, conservation of pollinators is a key for sustainable agriculture development in Africa. Much of crops grown in Africa owe their production to bee pollination activities. African green revolution will not work without paying great attention to pollinators in the plant breeding programs .

Findings from this study also indicated that, that more than 90% of the farmers were not aware of the role played by bees in the increase of coffee yield. As it was also observed in Kenya , small-scale farmers in central Uganda were not willing to manage their lands to protect pollinators because not only that they were ignorant, but, they also considered pollination as an unsolicited “free service”, or as a “public good”. Most farmers considered that coffee could still produce with or with-out receiving visits from bees. In contrast to the views and perceptions of the farmers, pollination experiments conducted from 30 coffees showed that the economic value of pollination services delivered to coffee approximated US $ 650/ha/year on average . At the national level, the total economic value of coffee produced in Uganda is on average of US$214 million from half million hectares dedicated to coffee production, and ap-proximately 60%  of this economic value is attributable to pollination services delivered by bees to coffee in Uganda . This is the evidence that coffee needed pollinators in central Uganda.

It was remarkably prescient coming at a time prior to the, then, forthcoming immanent and major upheavals in farming practice, including the transformation of agriculture by the chemical industry. Secondly, King’s book recorded, with an eye for detail, and with precision augmented by statistics, the principles and practice of what we can now describe as ancien régime organic agriculture. His book described agricultural practices across three populous countries which were self sufficient in food and had been feeding large populations, from the same soil, for millennia. Organics advocates have viewed it as an validation of their methods and it remains of interest to organics scholars because of its influence, its persistence, and its testimony. Thirdly, King, as well as Hopkins, chose a term, in their case ‘permanent’, that qualified ‘agriculture’, and thereby differentiated the practice of ‘permanent agriculture’ from ‘orthodox agriculture’ as preached by the USDA.

The term arose from a conflict, a clash of ideologies, and signalled a cleavage of the territory of agricultural theory and practice into different camps; it a cleavage which remains to this day. As a distinguishing term, ‘permanent’, was the first of many such distinguishing terms for alternative agricultures. ‘Permanent agriculture’ emerged in response to, and out of a conflict with, the USDA’s view of agriculture. There is the parallel with ‘organic agriculture’ which emerged,hydroponic net pots framed as a contest, three decades later as Northbourne’s “organic versus chemical farming” . ‘Permanent’ was a precursor to ‘organic’, the term which has, in the interim, become the dominant descriptor to describe non-orthodox, alternative agriculture. Fourthly, King called for a “world movement” to introduce and develop permanent agriculture practices. He noted that “China, Korea and Japan long ago struck the keynote of permanent agriculture it remains for us and other nations to profit by their experience”. The call for a “world movement” o alternative agriculture eventually manifested in France, in 1972 as the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.

As China is now adopting organic agriculture on a grand scale  there are increasing opportunities to compare, across the divide of a century, places and practices that were documented by King. He described, for example, Chongming Island which is now increasingly adopting modern organic agriculture practices . King’s book has a special place in the canon of agricultural writers in general and organic farming in particular, and Farmers of Forty Centuries has earned its standing as a ‘classic’. In describing, with the eye of a scientist, an agricultural world that has all but disappeared, the work offers an accessible record of agricultural practices of increasing interest as the world faces the challenges of novel and contested agricultural technologies. Coffee is an important commercial crop. Coffee is an important cash crop in Uganda because the tree crop is the principal cash crop and the country’s largest agricultural foreign revenue earner . At the farmer level, coffee remains an important source of income since its production accounts for over 10% of total income of the farmer .

At the national level, income from coffee currently contributes around 20% – 26% of Uganda’s export earnings  In 1999, coffee exports totaled 150,000 mt representing US$125.316 million in foreign ex-change earnings. Exports by value for Uganda coffee is of 398 million $USD in 2009 . The improvement of coffee yield quality and quantity at farm level remains importantly an area that requires encouragement as part of national strategy to increase the production of coffee in Uganda. Thus, improvement and stability of coffee productivity are very important in the Uganda national economy. However the improvement needs the understanding of farmers’ perceptions and knowledge of pollinators and pollination services for coffee production among other key production and management factors to consider.

