(Semi-)closed greenhouses have been developed over the last decades to conserve energy. In a closed greenhouse, window ventilation is fully replaced by mechanical cooling while solar heat is temporarily stored in an aquifer. A semi-closed greenhouse has a smaller cooling capacity than a closed greenhouse and, in which mechanical cooling is combined...
The competition for land has become an issue of major concern and cause of conflict, especially between pastoralists and crop farmers, but also between pastoralists and nature conservation institutions. The Biosphere Reserve of W in Benin Republic (WBR) and its surrounding lands are located in the agro-pastoral contact zone in West Africa, enabling...
Global livestock production is expected to increase in future decades, and expansion of the agricultural area for feed production is not desired. Hence, increasing livestock production per unit agricultural area is essential. The bio-physical scope to increase production of livestock systems with the corresponding feed crop production (feed-crop li...
Intercropping is the cultivation of two or more crop species simultaneously in the same field, while relay intercropping means that the growing periods of the crop species are only partially overlapping. Intercropping has advantages with respect to productivity, resource capture, build-up of soil organic matter, and pest and disease suppression. Th...
Drought stress and sub-optimal soil fertility management are major constraints to crop production in general and to cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) in particular in the rain-fed cropping systems in West Africa. Cassava is an important source of calories for millions of smallholder households in sub-Sahara Africa. The prime aim of this research w...
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a vegetable crop with high potential to contribute to poverty reduction via increased income and food security. It is widely grown by smallholders, has high productivity and its demand is increasing. Ethiopia produced about 30,700 Mg of tomatoes on 5,027 ha annually in 2014/2015. Average yields are only 6.1 Mg ha...
The contents of this dissertation are based on a quantitative and qualitative survey that was conducted to assess the contribution of microcredit access of women to production and household food security status, and the factors associated with enterprise performance and food security outcomes. In order to do so four main issues were addressed: (a) ...
Poor adoption of modern technologies in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the major factors that limit food production and thereby threaten food security of smallholder farmers. This is despite the potential and emerging success stories of new technologies in increasing productivity of smallholder agriculture. Explanations for low uptake of technologies...
Growing awareness of widespread hunger and poverty in many countries in the SSA is spurring a focus on productivity increase in smallholder farming systems. The rationale is that with current production systems many SSA countries are not keeping pace with population growth and changing of peoples’ lifestyles. To respond to this challenge the Govern...
Het weglaten van de minimumbuis en het gebruik van twee energieschermen elke nacht, ook tijdens de warmste dagen in augustus, waren de opvallendste aspecten tijdens het onderzoek ‘Paprika energiezuinig met een goede kwaliteit’. Aat Dijkshoorn (LTO Glaskracht Nederland), Jeroen Zwinkels (Delphy), Arie de Gelder (Wageningen University & Research) en ...
