Die Studie mit Fokus auf die Übernahme von Fischproduktion und konservierender Bodenbearbeitung (KB) in Sub-Sahara Afrika (SSA) verdeutlicht 1) die Komplexität von Übernahme- und Diffusionsprozessen landwirtschaftlicher Innovationen in SSA, vertieft 2) den Wissensstand zur Diffusion dieser zwei Innovationen und, leistet 3) einen Beitrag zur Entwicklung eines neuen methodischen Ansatzes für den Forschungsgegenstand. Neben der Darstellung der wesentlichen Konzepte und Literatur basieren die empirischen Daten auf semi-strukturierten Interviews, Fokusgruppendiskussionen, Teilnehmerbeobachtung und QAToCA, einem in der Studie entwickelten, partizipativen und expertenbasierten Bewertungsansatz. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Fischzucht – speziell im Fall von Kamerun – eine attraktive Beschäftigung für mittelständische Landwirte ist. Zur weiteren Verbreitung dieser Innovation besteht jedoch Bedarf für 1) zielgerichtete Förderung mittelständischer Landwirte, 2) Verbesserung der Organisationsstruktur der Landwirte, 3) Stärkung des Beratungssystems, und 4) Verbesserung der Forschung für Jungfischaufzucht. Mit Anwendung von QAToCA für die Übernahme von KB zeigen die Ergebnisse i) hohes Übernahmepotential in Malawi, Sambia, Tansania, Kenia – aufgrund positiver institutioneller Faktoren, ii) geringes Übernahmepotential für Simbabwe – bezüglich der instabilen Marktlage, iii) geringes Übernahmepotential in Süd-Burkina Faso – aufgrund der Konkurrenz um Ernterückstände zwischen KB und Tierproduktion, und iv) hohes Übernahmepotential für Nord-Burkina Faso – was sich darauf zurückführen lässt, dass Alternativen zu KB nicht bestehen. Für eine anhaltende Übernahme landwirtschaftlicher Innovationen in SSA zeigt die Arbeit Handlungsbedarf auf für 1) Berücksichtigung des Bedarfs für neue Absatzmärkte, 2) Anpassung von Innovationen an bestehende Managementstrukturen von Betrieben und, 3) Entwicklung von fördernden politischen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen auf Dorf- und Regionalebene. / Focusing on adoption of Fish farming and Conservation Agriculture (CA) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this study: 1) partly demonstrate that, the reality of adoption and diffusion of agricultural innovations in SSA is a more complex issue, 2) improve on the knowledge and understanding of diffusion for these two innovations in SSA and, 3) develop and contribute to a new methodological approach in this field of study. Apart from reviewing concepts and relevant literature, empirical data for this work was obtained by using semi structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation alongside a participatory expert-based assessment approach (QAToCA) - developed within this work. Results revealed that, Fish Farming especially for the case of Cameroon remains an attractive activity for medium-scale farmers. However for a sustained adoption of this innovation, there is need for 1) targeted support to medium-scale farmers, 2) improving organisational structures of farmers, 3) strengthening the fragile extension system, and, 4) improving research on fingerlings production. Following application of QAToCA in assessing CA adoption, results reveal i) high adoption potential for Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya - explained by presence of positive institutional factors, ii) low adoption potential for Zimbabwe - attributed to unstable and less secured market conditions, iii) low adoption potential for Southern Burkina Faso - explained by strong competition of CA with livestock over residue, and iv) high adoption potential for northern Burkina Faso - explained by the fact that farmers have no alternative than to adopt CA. For long lasting adoption of agricultural innovations in SSA, this work calls for 1) addressing emerging needs for new input and output market outlets, 2) adapting innovations to existing management structures of adopting farms and, 3) developing a supportive political and institutional frame condition at village and regional levels.

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One of the unsolved problems of modern science is whether the pre-Columbian peoples of the New World developed completely independently of cultural influences from the Old World or if there was a trans-oceanic contact? A number of scientists agree that there are many – and often remarkable – similarities between the cultures of pre-Columbian America and those of the Mediterranean world. Nevertheless, there is no agreement, as yet, on how cultural diffusion can be differentiated from independent invention. Scientific analysis shows that scholarly positions are often strongly pre-formed from paradigms (scientific based assumptions), which tend to hinder consideration of solid scientific data offered by geo-biology and its trans-disciplinary examination of the subject under investigation here. An unambiguous answer to the question, what historical processes led to the emergence of the ancient American agriculture, hasn\''t been given. However, the archaeological discovery of crops with clear trans-oceanic origin, in addition to advances in molecular biology, increasingly support the hypothesis that humans from the distant past influenced each other across the oceans at a much earlier stage. The vegetation and zoo-geography indicate, by numerous examples that some species could only have spread through perhaps unintentional (passive) human transmission [1]. There are two very old crops found in the „New World‟, which contradict the paradigm of a completely independent origin for American agriculture. These are the African Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria L.) and the ancestral cotton species (Gossypium herbaceum L.) of the domesticated spin able sub-genus of tetraploid cotton. The historical spread of both types has been under discussion for decades, especially in respect of trans-oceanic human contact with the American continent. There has also been a debate in the \"Old World\" ever since the discovery of nicotine and cocaine in Egyptian mummies, centering around whether \"New World\" plants (or the ingredients) might have been transmitted in the reverse direction, back to the presumed start in centers of the Ancient World\''s oldest civilizations.

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