This means that Cameroon develops agricultural products that vary according to the climatic regions

After livestock and field crops, piece work is the next most important income source, followed by a group of activities that we have grouped into the category “other”.It is important to note that the contribution of livestock to income is largest among food secure households with an even larger prominence in the non-hotspot district. Piece work, on the other hand, is clearly most prominent among the extremely food insecure and most visible in the hotspot districts. Compared to all other food security groups, food insecure households appeared to have the most diversified set of income sources, with a significantly larger weight on numerous other minor sources collectively referred to as ‘other’ than any other group of households.

This study uses qualitative research techniques to identify the livelihood activities and to determine the position of livestock in the hierarchy of those activities among households in livestock-rearing communities of Southern Zambia. Seasonality analysis was also done to identify the shifts in relative importance of the activities across the different times of the year. The results indicate that, when livelihood is broadly defined, nft hydroponic livestock rearing is second only to field crop production both in terms of prevalence and relative importance . However, livestock and livestock-related products and services are by far the most important source of income. Livestock as a source of income is especially important among the food secure households, who earn more than half of their income through sales of livestock, livestock products and livestock-related services , compared to less than 40 percent among other food security groups.

That livestock is important as sources of livelihoods and,especially, income identifies the need to identify and implement interventions that could enhance livestock ownership and productivity. While food secure households are more commercial in approach, less food secure households have their sustenance and subsistence in mind. This inherent dichotomy in approach to livelihood needs to be reflected in intervention design and implementation. The peculiar geography of Cameroon makes it called “Africa in miniature”; the country has an important ecological diversity to find within it all the environmental varieties of the African continent. A study of the operating model of Cameroonian agriculture reveals the existence of diverse farming techniques and agricultural typologies that perfectly match this environmental richness.This diversity of Cameroon’s agriculture gives the agricultural sector enormous economic potential, which makes it a particularly important sector in the promotion of development.

In fact, the agricultural sector in Cameroon represents about 60% of the active population, with a contribution of about 30% of the GDP and about 16% of the budget revenues of the country.This sector has always been considered as the main provider of wealth, which is why the speeches of the various Cameroonian political authorities have always been considered as a priority in the country’s economy. But the fact is, in general,a relative stagnation of the agricultural performance of the country was noticeable.On the external level, this can be explained by constraints related to the international environment, particularly via the volatility of the prices of export products, whereas internally it depends fundamentally on the policy measures implemented, their coherence, and their phasing, as much as their deadlines.The crises of the mid-1980s and recently the 2008, sparked renewed interest in the predominant role played by the agricultural sector in developing countries.Cameroon has agricultural crops. These are divided between perennial agricultural crops and food crops for local consumption and, to a lesser extent, for export. In the category of perennial crops, the main products selected according to their economic importance are: cocoa,coffee, rubber,banana, cotton, tea; food production is more diversified; Without pretending to be exhaustive, we can mention in this category: groundnuts, plantains, tubers,fruits, maize, potatoes and other tropical products.

The analysis of the role of agriculture in economic activity is of major interest,because of its contribution to economic growth and the consideration of the influence of internal, external and institutional factors stemming from the in classical literature, the architecture and credibility of institutions are also a major determinant of agent incentives and therefore economic performance. Indeed,the main objectives of agricultural progress are known; increasing yields by increasing the volume of production and increasing productivity.

The percentage of household heads with college or university education was low

In Dang Xa commune, the households with a male head made up 56.67%, while those with a female head made up 43.33%. It can be seen that the majority of household heads were male maybe because mentended to be decision makers in the family, deciding their production activities and being more active in applying scientific and technological advances .Regarding the educational level of the household head, the survey data shows that out of a total of 30 surveyed households in each commune, 100% of the household heads of the surveyed farming households had an educational level of at least primary school. High school degree holders accounted for the highest percentages, with 33.33% and 30.00% of the interviewees in Van Duc and Dang Xa communes, respectively.

Household heads with secondary education accounted for 23.33% and 20% of the surveyed households in Van Duc and Dang Xa communes, respectively.The educational level of the household head is important because it reflects the level of awareness, understanding and ability to absorb and apply science and technology to production activities of the farmer household. From the survey results,grow table hydroponic it can be seen that the heads of households in the two communes had a relatively high level of education. This is an advantage for production activities, applying science and technology to production,absorbing new knowledge into production activities, and implementing effective measures to reduce risks of pesticides by plants of the surveyed households.On average, the number of household members was 3.86 people/household.The average population of Van Duc commune was 3.96 people/household,higher than Dang Xa commune with 3.76 people/household.

