Browsing by Autor "M. Webb"

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    Even useful weeds are pests: Ethnobotany in the Bolivian Andes
    (Taylor & Francis, 2005) Jeffery W. Bentley; M. Webb; S. Nina; Salomón Pérez
    Abstract Abstract Weed scientists, agronomists and an anthropologist in Bolivia surveyed farmers' practices and studied the ethnobotany of weeds. The hypothesis tested was that farmers managed weeds so as to take advantage of their uses. Farmers weeded row crops twice per cycle. Crop rotations usually began with potatoes and ended with an Old World cereal, broadcast in stands too dense to weed. Many weeds were fed to cattle, and fodder is the only use that requires more than an armload of weeds. Other uses of weeds (e.g., for home remedies) require just a few plants. Although most weeds have uses, they must still be controlled. The most important consideration regarding weeds is not their uses, but the fact that they are pests. Keywords: Weed controlethnobotanyBoliviaQuechuaAndes Acknowledgements This publication is an output from Prommasel, a research project funded by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for the benefit of developing countries. The authors thank the farmers in Cochabamba who collaborated in the study, and Gregorio Gonzales, Juan Villarroel and Sue Cowgill, who participated in the weed survey in 2000. Margaret Smith, Fredy Almendras and Sergio Ballón helped organise the quantitative data. Many thanks to Brian Sims and the reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
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    Unspoken demands for farm technology
    (Taylor & Francis, 2007) Jeffery W. Bentley; Claudio Ríos-Velasco; F.. M. Rodriguez; Rolando Oros; Rubén Botello; M. Webb; A. Devaux; Graham Thiele
    For three years in Bolivia (2002–2005) the INNOVA Project finished researching several technologies for sustainable agriculture, started by earlier DFID-funded projects. Before INNOVA started critics suggested that these technologies should be discarded in favour of a demand survey. Instead, INNOVA kept the existing technologies, but judged the demand for them with several methods (CIAL, sondeo technology fair, and others). INNOVA found that there was demand for some of the technologies, but that a survey would have missed much of the demand, which is implicit. That is, people are not initially aware of all their problems or of all the possible solutions. Over the years, farmers made more specific, sophisticated demands on the technologies, which evolved as a result. Demand and supply of farm technology are like two sides of an unfolding conversation.