West European experience shows that production is efficient if the area of land use exceeds 100 ha. In fact, average area used by a single farming economy is far from being optimal even in developed states. In particular, small farms prevail in the EC countries: nearly 60% of all farming enterprises use less than 5 ha of agrarian lands each. The share of such small economies in the totality of EC farms amounts to 78% in Italy, 76% in Greece, 58% in Spain, and 34% 35% in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and Finland. In contrast, the share of big economies with average land area of over 100 ha is 27% in Germany, 16% in Great Britain, 8% in France and 2% in Austria . Scientists representing the Institute of Agrarian Economics at the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences conclude that farms using on the average less than 20 ha of agrarian lands in Ukraine are not rational, and efficient economy management is possible with farms that use over 150 200 ha, since cost price of land decreases with the in- crease of the cultivated land areas .

The Carpathian Region features 40% of farming enterprises that use lands of less than 5 ha, and 6% of the same using over 100 ha. The trend of farm quantity reduction with simultaneous insignificant increase of used land areas is today observed in many countries. That is,dutch buckets it is a trend of big in- vestments with simultaneous effort of agrarian lands expansion and formation of farms with developed auxiliary Assessment of nature-resource potential of the territory is an important component to help plan agricultural activity and an essential means in execution of regional policy. Comparison of nature-resource potential’s integral value and volume of gross output obtained by farming enterprises of the administrative oblasts of the Carpathian Region of Ukraine witnesses their complete correlation which is best expressed when comparatively analyzed with land resources. Further development of farming in the Carpathian Region of Ukraine in the aspect of use of its nature-resource potential requires farms’ mutual cooperation and integration as well as the same with other enterprises, that is, their inclusions into the system of agro-business on the basis of specialization and co-operation of production. In this case, farms with comparatively small land areas can also become profitable.

The extension is possible by way of incorporation of bankrupt farms. Formation of farm’s optimal land area together with the set of necessary means of production is pre-conditions to generation of commodity-competitive farming enterprise whose entrepreneurial activity would provide for gaining profit. The profit gained from product’s sale would at least allow the farmer satisfy his family’s consuming demands, and, as a maximum, let him execute extended reproduction and accumulation of capital. We find it appropriate to recommend farmers majorly specialize in production of labor-intensive cultures and some kinds of livestock growth and establishment of highly specialized enterprises engaged in bee-farming, fur farming, fish farming , etc.

The changes introduced in the agricultural sector focused on soils and water conservation and also mixed farming—where animal husbandry was integrated with agriculture with the use of more manure. Experiments were carried out on existing crops found in this region like cotton, shea butter, grains, ground nut and also on livestock. Many reasons account for the failure of the different agricultural and livestock experiments. Each venture was treated as a new idea without reference to other past experiences. There was little or no coordination between the different organisations implementing these projects over time and space, leading to a waste of time, money and resources. The aim of the colonial council in reviving agriculture and exporting raw materials like cotton to Europe,livestock to the South did not yield any fruits. In this example, we see how governmental interventions with the aim to improve the livelihood of the masses as stated in , does not succeed, due to different interest and agendas by the actors .

The brief consideration of tobacco, dawadawa, rice, and shea butter as cash crops was problematic due to numerous factors. First, a good transport system was absent. Secondly, most the crops were not suited for mechanisation. Thirdly there was a lack of technical expertise to fix any machine that broke down. The British colonial government invested a lot in the experimentation with cotton as a possible cash crop. Animal traction was introduced especially for this particular cash crop farming practice with ox-carts fabricated from wrecked cars, as the “main implement used is a heavy ridger pulled by paired oxen” . These technologies were introduced first to chiefs, with the idea was that if the chiefs adopted these technologies,hydroponic nft channel and then the people will do same. Chiefs, in this case, were used by the colonial administrators as an Obligatory Passage Point to get the people enrolled in the project. New farm technologies were introduced to the chiefs by the colonists who believed that if chiefs adopted these technologies,other farmers would be convinced to adopt them too. This process of enrolment is a process through which an actor convinces other actors to join his ideological network, by using discourses or intermediaries which the other actors accept.