The number of laborers per household in Dang Xa commune was higher with 2.36 laborers/household;while in Van Duc commune, this figure was 2.34 laborers/household. Integrated pest management is the ideal method to reduce pesticide use and protect the environment from pollution, helping to ensure food safety and human health . Pest management is achieved directly using a variety of tools,including pesticides, and indirectly through a number of other farming practices;this integrated approach has a positive effect on plant health in general as well as helps to reduce the pesticides needed for the plants . In Gia Lam district,alternative pest and crop protection methods focusing on agroeco systems and integrated pest management had been prioritized for application in vegetable production by farmers in the two surveyed communes.Biological pesticides, in general, have many advantages over conventional pesticides. Biological pesticides are becoming more and more popular around the world by being a safer tactic in the management of pests and diseases for the crops whilst having significantly lower risks to not only humans but also the environment.

Using biological pesticides and pesticide products with low toxicity and high efficiency in pest control but safer for humans and the environment is one of the important risk reduction measures.The survey results show that the proportion of biological pesticides in the pesticide structure used in Van Duc commune was 67.63%, this rate in Dang Xacommune was 63.56%. In which, the most popular were pesticides of Group III . This is the result of the careful guidance from technical staff specialized in plant protection, cooperative staff and thanks to active participation in the farmer groups.Most common biological pesticides applied in vegetable cultivation in the two communes were those containing active ingredients such as Bacillus Thuringiens is, Emamectin benzoate, Diafenthiuron, Matrine, Azadirachtin, Cytokinin, and Bacillus subtilis , etc. All of these pesticides were included in the list allowed to be used by the Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as well as the list of pesticides recommended for use prepared by the Plantation and Plant Protection Station of Gia Lam district and sold in pesticide stores in the study area. The application of pesticides, especially of the improper pesticides and improper doses applied, poses a dominant threat to the farmers who apply the pesticides on the fields . Pesticide use principle is important since pesticide risks can be avoided or reduced if farmers understand and practice the principle well.

The 4-right principles in the use of pesticides was officially legalized in Vietnam in 2015. It is one of the most important principles in plant protection and quarantine activities in Vietnam.In the two surveyed communes, the majority of farmers understood and practiced quite well in accordance with the 4-right principle: When pests and diseases have reached the threshold, farmers use pesticides in compliance with the instructions of specialized agencies, using pesticides according to the 4-right principles:“RIGHT pesticides for the right crop, RIGHT dose and concentration,RIGHT time of application and RIGHT methods of application”.

The economic aspects that lead to this rebound effect in yield farm-expansion relationship were also presented

Further, the responses of species and ecosystems services to increasing intensification levels were discussed . We here present a conceptual model to understand the ecological and ecosystems consequences of different land-use dynamics associated to agriculture intensification.Upper diagram in Figure 2 shows nine landscapes composed of different proportions of natural habitat and farming area, as well as different degrees of agriculture intensification on the agriculture part. Landscapes can change in all directions according to changes in natural habitat proportions and agriculture intensification levels.Agroecological conversion changes landscapes in the downward direction, while agriculture intensification is the upward opposite trend .

From left to right, decrease in NH characterizes “natural habitat’ contraction, and the right to left change is the “natural habitat” expansion or Forest Transition. A is a landscape totally occupied by “natural habitat”, B consist of 80% of habitat cover proportion and agriculture intensification index of farming area is 0.2, B’ has 0.8 of habitat cover and agriculture intensification index is 0.5 and so on. Here we use the term “natural habitat” in the operational sense, ebb and flow table defining it as areas subjected to very low levels of human intervention, rather than in the philosophical sense which refers to it as untouched or untamed nature.Additionally, the available data of remote sensing about wood cover, as well as theoretical approaches to estimate populations sizes, uses this term, which will simplify our analyses, enabling to address regional issues, as will be further developed.Farming systems in which AI is equals to 1 are characterized by high input, low heterogeneity and high levels of human disturbance and low planned and associated diversity.

Traditional and poly culture,home gardens and low shade agroforestry are considered having agriculture intensification equals to 0.5. Finally, we assume that agroforestry and extractives systems locate at 0.2 on the intensification scale. On the other hand, theoretical and empirical studies show that fragmentation affects population inhabiting these patchy landscapes in a non-linear association. Particularly, population sizes falls steeply below 30% of habitat cover proportion, which represented by the dashed line in the upper diagram of Figure 2. Although we assumed a linear area-density relationship in the bottom right graphic, total population size in landscapes with less than 30% of habitat proportion is overestimated for not accounting for decrease in habitat population pool. Because species response to fragmentations depend on several factors such as timing since fragmentation, species specific time-lags in the response to habitat contraction,and differential functional response given to sensitive to human disturbs , making precise estimations rather uncertain.

