A farmer herds his cattle in Sindh Province, Pakistan. Some 30–35 million rural Pakistanis are engaged in livestock raising, with families typically keeping 2–3 cattle or water buffalo and 5–6 sheep or goats, which help them to generate 30–40% of their household income from livestock; find this and more recent information on Pakistan’s livestock sector here (photo … Continue reading »
Tag Archives: Nils Teufel
Stuck on stubble: Why ‘no-till agriculture’ is a ‘no can do’ on many small farms
Rice residues in southeast Punjab, India, prior to the wheat season (photo on Flickr by Neil Palmer). Why are most poor farmers in developing countries not adopting ‘no-till agriculture’ (also called ‘conservation agriculture’)—an eco-friendly, natural-resource-conserving technology that helps conserve soil fertility by eliminating ploughing and keeping the remains of crops on the ground after harvest? The … Continue reading »
Can conservation agriculture work where scarce biomass feeds hungry livestock?
Rice residues after harvest, near Sangrur, southeast Punjab, India (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). There is a new report of mixed results about the viability of adopting ‘conservation agriculture’ to enhance soil health and sustain long-term crop productivity in the developing world, an approach advocated by many. The authors of the report work at five centres … Continue reading »