Agriculture is vital to Zambia’s economic development and is a mainstay for the livelihoods of a large proportion of the population. Agricultural production is mainly dependent on rain-fed hoe cultivation with maize as the principal staple food crop. About 18 percent of national maize production comes from Zambia’s Southern province....

Land is a main life support resource to third world countries. In Nigeria, a major limitation to sustainable land use resources planning, development and management is the unreliable assessment of t available stock and the level of utilization. In particular, the commonly adopted traditional techniques for the evaluation are as...

Smallholder farmers in Malawi account for over 80 percent of the population and if the country is to achieve food security, poverty reduction and sustainable development attention to agricultural extension is a sine qua non. Since 2000, Malawi introduced extension reforms to better serve the needs of smallholder farmers. Some...

Innovation in family farming analyses family farms and the role of innovation in ensuring global food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It argues that family farms must be supported to innovate in ways that promote sustainable intensification of production and improvements in rural livelihoods. Innovation is a process through...

Popularly known as ‘the land of a thousand hills' – U Rwanda rw'imisozi igihumbi – Rwanda has a beautiful landscape made up of endless undulating hills and valleys stretching as far as the eye can see. The people who work the land are proud of its beauty. But the terrain poses a...

The vast majority (70%) of the world’s population is fed and nourished by local, ecological systems of food production1. But these systems are severely threatened and undermined by industrial systems of agriculture that are controlled by corporations and promoted by governments. These industrial systems have exacerbated or even created the...

This study summarizes experiences using Renewable Energy (RE) water pumping options as irrigation by smallholder farmers in developing countries. It includes an overview of conventional technologies (petrol and diesel pumpsets),along with an inventory of RE alternatives (wind pumps, solar Photo Voltaic (PV) pumps, solar thermal pumps and biogas) and compares,...

SOFI 2014 presents updated estimates of undernourishment and progress towards the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and World Food Summit (WFS) hunger targets

The economy of Zimbabwe – once considered the breadbasket of southern Africa – has begun to turn around after a decade-long recession that saw a sharp drop in agricultural production, falling incomes and increasing food shortages. With some 70 percent of people relying on agriculture for their livelihoods, the strength...

In June and August 2012 the Department of Livestock & Veterinary Services (DLVS) carried out assessments that confirmed the severity of drought in some parts of southern Zimbabwe. FAO, with funding from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development and in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanization and...

ICT4Ag is a bimonthly printed and on-line magazine (http://ictupdate.cta.int) and an accompanying e-mail newsletter published by CTA. This issue focuses on building resilience for family farming.

ICT Update est un magazine bimestriel édité par le CTA et disponible sur Internet (http://ictupdate.cta.int), en version papier et sous forme d'une newsletter diffusée par e-mail. Ce numéro est consacré au renforcement de la résilience de l'agriculture familiale.

In Malawi, where most of the population relies on agriculture and is considered “small farmers”, better characterizing the diversity of agricultural holdings and the drivers of their transformation is key to inform policy makers and design programs better fitted to the diverse needs and capacities. The World Agriculture Watch (WAW)...

Governments and international agencies frequently boast that small farmers control the largest share of the world's agricultural land. Inaugurating 2014 as the International Year of Family Farming, José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), sang the praises of family farmers but didn't...

Organic farming represents a deliberate attempt to make the best use of local natural resources and is an environmental friendly system of farming. It relies much on ecosystem management which excludes external input, especially the synthetic ones. Ander son, Jolly and Green (2005) stated that organic farming is a production...

There is an urgent need to reduce alarming rates of undernutrition in Tanzania. This report analyses options for policies and interventions to improve the functioning of markets that deliver nutrient-dense foods. Currently, a set of constraints inhibit businesses from making nutrient-dense foods that reach the poor. These constraints affect businesses...

Etude de la productivité des exploitations agricoles familiales au Sénégal basée sur les données de l’Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie (ANDS) sur les zones de production et sur celles issues des enquêtes du projet de caractérisation et de typologie des exploitations agricoles familiales au Sénégal (EXFAM) menée...

The paper analyses the impact of the two most prominent elements of a traditional societ y in South West Ethiopia: institutionalized traditional beekeeping as main cash income source and high segregation of a society through a caste system, which marginalizes especially a certain huntergatherer group. Beside the high ecological value...

This report is based on the main lessons and recommendations from three case studies analysing the strategies, aspirations and constraints of the various types of farmers living around the dams of Bagré (Burkina Faso), Sélingué (Mali) and Niandouba/Confluent (Senegal). This document aims to contribute to the reflections national and regional...

Many rural development initiatives attempt to improve the lives of family farmers. Some succeed, some fail – but all of them can offer valuable lessons for the future. In a two-phased documentation workshop, farmers, field workers and other experts working in IFAD-funded projects in Swaziland described, analysed and wrote down...