To make our model simple and reliable, we did not incorporate this non-linear aspects assuming that density is fixed regardless of habitat area. Therefore, values in dashed boxes may be overestimated, which is of further conservation concern as will be further discussed.According to LSP proponents, moving upward in the diagram will reflect in changes in the left direction, inducing habitat expansion . Jevons Paradox, on the other hand, concern increasing yields inducing habitat reduction.As we show in the land-use and economic session, although forest transition fostered by yield increase occurs by some extent, the Jevons Paradox is much more frequent.As intensification increases farm area and decrease biodiversity in agriculture portion, as well as in the habitat portion , landscapes will change in D or E direction, tending to very low associated landscape biodiversity. Due to the fact that actual population sizes must be smaller than presented lower right graphic in Figure 2 as above mentioned, these landscapes with small habitat proportion, which are patchily distributed and embedded in intensive matrixes, may harbor very few species, specially sometime after fragmentation and intensification. Decrease on population sizes of once common species in the European farmlands show the extreme effects of agriculture intensification at long term.

Unfortunately, tropical landscapes undergoing to agriculture intensification may face similar problems in the future.Most of the tropical high bio diverse regions , such as the Brazilian Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Meso-America, Western-Ghats and and Siri Lanka are around or below the 30% habitat cover and simultaneously undergoing agriculture intensification. This multiple effects reduce populations sizes in the matrix, as well as biological fluxes among habitat patches.This combination of increasing deforestation and matrix agriculture intensification is predicted to cause local and global extinctions at long term. On the other hand, if intermediate levels of agriculture are maintained as assumed by LSH hypothesis,and habitat loss is controlled, significant amount of biodiversity is maintained although at lower levels then the“original” non-managed landscape.

The perception of low organic yield is across all farmer types

Confined to limited access to chain retailers, small farmers turned to the “thin” farmers markets for their products, in which finding reliable buyers turns out to be difficult and full of uncertainty. Farmers held a perception of lower yield of organic farming is 11.92% less likely to convert to organic farming. The low yield of organic farming is not just perception,but a fact in many areas, due to the lack of high-quality seed, organic fertilizer, and effective pests and weeds sprays. The perception of lower yield could easily explain farmers’ behavior of withholding converting to organic farming. There isn’t much evidence to verify the veracity of the claim of high liability, but the perception came up with a distinct adverse impact.

Farmers concerned about the higher liability in organic farming is 10.57% less likely to convert to organic farming. The conception likely came from the yield uncertainty due to damage from pests and/or weeds, which easily results in default on loan and other financial responsibility that must be cushioned with more debts. Consequently,the perception of high liability discouraged farmers to steer their production to organic farming. The size of a farm matters and negatively impacts the conversion. As the production scale increases, the chance of conversion become smaller. In this sample,the chance of conversion for large farms is 20.71% lower than their smaller counterparts. some previous studies that organic production poses great managerial challenge due to the intensive labor demand in dealing with diseases,pests, applying fertilizer, and handling marketing , and constraints on substitution of capital for labor. As a result, production scale was deemed as an uncontentious barrier to the organic conversion.

In the conversion to organic, the age of producers is another barrier. Table 3 shows that the probability of the conversion dropped substantially as producers become older. With the base group of 30 or young, the age group 31 – 60 has a probability of 20% lower in adopting organic farming, and the group 61 or older has a drop of 24%. It makes sense that the shorter planning horizons for older farmers offered less time to recapture investment costs and capture the long-term benefits. In addition, it was claimed that as one ages, the avoidance of risk becomes more important than expected future higher returns. The conversion to organic farming also demands the time and efforts to assimilate organic knowledge and methods, and likely expose farmers to lower yields and non-premium price in the transition period, and these surely weigh in on farmers decision on organic farming. Education wedged its influence in organic farming in a complex way.

The chance of conversion is 13% higher for farmers who had education of technical school or higher than farmers with just high-school diploma or lower. This conformed a previous claim that farmers with some college education had higher odds of adopting organic farming. However, the impact of education was not observed in conventional farmers and those with mixed enterprises. The lack of observations on mixed enterprise group may be the root of the result. While some results of this study bear resemblances to previous studies, there are some noteworthy differences identified. The impact of off-farm job is one of them.Our model was not in supportive of the claim that there exists an inverse relationship between working off-farm and the adoption of organic farming because off-farm job reduce the availability of labor and hence impedes organic farming practices. On the contrary, the impact of off-farm jobs in our model lead to an increased likelihood of organic conversion, which may reflect the influence of the enhanced risk tolerance due to extra income from off-farm jobs. The absence of off-farm job variable led to substantial changes in parameters of other variables in the model, so it, though less significant in statistics, was retained in the model. The further clarification hinges on the future studies with more observations and elaborated instruments related off-farm job. Analysis of the large survey in the Southern states came up with a few contributing factors in farmers’ choice of conversion to organic production. The pool of factors comprise barriers and stimuli, each of them have been discussed in detail in the previous section.

