Methodological progress in on-farm regional agronomic diagnosis. A review

Doré, Thierry; Clermont-Dauphin, Cathy; Crozat, Yves; David, Christophe; Jeuffroy, Marie‐Hélène; Loyce, Chantal; Makowski, David; Malézieux, Éric; Meynard, Jean-Marc; Valantin‐Morison, Muriel

doi:10.1051/agro:2007031

Cited by 64 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…These assessments may well be useful for planning strategies for yield improvement on the broad scale but potentially less relevant at the farm level unless followed up by local diagnosis of limiting factors (Dore et al 1997(Dore et al , 2008Siddique et al 2012. The potential errors associated with such methods have been outlined by Neumann et al (2010).…”

Section: Estimation Of Potential Grain Yieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This gives farmers some scope to adjust management according to seasonal conditions and available resources. Identifying the factors most likely to be limiting in any particular paddock by objective means (diagnostic research as reported in Dore et al 1997Dore et al , 2008Anderson et al 2014;Sharma and Anderson 2014) suggests a hierarchy of practices that can be tested and applied according to available resources, perceived risk and farmer convenience. An example is given in Table 2 for two farm sites where both zero tillage and partial stubble retention were standard practices in mixed farming systems based on barley, canola, oats, pasture and grazing by sheep.…”

Section: Diagnosis Of Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Addressing the yield gap in rainfed crops: a review

Anderson

Johansen

Siddique

2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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The problems and challenges of rapidly increasing world population, global climate change, shortages of water suitable for irrigation and degradation of agricultural land are increasing the demand to improve grain production from rainfed arable lands. Specific challenges include estimating the size and thus the value of the yield gap, identifying the factors limiting current average production and designing profitable remedial strategies for a range of agro-ecological regions. This review of the rainfall-limited potential yields and the gap between actual or average yields of cereal and legume crops and the rainfall-limited potential indicates that there is still substantial room to increase the average yield of crops in rainfed systems in both developed and developing regions. The review has indicated that (1) the size of the gap between average and potential yields varies according to the agro-ecological zone and the available technologies from about 0.5 to over 5 t/ha, leaving considerable scope for future yield improvement; (2) there is relatively less information applicable at the farm or field scale that assesses the spatial and temporal variability of the yield gap, the reasons for the gap and the possible methods to close the gap; (3) there is also limited information on the feasibility and profitability of applying various approaches to close the gap, including tactical and strategic management practices and plant breeding; (4) the evidence of the impact of the components of conservation agriculture on crop yields in a wide range of agro-ecological regions supports the adoption of zero tillage and crop rotation but is less clear in support of residue retention; (5) objective identification and testing of factors that limit production can lead to a rational sequence of amelioration that is specific to each agro-ecological or field situation and can close the yield gap in winter-dominant rainfall environments; and (6) farmerparticipatory varietal selection, including breeding for specific adaptation can make a substantial contribution to closing the gap in a range of environments. A common observation from the reports reviewed here is that sustainable yield improvement will need to employ a range of methods that are appropriate to specific agro-ecological conditions-previous approaches based on single inputs, practices or genotypes can only be partial solutions.

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Section: Estimation Of Potential Grain Yieldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Diagnosis Of Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the yield gap in rainfed crops: a review

Anderson

Johansen

Siddique

2016

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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“…Different "ecologically intensive" model design frameworks have thus been proposed (Malézieux 2012;Gaba et al 2015). However, existing multispecies systems-from which agronomists could be inspired-are much harder to assess than monospecies systems because of their inherent heterogeneity, hence the many difficulties to quantify interactions (Doré et al 2008;Malézieux et al 2008). This is the case especially for complex agroforestry systems in the humid tropics that have many potential advantages that could be tapped depending on the relationships and regulations between species in the agrosystem, i.e., a higher overall productivity per unit area, a better control of pest pressure, and increased environmental services such as biodiversity conservation, soil fertility, and carbon sequestration .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Structural characteristics determine productivity in complex cocoa agroforestry systems

Jagoret

Michel

Ngnogue

et al. 2017

Agron. Sustain. Dev.

