Solutions
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122 Solutions found
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Flour Milling and Blending Systems
The time and energy required for grinding and cooking the grains of millet and sorghum for consumption poses a burden in home kitchens and restricts its appeal in urban centers. Farmers and traders can quickly add value to millet and sorghum by milling their grains into flour that is easy to use and ready for blending with other flours. Millet …
Motorized Crop Residue Processing of Animal Feed
Crop residues and stover from millet and sorghum offer an important source of livestock feed. When animals are herded over croplands only 20%-30% of stover is grazed since they prefer the leaves that are sweeter and easier to digest. Farmers normally chop stems into small pieces by hand so it can be fed to cattle, but this task is time …
Mechanized Tillers, Planters and Fertilizer Applicators
Farm activities such as land preparation, sowing and fertilizer application are largely performed by hand in small-scale millet and sorghum production systems. Farmers endure physical drudgery to cultivate their land and bear the cost of maintaining draught animals or services. Low and erratic rainfall in millet and sorghum growing areas narrow the window for planting without, intensifying labor demand. Recommended …
Biological Control of Insect Pests with Natural Enemies
The millet head miner is the most important insect pest of pearl millet in the Sahel. These moths deposit their eggs on the heads of millet and hatched caterpillars mine into the seeds of the millet head. It can cause complete crop loss but more often losses occur in the range of 40% to 80%. Without control measures, the population …
Proactive Management of Striga Infestation
Striga, also known as witchweed, is a parasitic plant that has invaded all major sorghum and millet production zones of Africa. The damage begins underground where the weed latches onto the roots of the crop and feeds on water, nutrients, and sugars causing twisted, discolored, and stunted growth. There is a strong link between soil fertility depletion and yield losses …
Fertilizer Micro-Dosing to Enhance Yield and Use Efficiency
Most small-scale millet and sorghum farmers do not use recommended rates of mineral fertilizers. Those who so usually apply too little fertilizer by surface broadcasting, an inefficient approach. Risk of crop failure due to drought further discourages investment in fertilizer. As a result, insufficient nutrient replenishment and gradual soil fertility decline takes place. Micro-dosing is a form of precision agriculture …
Contour Bunds for Water Harvesting
Availability of water is one of the main constraints to dryland agriculture, and recent declines in rainfall and changes of precipitation patterns caused by climate change severely jeopardize food security. To enhance yields and resilience of crops across Africa’s semi-arid areas, it is of major importance that soils intercept maximum available rainwater, and that surface runoff is minimized. Contour Bunding …
Dual-purpose Varieties for Crop and Livestock Integration
Diminishing productivity of natural pastures and rangelands across African drylands due to overgrazing, soil degradation and climate change, coupled with increasing livestock numbers, increases the importance of crop residues used as animal feeds. Traditional varieties of millet and sorghum are unable to satisfy demands for food and feed at the same time as they do not have a favorable ratio …