In view of potential impacts and the efficient way of improve the adoption of organic farming, the four factors of risk aversion, the age of operators, and the size of farms, and marketing channels deserve further elaboration.Organic farming is still at its early stage, there exist tremendous uncertainty in both production and marketing process. For most risk version farmers, an acceptable way to follow was doing by the top dog. Nevertheless the exemplars available at this stage are quite limited. A way to increase farmers’ expose to and know those successful frontrunners is to organize more workshops and training.

The content of K in the plant tissues is up to 100 times higher than in the soil

Plants generally have an increased demand for N at various stages of development, particularly during leaf development and flowering;therefore, this element is frequently applied as a mineral fertilizer.In our study, vegetables cultivated in the conventional way were supplied with this nutrient several times during the growing season, mainly in the form of ammonium sulphate. Nevertheless, our results indicate that the concentration of this element is higher in organic crops which correspond with the higher concentration of N in the soil.Na is considered to be of secondary importance in the soil and its uptake depends mainly on the plant species as well as the K level of the soil, rather than the concentration of Na extractable from the soil.

Colla et al.  in a two-year study demonstrated that the soil Na content did not significantly differ among organic, conventional and low input farming systems. The same authors observed that the Na content in the crops changes over time and one year they recorded a significantly higher level of this element in conventionally grown tomatoes but the following year there were no differences among farming systems.The meta-analysis by Worthington  showed that organic crops on average have about 20% more Na than conventional ones. In our study, no important differences in the soil Na content between two growing systems were observed.However, the concentration of Na in organic vegetables was significantly higher in 4 out of 8 vegetables analysed.

The total content of K in soil ranges from 8000 to 25,000 mg∙kg−1 and it depends on the clay fraction and soil mineral content. The highest concentration of K is found in heavy soils, where the clay content represents more than 3%. In loose sandy soils, K concentration usually does not exceed 0.4% . The monitoring of the soils, plants, agricultural products and foodstuffs in 2000  reported that the average concentration of available K in the soils of Poland was184 mg∙kg−1. The average for the south-west region, where both farms are located is, however, much higher and represents 270 mg∙kg−1. Generally, it was reported that mineral fertilizers increase the content of K in the soil to a larger extent than organic ones. Though, it is not entirely true in our study, where the content of available K in the soil was slightly higher in the organic samples  compared to conventional ones.

A lower concentration of K in the conventionally treated soil might be the result of a slightly more acidic pH which might lead to the higher loss rate . Plants absorb K ions from the soil solution and usually contain more of this element than other minerals such as Ca, Mg or P. The concentration of K in plant cells exceeds significantly the content of this element in the surrounding environment. This indicates that K is actively transported by plants, despite the concentration gradient. Our results clearly confirm this process.Due to many factors, the content of K in the plant can vary from 1245 to 33,190 mg∙kg−1. It was observed that the roots contained less K than the above ground parts of the plant , which can be clearly observed in the obtained results for the root and leaves of parsley.Analysis of K concentration revealed that organically grown vegetables in our study had generally higher content of this element compared to conventional ones. The difference was significant in the case of celery, carrot, potato and onion.

It is in agreement with the results obtained by Worthington which showed that organic crops contain on average 10% more of K than conventional ones. On the other hand, Warman and Havard demonstrated that the superior level of K in organic crops is not conclusive. Some vegetables grown in a conventional way, such as carrot, had a higher content of K over organic ones,but in the case of cabbage, it was opposite.The total content of P in the soil varies from 200 to 1500 mg∙kg−1 and a significant amount of this element comes from soil organic matter . The soil monitoring program revealed that the average concentration of this element in Poland is 274 mg∙kg−1 and that the average for the south west region is 352mg∙kg−1. Furthermore, Lemanowicz and Koper  reported that arable soils usually contain more of this element and in Poland; it is on average 478 mg∙kg−1.In our study, the P content of the soil was generally higher than in Poland and in this region. It was observed that the organically treated soil was twice richer in P compared to the conventional one.

Lemanowicz and Koper , in their studies,showed that the use of organic fertilizers in the form of manure significantly increases the amount of available P, while mineral fertilizers in the form of ammoniumnitrate reduce its amount in the soil. hey showed that among the different types of fertilizations,organic ones such as compost contributed to the highest increase of soil P content. This may explain the results obtained in our study, where an elevated amount of this element was found in the organic soil probably due to the regular application of compost and cow manure.P is taken up by plants from the soil solution as soluble or thophosphates  at a soil pH between 6 and 7.

These indicators have also been used in previous studies as environmental indicators in agriculture

This included their outputs, the market prices for their products,their wage bill and the cost of each input. In the sample, some farms depend exclusively on the family for labour input while others use hired workers.Given that western agriculture is still predominantly characterised by family farms , there is a long established tradition of including family labour in institutional reports and research studies that seek to provide comparable farm incomes . Therefore, we calculate and add the opportunity cost of family work by applying the average hourly cost of external wages in our sample to the number of hours of family work on each farm so as to calculate income before and after wages. Our environmental performance indicators are paddy field GHG emissions and energy consumption, distinguishing between direct and indirect consumption.

