Comparing and contrasting where the challenges to and opportunities for growth in productivity are located, and doing so at multiple scales and over time, can give us powerful insights that can enrich our understanding of the variables that affect agricultural productivity. The Atlas of African Agriculture Research & Development presents...

David Booth investigates the scope for reforming African agricultural policy choices. While recognising the difficulties that many countries face in developing the agricultural policies they need to transform their economies, he encourages policymakers to abandon 'pessimistic' political-economy diagnostics. Instead he provides evidence that social and economic reforms can be achieved...

Conventional wisdom holds that Sub-Saharan African farmers use few modern inputs despite the fact that most growth-inducing and poverty-reducing agricultural growth in the region is expected to come largely from expanded use of inputs that embody improved technologies, particularly improved seed, fertilizers and other agro-chemicals, machinery, and irrigation. Yet following...

Although the potentially negative impacts of credit constraints on economic development have long been discussed conceptually, empirical evidence for Africa remains limited. This study uses a direct elicitation approach for a national sample of Rwandan rural households to assess empirically the extent and nature of credit rationing in the semi-formal...

The IYFF-2014’ National Committee in Gambia promotes collaboration and knowledge sharing in the West African region    

African countries face serious difficulties in getting the agricultural policies they need to help turn economic growth into economic transformation. Nonetheless, radical pessimism may not be justified for two reasons. By comparing Southeast Asian and African experience in other policy fields, this paper suggests that changing policy ideas may play...

Les producteurs céréaliers sont confrontés à la mévente répétée des récoltes qui sont excédentaires depuis plus de cinq (5) années successives et pour ce faire, la CPC-Togo pour une première édition organise, avec l’appui du projet PADAT au Togo, une rencontre d’opportunité commerciale observée par ses membres lors de leur...

Ce projet cible plus de 3000 ménages paysans possédant moins de 0,25 hectares de terres. Tous ont reçu des plants fruitiers et agro-forestiers, et un peu moins de la moitié a été sélectionnée pour recevoir du petit bétail (poules, lapins, cochons) et des semences agricoles. Ces derniers ont été accompagnés...

The paper distinguishes different approaches to markets in, and affecting, rural sub-Saharan Africa, and present some associated policies, notably ‘market-friendly’ and ‘market-challenging’. We then propose a political economy approach as a more satisfactory way of grasping the complex social dynamics of ‘real markets’ and their forms of unequal power. This...

The Women’s Rights to Sustainable Livelihoods project (2012 - 2015) is an innovative four-year intervention designed by ActionAid International and funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It aims to pilot practical solutions to promote sustainable livelihoods and reduce the unpaid care work of women smallholder farmers. The project...

Agriculture plays a significant role in Africa, accounting for about 30 per cent of GDP south of the Sahara, as well as a significant proportion of export value. Not surprisingly, in most African countries, 60 per cent or more of employees work in agriculture. Yet this barely scrapes the surface...

Les paysans togolais doivent de plus en plus composer avec les aléas causés par les changements climatiques tels que l’appauvrissement et la fuite des sols, la prolifération de maladies et la raréfaction des ressources en eau. Dans son nouveau projet, Elevages et Solidarité des Familles pour le Togo (ESFT) cherche...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is in Tanzania, where climate change is taking a toll on local populations. FAO-backed initiatives are making it easier for farmers and families to produce crop varieties that grow in dry conditions. Plus, new soil methods are increasing production and energy-saving stoves...

In recent years large-scale agricultural input subsidies have had a contested ‘rehabilitation’ in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reviews the changing paradigms, politics and theories associated with input subsidies’ decline and rise, and the implementation and impacts of recent large-scale programmes. Empirical evidence is patchy, and their impacts contested and dependent...

In Rwanda, P4P focuses on supporting the government’s efforts to boost agricultural production, on increasing the income of smallholder farmers and developing the agricultural market. In order to reduce post-harvest losses, P4P and partners support farmers’ cooperatives with training in post-harvest handling, equipment and storage facilities. Cooperatives also receive training...

Sustainable food production in the rain-fed smallholder sector of Zimbabwe is imperative in current and future climates given the increasing proportion and role of the sector in food security. Backgrounds of the smallholder sector include low resource bases, declining soil productivity, climate variability and increasing human population. Impacts of climatic...

In Guinea-Bissau, a country on the West African coast between Senegal, the Republic of Guinea and the Atlantic, rice is the staple food. During the past three decades, agriculture in Guinea- Bissau has undergone a radical transformation. In Guinea-Bissau, there is a common discourse that young people have abandoned the...

This  issue of Caravan – a collaborative effort with the CGIAR Research Program on Dryland Systems – focuses on gender related research being undertaken by ICARDA and national and CGIAR research partners across the world's dry areas, reflecting on experience and insights from Morocco to South Asia and beyond. Articles...

This paper examines the current interest in addressing the problem of young people’s unemployment in Africa through agriculture. Using notions of transitions and mobilities we set out a transformative work and opportunity space framework that privileges difference and diversity among work opportunities, rural areas and young people. We argue that...

The Eastern African region (which includes Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) is highly vulnerable to climate change and several of its major sectors (notably agriculture) that significantly contribute to the sub-region’s economies are at risk. About 80% of the population in East Africa depend on agriculture, which contributes to 40% of...