Smallholders are a substantial part of the oil palm sector and thus key to achieve more sustainable production. However, so far their yields remain below potential. The Roundtable on Sustainable Oil Palm (RSPO) aims to include smallholders in sustainability certification to strengthen rural livelihoods and reduce negative environmental impacts. This study aims to determine if and how certified smallholders perform differently from their non-certified counterparts in terms of management practices and yields, and to what extend this is related to RSPO certification.
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Posterbijdrage conferentie EARLI SIG 14, 11-14 september 2018, Genève Although literature shows the important supportive role of experienced colleagues to stimulate novices’ workplace learning, the question of how this support is provided is usually answered in general terms (e.g. Mikkonen et al. 2017; Tynjälä 2008). Therefore, this study aims to explore how members of vocational communities, both individually and as a collective, enact specific pedagogic practices to contribute to novices’ learning. The systematic literature review that will be presented in the interactive poster session is the first study of a PhD project and provides an overview of situational pedagogic practices which attempt to support novices’ learning at the workplace.
Climate change is undermining the importance and sustainability of cooperatives as important organizations in small holder agriculture in developing countries. To adapt, cooperatives could apply carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their business by increasing yields, economic returns and enhancing ecosystem services. This study aimed to identify carbon farming practices from literature and investigate the rate of application within cooperatives in Uganda. We reviewed scholarly literature and assed them based on their economic and ecological effects and trade-offs. Field research was done by through an online survey with smallholder farmers in 28 cooperatives across 19 districts in Uganda. We identified 11 and categorized them under three farming systems: organic farming, conservation farming and integrated farming. From the field survey we found that compost is the most applied CFP (54%), crop rotations (32%) and intercropping (50%) across the three categorizations. Dilemmas about right organic amendment quantities, consistent supplies and competing claims of residues for e.g. biochar production, types of inter crops need to be solved in order to further advance the application of CFPs amongst crop cooperatives in Uganda.
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In June 2016, two Dutch SME companies which are active in the area of urban solid waste management approached the International Environmental Sciences department of Avans about the current R&D activities on urban solid waste management in cooperation with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) Brazil. The companies had interest in developing activities in Brazil, since they are aware of the great potential for exporting both knowledge and technology. Solid waste poses a major problem in Brazil which affects 200 million residents. The Brazilian municipalities collect around 71 million tons solid municipal waste on a yearly basis and only a tiny percentage of this collected waste gets recycled. As such. the overwhelming majority of the collected urban solid waste goes to landfills. Within the State of Minas Gerais there are 850 towns of which 600 have less than 20.000 residents and are agriculturally oriented. Current organic waste composting practices take place under very poor conditions (pathogens and weeds still remain in the compost) and most often the resulting compost product is not well received by its residential and agricultural consumers. As such there is huge room for improvement. The SME companies work with Avans and UFMG to address these challenges. The joint research team consisting of the two Dutch SME companies and the two Research and educational institutes have defined the following research question: What is the current status of organic solid waste management in Minas Gerais and how can cooperation between Brazil and the Netherlands result in a win-win for both countries? Two individual KIEM VANG proposals have been defined in order to address these challenges. The planned activities are a joint effort with professor R. T. de Vasconcelos Barros of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and are executed within the Living Lab Biobased Brazil program (www.biobasedbrazil.org).
In line with the ‘Natuur- en milieubeleidsplan Caribisch Nederland 2020-2030 (NMBP)’ the consortium intends with this research proposal to contribute to a prosperous society with a resilient population and healthy natural environment. The Caribbean Netherlands are dealing with a situation where imported vegetables and fruits are mostly imported and hardly affordable. This leads to consuming unhealthy food and high obesities rates as a consequence. A lack of good agricultural practices with regard to water-smart and nature inclusive agriculture, as well as limited coping capacities to deal with hazards and climate change, results in very limited local production and interest. Initiatives that focused only on agrotechnological solutions for food resilient futures turned out to be ineffective due to a lack of local ownership, which jeopardizes sustainability. Moreover, the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ domains are not seen as attractive career perspectives among youth, hampering a bright future for those domains. The aim of this research is to contribute to water-smart and nature inclusive food resilience embedded in a local participatory perspective in the Caribbean Netherlands. To address the above challenges, a living lab approach is adopted, where youth will be trained as (co)-facilitators (WP1) who will contribute to a participatory envisioning process and an articulation of food resilient futures (WP2). Finally, based on the envisioning process local stakeholders will select and implement experiments for food resilient futures followed by dissemination of results among key stakeholders as well as children and youth at the BES islands (WP3). This project strategy will lead to a network of a living lab where professionals and youth work together on food resilient futures. Training manuals and the results of experiments with regard to water and food system alternatives will be used actively to encourage youth to be involved in sustainable agriculture and consumption.
In het kader van het Hoogwaterbeschermingsprogramma (HWBP) neemt de vraag naar klei voor het versterken van dijken toe, echter is het aanbod beperkt. Dit voorstel richt zich op ontwikkelen van nieuwe duurzame en kosteneffectieve technieken die het mogelijk maken om zout sediment uit estuaria in te kunnen zetten voor de dijkversterkingsopgave. Gebiedseigen materiaal, met name het zoute slib, kan worden ingezet voor klei productie in lokale dijkverzwaring en draagt bij aan duurzaam grondstoffenverbruik, klimaatadaptatie en de ecologische kwaliteit van estuaria. Met het project “Ontzouten rijpend slib voor Deltabescherming” gaan het lectoraat Sustainable River Management van de HAN, Ecoshape, Netics in samenwerking met partijen verenigd in het interbestuurlijk project IBP-VLOED onderzoeken hoe zout slib (kosten)effectief kan worden ontdaan van het zout, zodat het gebruikt kan worden in de regionale dijkversterkingsopgave. In IBP-Vloed zijn alle relevante nationale en regionale (semi)overheden, kennisinstellingen en belangenorganisaties vertegenwoordigd die zich richten op hergebruik van slib uit het Eems-Dollard estuarium. Beoogd wordt om een geschikte kosteneffectieve en schaalbare ontzoutingsmethode (strategie) te ontwikkelen die rekening houdt met de samenhang van de governing parameters en de heterogeniteit in samenstelling en structuur van het zoute slib uit estuaria zoals het Eems-Dollard gebied. De resultaten worden gepresenteerd tijdens een workshop en gebundeld in de vorm van best practices.