The GHG protocol distinguishes three scopes which help identify the information that needs to be collected about the discharged and induced greenhouses gases : Scope 1 deals with emissions released directly by the company. This includes production and service processes owned or controlled by the company as well as the corporate fleet of cars and trucks. The GHG protocol covers only the six GHGs listed in the Kyoto protocol. CFCs and NOx are excluded, it is argued,on political grounds.Scope 2 coverse missions indirectly caused by the generation of purchased electricity. And Scope 3 includes emissions from suppliers of inputs and downstream emissions from distribution, use and end of product. Scope 3 extends this accounting scope to emissions indirectly attributable to the purchase of all kinds of goods and services such as semi-manufactured goods, transportation services, waste disposal services, outsourced activities, etc.

This study considers all three Scopes. Unfortunately,we did not have access to measurements of other environmental externalities of rice production, such as, impact on human health, loss of biodiversity,wildlife and landscape degradation, water filtering or the substitution of natural wet lands . These environmental impacts regrettably lie outside the scope of this paper. The collection and conversion of data were made possible thanks to a joint enterprise involving the authors and the researchers of an EU-funded project for assessing the potential of agriculture to combat climate change . This project seeks to apply a common evaluation system in the four largest agricultural economies of the EU so as to identify suitable farming practices.This has resulted in the development of diagnostic software capable of converting the data collected via surveys into direct  and indirect energy consumption, both expressed in gigajoules  per year. To this end, a questionnaire was first designed to facilitate information collection and to enable aconsistent level of comparison.

With the data, and on the basis of a series of consultations with experts in the field of rice production in the region, the team were able to build the environmental indicators that are used in this study. These data refer to both physical and monetary measurements of farm size, location, annual yields, brand and age of machinery used, litres of fuel consumed, kilograms of seeds planted, amounts of fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides used in the field, characteristics and amounts of water required, and flooding practices during the season. These raw data were then converted into GHG emissions and energy consumption statistics.ISO 14064-1 and the GHG protocol  guidelines were followed to convert the data collected into GHG emissions. Emissions of different GHGs were converted and are expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide per year. The main audience for the results of the study are the farmers included in the sample given that the project studies current practices in order to identify best practices and innovative methods for improving environmental performance. On the conclusion of the study, two meetings were held with the farmers in order to share our results and to suggest practices that help combat climate change.The study sample comprises nine farms. Of the nine farms, eight practise the various techniques of conventional farming and one operates as an organic farm.In total, nine farmers attended a personal interview with the authors of the study.

The selection of farmers was made based on the personal availability to participate and the comparability among farms. In accordance with the ethical agreement governing interviews, the specific identity of the participants cannot be disclosed. Five farms specialise in a variety of rice known by the name of gleva,and four specialise in a variety known as bomba. The varieties of rice produced, the size of the farms and the yield productivity per hectare of the farms included in the sample can be considered representative of rice farms in Spain.All the data collected adhere to the same definitions and were measured applying the same rules. All figures and data correspond to the same year,that of 2011.The inclusion of an organic farm allowed comparisons to be drawn, given that previous research suggests that organic farming tends to have a lower environmental impact .

The most important step in PF is the generation of maps of the soil with its characteristics

Automated actuation devices  like sprinklers, foggers, valve controlled irrigation system, harvesters and others, can be used to control irrigation, fertilization and pests in order to offset the adverse conditions .These included grid soil sampling,yield monitoring, and crop scouting. The strategically positioned sensors collect data in the form of electronic computer databases which gives birth to the Geographic Information System for statistical analyses of data, to determine variability of agricultural land with respect to its properties . An effective method used to easily interpret remote sensing data is calculating vegetation indices-VI .

VIs has been widely used to assess vegetation condition, cover,and growth, as well as evaluate canopy attributes such as leaf area index  and plant height. VI values indicate differences in vegetation condition or amount. It is necessary to determine the total number of sensory devices required to be deployed per ha of cultivatable land while considering planting density. Closed loop control ability as well as adaptability  for different scenarios and sensor nodes is needed for the field operations . Each of these scattered sensor nodes has the capability to collect and route data either to other sensors or back to an external base station. The base station is made capable of connecting the sensor network to an existing communications infrastructure or to the Internet where a user can have access to the reported data . However, operational techniques are required to be transmitted to the farmers for incorporation of RST into farming by the extension agent whose responsibility is to teach farmers the techniques in utilizing new technology in farming.