Even though the people did not adopt many technologies elaborated above, intercropping of maize and millet fertilised with manure collected from animal kraals close to the compound was adopted by many farmers .Sutton also discusses the large-scale groundnut farms opened in 1955under the Gonja Development Company Scheme. The thinking behind this project was to acquire the land, plant, get farmers to weed it and when crops are sold, a third of the profit given to farmers. This project invested in the use of chemical fertilisers, tractors, and the crop rotation method. About 4000 acres of land was acquired, and expectations were to get roughly 400 farmers to settle and work on this farm. This project ended at the experimental phase with only 15 permanent farmers on site. Reasons for this failed project were that the farmers did not own the project, and found it taxing to relocate to this project farms to settle and farm.

Apart from the inter-cropping example above, farmers resisted all other governmental interventions by the colonial government to change their agricultural system, in this way reshaping the governance system in place by not legalising their power and authority in controlling the agricultural system .Irrigated dry season or market gardening on small protected plots was introduced by the Society of Missionaries of Africa who grew vegetables around water bodies first in the upper East region as stated by . The vegetables cultivated were mostly exotic that is, vegetables foreign to the localdiet. Vegetable cultivation increased in the city as the colonial administrator seach had gardens, where he or she cultivated vegetables and flowers for culinary and aesthetic purposes, especially in the Gold Coast . In the North, vegetables were grown in compound and bush farms; these vegetables were grown in the wet season and dried for culinary use in the dry season.

The above narrative gives us a glimpse into the socio-political life of the Dagbon people, which is embedded in their origin. These historical recollections are echoed by current writers like Imam and Mahama who painted the mas warriors, skilled hunters, and great agriculturalist. They are organised in centralised states with a patriarchal system of inheritance, where women are not included in the decision making of the state. The agricultural activities of the Dagomba people from the pre-colonial era to present date were extracted from secondary sources, archival data and oral history collected by anthropologists and historians who first visited these people.Even though oral history is considered problematic due to its sources and credence,it gives a clear picture of the past socio-political relationship of people. Also, primary data was collected from farmers, government officials,non-governmental organisations and traditional rulers through 101 key informantinte rviews, 35 focus group discussions, informal discussions and participant observations on fields especially from September 2013 to March 2015.

The questions addressed in these interviews and discussions focused on; pre-colonial and existing agricultural policies,grow table hydroponic evolving agricultural practices with a focus on urban vegetable farming and social norms which condition farm activities and practices.The key informant interviews purposively targeted key stakeholders who are knowledgeable about the subject of discussion and have experiences from faming during the pre to post colonial era. The information from key informant interviews was triangulated with information from focus group discussions disaggregated by gender and occupation. These qualitative methods provided us within depth knowledge of what activities took place, how and why it did. Combined with achival data and secondary literature we had a more holistic picture of the agricultural system in Northern Ghana and why it has not changed much. The paper is part of my doctoral work. The aim of the study was clearly explained to all respondents.Respondents were informed of their right to stop the interview or completely refuse to participate in the research. Few respondents opted out during this study. The agricultural system in the Northern region has evolved with resultant changes in the production, distribution and consumption patterns of the people. The different agricultural policies have shaped and are still shaping farmers practice within their socio-economic and political environment.

Changes in the agricultural activities of the Dagomba people will be considered at different time scales from pre-colonial times to date in relation to changing agricultural policies and the social reality of the people. In pre-colonial times, agricultural activities of the Dagomba’s were captured by historians and anthropologist through tales and participant observation. Cardinall and Tamakloe argued that, even though most traditional tales and history in Africa are regarded as superstition, they are believed to be accurate by the people who live it daily and to whom it is considered perfectly natural. This assertion he puts in opposition to tales in European peasantry societies which are half believed and not assumed to be natural occurrences. Talton also emphasized the importance of historical recollections in defining the customs and traditions of people, their socio-political structure and how they construct their identity and access to and control over different resources. Through tales of human interactions with the gods, we see a clear picture of the type of agricultural system that existed before colonialism influenced by religion and culture and constructed around the socio-economic and political environment; the people lived in. An example is the tale of Edubiaku the wise child, which describe show man received seeds as a gift from the gods to plant far afield and later around the living abode.Blench and Dendo corroborated the idea of farming far away from the living quarters, or the compound when he talks about the practice of bush farming in the Northern parts of Ghana. He explains that many fields were cultivated far from the living abode—about 4 to 10 km. From the different tales written in Cardinall and Tamakloe , we deciphered that due to the destruction of crops far from the compound by animals, the guard of the gods advised humans to sow their seeds close to their compounds.