Despite the achievements of smallholders in Asia during the green revolution, there is scepticism that Africa’s smallholders — who dominate the farm area in most countries — can imitate this model and deliver agricultural growth. This paper assesses whether such pessimism is justified. Given the high transactions costs of hiring...

This Issue of the magazine aims at reflecting on and rekindling interest in successful field projects, capacity-building initiatives and networking of natural resources practitioners. It is a strategy to sustain ideas that could enhance conservation of wildlife and natural ecosystems and improve Africa's rural livelihoods. This edition of Nature &...

This paper uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to explore the contribution of smallholder production to food security in some sub-Saharan African countries and relates it to the South African case. Noting that many of the world’s hungry are smallholder farmers, it is clear that food insecurity is closely linked to...

Informal markets receive little attention from governments and researchers, despite their centrality to farmers’ seed security. This paper documents the importance of informal markets for supplying seed and restocking critical plant genetic resources in normal and stress periods. It analyses farmers’ rationales for using such markets and their strategic actions...

On 16 October 2008, FAO celebrated World Food Day with a parallel event entitled “­Women have solutions to the food crisis: towards long-term structural changes”. This issue of the Dimitra newsletter focuses in particular on how – in an international context of rising food prices and raw material shortages –...

In developing the Scientific Conceptual Framework for the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, FAO seeks to accomplish the challenging task of integrating perspectives from those sciences that are most directly concerned with conservation and development: ecology, agronomy and forestry, economics, and anthropology. The goal is to scientifically conceptualise...

Over the coming decades, global change will have an impact on food and water security in significant and highly uncertain ways, and there are strong indications that developing countries will bear the brunt of the adverse consequences, particularly from climate change. This is largely because poverty levels are high, and...

Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, which is dominated by smallscale, mixed crop, and livestock farming, is the mainstay of the country’s economy. It constitutes more than half the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), generates more than 85 percent of the foreign exchange earnings, and employs about 80 percent of the population. Ethiopia’s...

The Conference on Ecological Agriculture: Mitigating Climate Change, Providing Food Security and Self-Reliance for Rural Livelihoods in Africa was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 26-28 November 2008. It was organised by the African Union (AU), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development...

The Conference on Ecological Agriculture: Mitigating Climate Change, Providing Food Security and Self-Reliance for Rural Livelihoods in Africa was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 26-28 November 2008. It was organised by the African Union (AU), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development...

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC) is a political, economic and social organization and a regional cooperation system among six Arab States of the Gulf: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In August 1989, IFAD...

Since 1998, the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tigray Region has adopted the making of compost as part of its extension package and by 2007 at least 25% of the farmers are making and using compost. A reflection of the success of this approach is that between 2003...

The choices that smallholder farmers are able to make are strongly conditioned by the geographic conditions in which they live. The importance of this fact for rural development strategy is not lost on policy makers. For example, the government of Ethiopia frequently frames policy discussions by broadly different geographical conditions...

Access to land is an important issue for the majority of Ethiopian people who, one way or the other, depend on agricultural production for their income and subsistence. Land tenure issues therefore continue to be of central political and economic importance, as they have been at several junctures in Ethiopia’s...

This is the 11th Dimitra newsletter. Our last edition was replaced by the distribution of the Dimitra CD-ROM. Many of you took time to return the short survey we enclosed with it and we would like to thank you for this valuable feedback. We have also received numerous messages telling...

Rural livelihoods in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa are under considerable stress. Economies and the political environment are experiencing a period of significant transformation, and poverty is endemic. Agriculture remains at the core of rural livelihoods and farm power (from human, draught animal and tractor sources) is a crucial input...

This issue of Caravan provides examples of ICARDA's work with its partners to help ensure sustainability of livelihoods for the poor in marginal areas.

The Ethiopian national bean program traditionally followed conventional approaches in bean improvement for smallholder farmers. The relative effectiveness and efficiency of Participatory Plant Breeding (PPB) compared to conventional approaches is not fully understood. The study was initiated to evaluate participatory plant breeding in bean improvement to disseminate more acceptable and...

The Ethiopian highlands comprise nearly 45 percent of the total land area and support over 85 percent of the country's 64 million people that are overwhelmingly rural. The highlands are the centre of economic activity of the country and are characterized by enormous ecological, environmental, agricultural and cultural diversity. The...

Securing food and a livelihood is inextricably linked to the exploitation of the natural resources base (land, water and forest) in Ethiopia, where over 85 percent of the population lives in rural areas and depend on smallholder agriculture. The pressure of intense human activity and improper farming and management practices...