These extension agents were trained by lecturers of Agriculture in the universities to make them competent in identification of farmers’ problems for solution. These extension agents and lecturers are knowledgeable in innovation that can be transmitted to the farmers for enhanced production especially in the use of sensory technology for precision farming.In Nigeria, many farmers detect presence of draught, pests and diseases and plant-water requirement through scouting method. This traditional method provides single point coverage which does not permit farmers to know the exert soil and plant conditions in addition to preventing them by monitoring trends in the production for effective crop management decisions. It was also observed that despite farmers’ effort to use different means for increased crop production in the country, occurrence of irregular and non-predictive rainfall pattern and sunshine hours continued to lower harvests of cassava, maize, melon and yam with at least 2.5% decline of harvests per annum . Apart from loss of produce during cultivation, about half of the food produced is never consumed due to inefficiencies in the harvesting of crops.

Studies showed – that the world’s population is expected to nearly double by 2050 while food supply is unlikely to follow the same pattern even by doubling the area under cultivation , due to the impact of climate change; there is need for continued crop production to meet the needs of the teaming population through the use of sensory technology. This means that in order to ensure high productivity, farmers must utilize different technologies in production process to provide arable crops like cassava, cowpea, maize yam and others. However, the knowledge of the Graphical User Interface of the sensor technology application is needed on the side of the farmers to monitor and control scenarios, and instruct commands for  decision on the farm. It was therefore based on this scenario that this study was initiated to identify the techniques in utilizing sensor technology so that the extension agents could use it as a training package for teaching farmers for precision crop production in the country;hence the study. The major purpose of this study was to identify techniques needed in utilizing remote sensor technology for precision crop production by farmers.

The result of the study in Table 1 revealed that in planning for utilization of sensor technology the farmers needed to acquire computer operation technique to collect route data to other sensors and back to external base station, determine the number of sensor devices required per hectare, determine the plant density, set up based information, configure and distribute sensor devises in the farm, connect sensor to any existing communication infrastructure , identify crop farm to be monitored and agro-based allied information, relevant personnel,determine records to keep and provide necessary fund among others. The findings of this study were in line with the findings of that the base station needs to be connected to an existing communications infrastructure or to the Internet where a user can have access to the reported data. The findings of the study were also in conformity with the findings of  who found out that configuration of different scenarios is necessary while found out that sensor nodes when appropriately configured collect and route data either to other sensors or back to an external base station.

The transgenic crop research developed over years can be grouped into three generations

Transgenic crops can be generated with the use of recombinant DNA techniques which alter the crop’s genetic makeup by manipulating the genome—either by introduction, deletion, substitution, or silencing of an individual gene or group of genes of interest. The functionality of transgenes has expanded with time. In the beginning,only traits that exhibited complete dominance, free of the interaction from the native plant genome or the environment, were targeted. For such traits, only one copy of the trait introduced into one of the inbred parents was required. Fortunately, some of these dominant traits such as insect resistance and herbicide tolerance provided solution to major production hurdles encountered by farmers in producing major crops of food and fiber.

Cultural practice modification offered by early transgenic varieties not only enhanced economic return to the farmer because of higher crop yields but also had multiplier effects of soil erosion prevention from reduced tillage,and reduction in environmental pollution from the residual herbicides and insecticides. Now, the scope of transgenic technology has expanded to include quantitative traits such as stress tolerance and yield improvement that necessitate the interaction of the introgressed genes with native genes engaged in the metabolic pathway for the phenotypic trait expression where environment may also influence considerably the final phenotypic expression.Stacking of introgressed genes in hybrids to create value combination of traits is also receiving considerable attention.

Genetic engineering is usually resorted when improvement through conventional breeding and mutagenesis have been exhausted. Such situations arise if a desired trait is not present in the crop germplasm,the trait has proven difficult or very time consuming to improve through conventional breeding, or there is a need to remove or switch off particular genes. Commercialization of first genetically engineered crop started back in 1996 and since then it has reached new heights in its application and wide adaptability to various sectors of modern agriculture. Since 1996 to 2013 there has been tremendous increase in the acreage of genetically engineered crops. Between 1996 and 2013 there has been more than 100 fold increase in the acreage of genetically engineered crops . The ability of genetic engineering to incorporate foreign traits into plants was first exhibited in 1970s.

