Agro-forestry is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same land-management units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. Agro-forestry is a dynamic, ecologically-based, natural resource management practice that,…
Conservation Agriculture (CA) is an agro-ecosystems management approach aimed at improving and sustaining agricultural productivity, increasing profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. CA is characterised by three interrelated principles.
Integrated agriculture provides high quality food and other products by using natural resources and regulating mechanisms rather than polluting chemical inputs to secure sustainable farming. The agronomic techniques and biological / physical / chemical methods are carefully selected and balanced taking into account the health of people (i.e. farmers and…
This section addresses integrated farming approaches that have been promoted as alternatives to Green Revolution agriculture since the 1990s for self-sufficient farming. The New Theory farming system in Thailand and the VAC system in Vietnam (VAC in Vietnamese is Vuon, Ao, Chuong which means “garden/pond/ livestock pen”) consist in highly…
Organic agriculture aims at sustaining the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and natural cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of chemical inputs with potentially adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote…
The System of Rice Intensification, known as SRI is an agro-ecological approach for increasing rice productivity (and more recently other crops) by changing the management of plants, soil, water and nutrients.
ALiSEA Online Library contains a wide range of agro-ecology’s documents: backgrounds, case Studies and initiatives fact sheets, presentations, policy documents, toolkits and IEC Materials. All documents are searchable via their Agro-ecological School(s), country, or type. Access now.
by LURAS project, June 2020. Action research was conducted in Kham District, Xieng Khuang province to test new drying and storage practices and technologies. The objective of the trial was to provide farmers and the LURAS project with information on the potential benefits of adopting new drying and storing practices. The expected potential benefits include farmers being able to sell their maize when the prices are higher and/or farmers using their maize for other purposes such as preparing feed for animals. Action Research and Farmer-to-Farmer learning (F2F) are essential elements of the Green Extension approach being promoted by LURAS. This approach recognizes that sustainable agricultural practices must be adapted to local conditions and that these conditions are both diverse and dynamic in the uplands of Lao PDR. Therefore, Green Extension supports groups of producers in analysing local problems and opportunities, testing alternative practices, and sharing the knowledge they acquire with other farmers. In close cooperation with farmers, the research team introduced new ways of threshing and drying maize, and introduced new or improved storage practices at selected farmers’ households, including metallic hermetic silos, and small and large hermetic bags. Local welders were closely involved in the construction of metallic hermetic […]
To support agro-ecology transition in Cambodia as well as in the region, E-learning course on agro-ecology is developed under the project Innovative Pedagogical Resources in Conservation Agriculture in South-East Asia (IPERCA) funded by Agropolis Foundation and the complementary funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) through ACTAE/CANSEA project. This initiative brings together the E-learning Center of the Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), the Royal University of Agriculture (RUA) and the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN), the University of Battambang (UBB), the Department of Agricultural Land Resources Management (GDA/DALRM), the Conservation Agriculture Service Center (CASC/DALRM), the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) and the TICE team from SupAgro, Montpellier, France. The e-learning course on agro-ecology cover 4 main dimensions that contain in total 10 courses for an agro-ecological transition: Co-design agro-ecological practices 1.1. Cover crop 1.2. Building a healthy soil 1.3. Conservation Agriculture (CA) and Direct seeding Mulch based Cropping systems (DMC) Support the transition to agro-ecological practices 2.1. Agrarian system analysis and diagnosis 2.2. Land Use and Land Cover Changes, Northwestern Uplands of Cambodia 2.3. Agrarian transition and opportunity windows for agro-ecological transition Adapt appropriate-scale mechanization 3.1. A versatile machinery for […]
Why farmers in Laos are shifting from cabbage to cassava production When the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally, farmers in Laos are among the most affected. Many farmers could not sell their cabbages due to lack of buyers. The prices for cabbages also dropped, thus, some farmers in the country decided to shift to cassava growing. The advantages of growing cassava include: The price for cassava is stable, despite being lower compared to the market price for cabbage Cabbages are prone to rotting if not harvested at the right time. Meanwhile, cassava harvesting can be delayed and it will not incur problems. Cabbages can be easily damaged when being transported. This is not the same as cassava since it is not soft. There are limited numbers of buyers of cabbage at the farm gate. There are more buyers for cassava in the nearby areas. How to lure snails out of the rice field Members of the Lao Farmer Network (LFN) share an easy and organic way of luring snails out of the rice field. By using food scraps and other plants, you can quickly lure out snails that destroy rice plants. How to lure snails out of the rice […]
