Dans les vergers, en particulier sur sols en pente, l’érosion et la pression croissante des mauvaises herbes sont deux problèmes majeurs. L’Arachis pintoï,une légumineuse (fixant l’azote) avec un système racinaire puissant, compétitive par rapport aux autres herbes mais ne grimpant pas est particulièrement bien adaptée aux conditions rencontrées dans les montagnes au nord du Vietnam. C’est aussi un excellent fourrage, riche en protéines, qui peut être utilisé pour l’alimentation animale

Dans les zones de montagne au Nord du Vietnam, la faible fertilité chimique résultant d’une gestion traditionnelle oblige à une correction pour espérer des niveaux de production satisfaisants. Cependant, la faible capacité d’investissement des populations agricoles ne leur permet pas d’avoir recours à des apports massifs en engrais chimiques et amendements organiques et calcaires. L’écobuage, qui consiste en une combustion lente et partielle de la matière organique du sol, permet de retrouver des conditions favorables à moindre coût. Il doit être obligatoirement associé aux couvertures végétales.

Mucuna pruriens est une légumineuse rampante et volubile qui nécessite des sols de fertilité moyenne, bien draînés et peu compactés. Ses graines sont traditionnellement utilisées comme aliment pour les animaux. Elle est agressive contre les mauvaises herbes (ombrage). Sa production de graines est aisée. Elle est facilement contrôlable par fauche et elle disparaît après l’hiver. Sa fixation symbiotique de l’azote atmosphérique en fait un excellent précédent pour le maïs.

Rapport final sur les collections testées à Madagascar (réalisées par SD-Mad avec l'appui du GSDM), faisant lieu de catalogue des variétés Sebota et d'autres variétés intéressantes (Fofifa, etc...) pour la grande Ile. Description des caractéristiques des variétés : plantes, grains, cycles, etc...

Economic growth in North Cameroon is based on agriculture relying mainly on the cotton crop. Confronted with the short-comings agricultural intensification model developed 30 years ago which rely on the use of mineral fertiliser and draught animals and the integration of animal and crop production, SODECOTON in collaboration with CIRAD and IRAD are working towards developing Direct seeding Mulch-based Cropping systems (DMC) for the cotton crop and related crops in rotation. Adoption of these systems by farmers is being met with certain difficulties, notably those related with work organisation within the farm holding, poor land tenure regime, rational use of plant biomass between animal feed and soil mulch. Some of these constraints cannot be analysed only at the level of the cropping system nor at that of the farm holdings, since the rules of decision-making do not depend entirely on the farm family head. This work describes the present state of natural resource and land use management at different levels, by grazers and farmers of two village communities and their environs. At the level of farm holdings a structural type-description was done in order to bring out the various strengths and weaknesses in the adoption of DMCfrom the standpoint of the different farmers. Visit of on-farm experimental fields and plots were organised for farmers and grazers. These visits provided a forum for debate in which the system's weaknesses were corrected so as to render the mulchbased cropping system compatible with grazer practices, fodder-biomass and landed-property management.

Traditional farming systems have drastically changed over the last fifteen years in southern Xayabury province through considerable agricultural development based on rainfed cash crops production such as maize, rice-bean (Vigna umbellata), peanut, Job's tears (Coîx lacryma), black cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) and sesame. This development depends mainly on local market accessibility, transfer of technologies from Thailand and financial capacities of local traders (inputs, heavy mechanization and technical skills from Thailand).

Rapport d'activité annuel sur exploitations et expérimentations en milieu paysan, avec rendements, biomasse et temps de travaux sur SCV avec cultures de coton sorgho, maïs

PROJET D’APPUI A LA DIFFUSION DES TECHNIQUES AGRO-ECOLOGIQUES A MADAGASCAR RAPPORT GENERAL D’EXECUTION Hautes Terres et Moyen Ouest Rapport de campagne 2005-2006 Démarche, expérimentations, dispositifs Résultats agro-technico-économiques sur les hautes terres de Madagascar (Moyen Ouest et hautes terres)

Experiments conducted in the 1990's in various ecological zones of Madagascar allowed to propose a large range of cropping systems based on direct seeding on permanent soil cover (DSPSC). To propose solutions and face the many constraints of Malagasy farmers, a unique set of references was developed, for various agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions, with different levels of intensification and risk (Séguy, 2005). However, although the proposed systems had demonstrated their high agronomic, environmental and economic performances, and proved to be sustainable, their extension remained limited'until the beginning of the 21st century. Main reasons identified to explain this situation, apart from the limited financial resources consecrated to this task, were the very limited human resources and the lack of an approach for extension of knowledge intensive systems, in a difficult environment: subsistence agriculture, smallholders with limited investment means, degraded soils, poor infrastructures, etc. (GSDM, 2004)

Land degradation is an inevitable result of continuing shifting cultivation under these circumstances. There is an urgent need to change existing sloping land use by smallholder mountainous farmers to prevent potentially disastrous consequences. In a small country with high population density, like Vietnam, the problems are particularly serious. In this contextn the upland agro-ecology approach has become the most promising way of maintaining sustainable agricultural production. This research was implemented by VASI and CIRAD with promising results.