Although approved earlier for limited sale, it was not until 1996 that the Monsanto Company got the approval to commercially market European corn borer  resistant corn , Colorado potato beetle  resistant potato , cotton bollworm complex resistant cotton , and a non-selective, broad spectrum herbicide glyphosate tolerant soybean  Merr. The genes for all insecticidal proteins, modifiedcry1Ab in corn , modified cry1Ac in cotton , and modified cry3Ab in potato  derived from commonly found soil bacteria—Bacillus thuringiensis.Glyphosate tolerant soybean was developed by incorporating abacterium glyphosate resistant EPSP  synthase gene . Each generation represents unique thrust areas for developing transgenic crops and has contributed to the present pool of commercially adopted transgenic crops .Modern agriculture has been quick to adopt the commercial first generation transgenic crops expressing herbicide tolerance and insect resistance since these effects were clearly visible in the crop production systems. The second generation transgenic crops were designed for product quality characteristics but they did not lived up to expectations, and no commercial crop with these specific characteristics is presently in the market. However, the first approved transgenic food, Calgene’s Flavr Savr tomato which reached the market in 1994, succeeded in delaying softening of the ripe fruit after harvesting but was a complete commercial failure and was withdrawn from the market in 1997 out of safety concerns.

The third generation of transgenic crops has been engineered for use as biofactories or living reactors in the production of pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals and is often referred as “molecular farming”. The early and most cost-reward producing use of GE has been in the development of insecticide and pesticide resistance in field crops. A great deal of interest has currently been shown in incorporating tolerance to environmentals tresses in crop cultivars in order to stabilize the yield under fluctuating environmental conditions. In addition, as enhanced nutritive value of crop has gathered much interest to combat malnutrition in developing countries and to meet the food preference of naturalists, several transgenic cultivars with fortified nutritive values have been released. Some degree of success has also been accomplished in developing crops with chemical constituent of industrial value and the use of plants as hosts for pharmaceutical products. The transgenes currently employed in weed management confer resistance to crops allowing use of effective broad-spectrum herbicides. The gene characterizing bacterial enzyme conferring tolerance to glyphosate has been most widely used, however, transgenes conferring tolerance to bromoxynil,glufosinate,and sulfonylurea  are also registered .

It is constituted by demo-genetic tests and a Mismatch distribution analysis

According to Pichon et al., P. xylostella can be regarded as a species highly polymorphic. This has been confirmed by Marthur et al. who indicated a strong genetic diversity in populations of box tree moths from different regions of southern and northern India.Differences in the degree of resistance to insecticides between populations can result from selection of different pressures attributable to the local variation in the way of using insecticides. It is in such a context, that this study has been carried out, to determine the diversity and the genetic structuration of P. xylostella populations in Senegal. To detect expansion signs of the breakdown area of P. xylostella populations, as well as Tajima D and the fs of Fu tests have been carried out. Moreover, the test Fs of Fu is very sensitive to demographic expansion, which generally founds expression in negative values.

These tests have been worked out using Arlequin v. 3.1. Mismatch distribution graphs are constructed with the help of the DnaSPv. 5.10 . But the indexes that go with it, particularly SSD and Rag, have been estimated owing to Arlequin v. 3.1 . For high resolution concern, erection of the phylogenetic trees has been done using two different methods: Neighbor-Joining method where calculation takes into account genetic distances by using the Kimura two parameters method, and the method of maximum probability which even shows us the history of our set of data. Research process of a phylogenetic tree, by using maximum probability,implies finding the typology and the length of the tree’s branches that will give us the highest probability to observe the DNA sequences in our data. The most appropriate model to build this tree is that of GTR added to the law of Gama.These two trees have been built, using Mega software v. 5.05 .

Efforts during last few decades had provided Africa with some success in increasing net agricultural productivity , but rapid population growth and environmental degradation acted to diminish the outcome of this success in many countries like Ethiopia . With continued increase in population pressure and land holdings continuously shrinking, many poor smallholders have resorted to more frequent cropping, curtailing traditional long fallows and increased use of inorganic fertilizers. Ethiopia is one leading Sub-Saharan country to liberalize its economy and develop poverty reduction strategies through market-led, broad based agricultural development during early 2000s, so in the 2012/13 fiscal year Ethiopia’s economy grew by 9.7%, the tenth year in a row of robust growth. Agriculture, which accounted for 42.7% of GDP, grew by 7.1%, while industry, accounting for 12.3% of GDP, rose by 18.5% and services, with 45% of GDP, increased by 9.9% in 2012/2013. Although Africa’s average growth declined from 5% in 2010 to 3.4% in 2011, the Ethiopian economy continued on the high-growth trajectory, and this momentum was expected to continue in 2012 and 2013 .

However, the growth in economy has been unevenly distributed, in most rural areas lasting effects of poverty, hunger, malnutrition still weigh heavily on the Ethiopian economy . As 93% of Ethiopians are currently engaged in small scale agriculture and other manual intensive activities, economic loss due to malnutrition estimated to cause reduced productive capacity at ETB 12.8 billion in 2009  which is equivalent to 3.8% of GDP. Ethiopia being the second most populous country in Africa , the rural population accounting for 82.4% , majority depending on traditional rain fed agriculture in the small farm dominated agriculture sector, the stability and sustainability of development have been heavily dependent on climate.Traditional agriculture, dominated by non-mechanized farming in highly uneven landscape, small-scale farmers is responsible for 95% of the cultivated land, mainly for subsistence needs  employing 80% of the population.Entire food supply comes from rain fed subsistent agriculture and rainfall failure means loss of major livelihood source, which affirms that improving agricultural production is of paramount importance for the country’s economic progress ; especially in the background of wide poverty, food security has a primary focus not only in Ethiopia but all over Africa. In fact, different types of traditional small farm systems are providing food for more than 70% of the global population .

