Adlai Grass Promises to Be Conservation Agriculture Super Crop

Adlai grass (Coix lacryma-jobi L.), more commonly known in English as Job’s tears, has proven an agricultural success at the SANREM LTRA-12 site in Mindanao, the Philippines in plot experiments that occurred in July 2012.

Initially pioneered by the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Philippines (BAR), adlai studies were the focus of BAR research initiatives conducted in 2010 with NGO partners Earthkeepers and MASIPAG, a consortium of farmers and other agri-focused individuals.

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Third Book in Vegetable-Agroforestry Series to Launch at SWAT Seminar and Workshop in Bogor, Indonesia

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Cover of the newly launched “Vegetable- Agroforestry Systems in Indonesia.” This is the third in a series of four books.

“Vegetable-Agroforestry Systems in Indonesia” is the third book in a four-part series detailing the uses and benefits of vegetable-agroforestry (VAF) in Southeast Asia. Previously in the series, authors explored VAF in Vietnam and the Philippines, while this newest addition, which launches at the SWAT Regional Seminar and Workshop in Bogor, Indonesia on June 27, focuses on systems in Indonesia. Continue reading

Elinor Ostrom, SANREM partner and Nobel Prize receipient, leaves legacy of commons research

Elinor Ostrom, a close collaborator of natural resource management with the SANREM CRSP at Virginia Tech, succumbed to pancreatic cancer at Indiana University’s Health Bloomington Hospital on June 12, 2012. Ostrom was widely lauded for her work in the analysis of economic governance of common property resources such as pastures, lakes, fisheries and forests. Continue reading

Book on Women’s Issues in Philippine Agroforestry to be Launched

Elena Javier, gender coordinator for LTRA-5 in Southeast Asia, has announced that she and her colleagues are launching a new book, “Holding their own: smallholder production, marketing and women issues in Philippine agroforestry.” An event to launch the book will be part of the programme of a research symposium held by the Social Development Research Center (SDRC) on March 28th, 2012.

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Vegetable Agroforestry Systems in the Philippines book now available

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Cover of the book “Vegetable-Agroforestry Systems in the Philippines”

A book on SANREM CRSP’s research details vegetable-agroforestry systems work in the Philippines. The book, “Vegetable-Agroforestry (VAF) Systems in the Philippines,” includes research by scientists from SANREM’s Phase III.

The book shows that growing high value crops in the Philippines’ uplands can be done while protecting the environment. In the uplands, 10 million hectares of land are degraded from deforestation and other human activities, hurting the small-scale farmers who depend on the land for food and income.

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Graduate Assistant working with SANREM researches gender roles

Keri Agriesti, a Virginia Tech graduate student in geography from Bucyrus, Ohio, is studying the connection men and women who farm in Bolivia have with the soil. Agriesti works under Maria Elisa Christie, program director of Women in International Development. The work is a part of a gender component of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program, managed by Virginia Tech.

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