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In order to cope with current challenges facing world cocoa production and the obvious lack of sustainability of the intensive model proposed to farmers, more ecologically efficient cocoa cropping systems must be developed, based in particular on a higher cultivated biodiversity level. The performances of cocoa multispecies systems, which involve multiple and hard to quantify interactions, are, however, more complicated to assess than that of monospecies systems. Despite this hurdle, we carried out a study in 48 cocoa agroforests located in three zones in central Cameroon where we conducted an analysis of cocoa yield components and agroforestry system structural characteristics that are likely responsible for observed yield variations. For the first time, we adapted the regional agronomic diagnosis method to demonstrate that the basal area per cocoa tree (mean 61.6 cm 2 ) and the unproductive adult cocoa tree rate (mean 21%) are key factors when assessing the productive performance of the surveyed systems whose average cocoa yield was 737 kg ha −1. From a methodological standpoint, the assessment approach we set up succeeded to overcome the specific obstacles linked with the features of agroforestry systems, especially their complexity (number of species and heterogeneity), by (i) determining relevant indicators and easily measurable variables, (ii) considering the associated tree communities as an environmental component, and (iii) analyzing interactions between cocoa stands and associated tree communities. From an operational standpoint, we showed that farmers can intervene on the structural characteristics of their cocoa agroforests to improve cocoa yields, in particular by eliminating unproductive cocoa trees whose basal area is less than 19 cm 2 to enable the other ones to grow.

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“…Our work, based on on-farm research, compares the relationship between crop management itinerary and yield (Loyce and Wery, 2006;Doré and Meynard, 2006;Doré et al, 2007), and gives greater insight into production logic than would a simple survey of practices. Our research showed that in the semi-arid region, there is a direct relationship between the diversity of farm management methods and crop management itineraries, based on both region and climate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the first steps is to understand the relationship between the agricultural performance of production systems and farming practices (Coleno and Duru, 2005;Doré et al, 2007). The evaluation of economic performance of production systems (with scarce data available in our context) must take into account the diverse crop management practices (Cochet and Devienne, 2006) and the variable access to production resources, for example the purchase or lease of plots from one year to other (Gérard et al, 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farm diversity and crop growing practices in semi-arid regions: A case study of the Setif high plains in Algeria

Benniou¹,

Aubry²

2012

Afr. J. Agric. Res.

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An analysis of farm diversity in semi-arid regions of Algeria shows the importance of differences in structure (size, crops and equipment), environment (climate zone) and organization (crop-livestock ratio) in understanding the strategic characteristics of local farms. Their economic orientation explains the use of resources and irrigation in particular. A crop management itinerary typology is proposed to categorize the different types of farms. The typology was developed step by step by combining the various cultural practices (time-frame, methods). The inputs use is diverse in the farms, some without inputs depending largely on the agro-ecological conditions to obtain a production. Supplemental irrigation, to ensure rather to increase the production, mainly concerns feed grain grown in the lower semi-arid zone, demonstrating the importance of local livestock rearing. Similarly, the highly variable grain yield relies more on annual rainfall and management methods than on the use of inputs. However, in areas with good rainfall where a good harvest is generally obtained, the economic profit varies between farms, without being directly related to farm management strategies used. In such unpredictable environmental conditions, the survival of these farms depends on the farmers' capacity to develop a diversified production system (livestock rearing, diversification of crops, feed grain, etc.) and adapt their farming methods to climatic variations. This present study opens up new areas of research, particularly by emphasizing the importance of "on-farm research" in agricultural research in Algeria.

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Methodological progress in on-farm regional agronomic diagnosis. A review

Cited by 64 publications

References 72 publications

Addressing the yield gap in rainfed crops: a review

Addressing the yield gap in rainfed crops: a review

Structural characteristics determine productivity in complex cocoa agroforestry systems

Farm diversity and crop growing practices in semi-arid regions: A case study of the Setif high plains in Algeria

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