Most of Ethiopian subsistence farmers have small land holdings,the average of 1.2 hectares of land, with 55.13% less than one hectare . Thus, through strengthening these traditional small food production systems with a balance of modern knowledge/technology and environmental management using traditional knowledge with economic support, the countries like Ethiopia can try to attain sustainable food production .Traditional agriculture here in Ethiopia, follows age old practices that evolve before introduction of highyielding varieties and synthetic agro-chemicals. Many small scale farmers are still adapting the local varieties,using local land-climate-vegetation characteristics for sustaining productivity and conserving the natural resource base. In modern terms this “resource-conserving agriculture” has proved to have sound potential for improving livelihoods of smallholders in Africa.

Community-based adaptation has become an important term in the climate change debate

However, the capacity to adapt can influence how climate change affects individuals, communities, regions, countries and the global population.The potential to adjust in order to minimize negative impacts and maximize any benefits from climate change is known as adaptive capacity . As speculated by Lemke dry regions will become even drier while wet ones will receive more rains. Climate change affects every region but the degree and nature of impacts resulting from the phenomenon will differ from region to region and will depend on the capacity of the different regionsto adapt to the changes. Climate change adaptation is an understanding of how individuals, groups and natural systems prepare for and respond to changes in climate or their environment to reduce vulnerability.

It is the adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climate stimuli or their effects to moderate harm and increase benefits from available opportunities . Climate change adaptation in this study involve staking action to minimize the impacts of weather variation while exploring new openings that may be beneficial. The type of adaptation measures adopted depends on the nature and extent of impacts, social resilience and economic capacity of the region to deal with the observed and expected changes. Increasing the capacity to adapt reduces vulnerability to the effects and a successful adaptation can reduce vulnerability by building on and strengthening existing strategies.Developed and developing countries alike are working hard to find solutions to the effects of climate change,as the impacts vary in extent and nature. In order to address the resulting impacts, adaption practices should lay emphasis on community interest to encourage sustainable development. It is suggested that adaptation strategies will be more successful if they are identified and presented to local users for vetting to ensure their consistency with local priorities, norms, goals and institutions.

It recognizes the fact that environmental knowledge and resilience to climate change lay within societies and cultures. Furthermore, an understanding of how communities cope with environmental changes is important when developing community-based adaptation projects to mitigate the effects of climate change for the local farmers and their families. The goal of community-based adaptation is to increase climate change resilience of communities by enhancing their capacity to cope with climate related issues such as less predictable rainfall patterns, frequent droughts, stronger heat wave, invasion of diseases and weather hazards of unprecedented intensity . Staying informed about climate change and supporting efforts to slow its progress are things necessary to be done. The climate is already changing because of the existing build-up of GHGs in the atmosphere, therefore it is important to prepared for and adapt to those changes.

While actions now to reduce emissions is critical, the existing build-up of GHG concentrations means that some effects of climate change are inevitable in this and coming decades and planning must start now on adapting families,production processes, economy and the society to these changes.Strategies aimed at adapting crop farming to climate change include adjusting planting and harvest dates,changing varieties grown, increasing water, fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide use and enhancing drainage systems. Changes in land-use and in crop and livestock management practices will have to take place, such as change in cultivated land area, changing crop and animal types, rearing animal species that can withstand higher thermal changes and growing crops that are drought and flood tolerant, change in farm siting, use of irrigation and improved fertilizer use efficiency to counter the effects of droughts and low soil fertility conditions due to leaching and erosion resulting from coastal flooding, improved control mechanisms for insect pests and diseases associated with weather change improvement in soil management practices to reduce surface runoff and soil erosion establishment and creation of food grain reserves at farm and community levels for safe-keeping and storage of harvested produce, and intercropping arable crops with trees to benefit from improved micro-climate as well as tree products and services .

Others include diversifying into multiple and mixed crop-livestock systems, switching from crop to livestock farming, switching from fishing to fish farming, switching from rain-fed to irrigated farming and making ridges across farms . Some suggested adaptation practices also includes construction of foot-bridges across road tracks, raising of barriers/dikes in response to sea level rise/flood, use of mulching material for crops and shades for animal houses to reduce heat, using improved varieties/breeds to ensure survival of cultivated and reared crops and animals,switching to mechanized farming to reduce hard labour as well as the involvement of technology in production processes.