This book distils lessons learned about integrating gender equality into agricultural development initiatives in Africa, with case studies of efforts at all levels, from households to national government. The authors start from the premise that empowered women and men are better, more successful farmers who can make the most of the...

Steven Kiranga Gichanga is a family farmer in Mugaari, a village in Kenya. He was trained in goat rearing but could not afford a goat to get started. He was also trained in bee keeping but could not afford a bee hive either. After a community reflection forum in 2012,...

Access to agricultural information is vital for improving food security at the village level. This study accessed the agricultural information needs of women farmers in Nkonkobe Municipality of the Amathole District, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Data was obtained from 118 households. The women farmers were identified from four villages...

The study on the use of cassava as animal feed in Ghana was commissioned as part of FAO’s initiative supporting poverty reduction in northern part of the country. Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is one of the main staple food crops grown by almost all farming families in Ghana, contributing to large...

Family farming matters. In Africa, 60 to 70% of producers live in rural areas and they produce most of what Africa’s people consume. However, despite this contribution, family farming is often sidelined in academic discussions and in agricultural policies.

The Government of Tanzania has formulated a number of policies, strategies, and programs guided by its Tanzania Development Vision 2025 (URT, Planning Commission 2005), which sets long-term development goals to turn Tanzania into a middle-income country by 2025 and make it competitive in the globalized world economy.. Because the Tanzanian...

La Fédération des Organisations Non Gouvernementales du Sénégal (FONGS-Action paysanne) a présenté son bilan stratégique 2013, les 29 et 30 octobre 2013. C’est un point sur la réalisation à mi-parcours de son Plan stratégique 2011-2015, qui vise à améliorer durablement la capacité des exploitations familiales à nourrir le Sénégal et...

This paper addresses the challenges facing the home garden farmers in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Sixty households farmer were selected through systematic sampling from Nkokonbe municipality which were purposively selected. The small scale farmers were interviewed with the help of an interview schedule containing open and closed ended...

The official measurement and analysis of poverty in Nigeria has historically relied upon the single dimension, consumption based monetary approach with little attention on multidimensional poverty assessment. This study was therefore carried out to assess the multidimensional poverty index of rice farming households in Nasarawa/Benue Rice Hub, Nigeria. The study...

This guide is the first on the practical application of FAO’s “Save and Grow” model of agriculture to specific smallholder crops and farming systems. It comes as cassava production intensifies worldwide, and growers shift from traditional cultivation practices to monocropping, higher-yielding genotypes, and greater use of agrochemicals. Intensification carries great...

Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) initiated from 2000 extensively redistributed land, mainly to peasants and working peoples (see Moyo 2011c) and, in doing so, unravelled the labour reserve economy created over a century of settler-colonial agrarian capitalism. This change has created a broader range of prospects for progressive...

Zambian farmers have extensive experience with maize hybrids and input subsidies. Like other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, the successful development and diffusion of improved maize seed in Zambia during the 1970s and 1980s was supported by strong government commitment to parastatal grain and seed marketing and subsidized provision...

Available evidence suggests that sub-saharan Africa as a group has suffered serious setbacks in recent years, culminating in the stagnation of farm production and productivity amidst sustained and sometime escalating poverty rates. At the same time, increases in human population levels have resulted in rising demand for food as well...

Smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable to risks.  They are vulnerable to risks from disease, pests, drought, floods and unpredictable rainfall – and they are also vulnerable to the fact that we are increasingly reducing the variety of products that we are producing and consuming. “Out of the 7000 food crops...

The objective of this chapter is to help policymakers, researchers, and country negotiators better understand and anticipate the likely impacts of climate change on agriculture and on vulnerable households in Zimbabwe, given that about 70 percent of the Zimbabwean population is dependent on rainfed agriculture and the sector contributes between...

Aflatoxins are more than a barrier to trade for smallholders— they are a serious risk to public health. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 4.5 billion people are chronically exposed to the toxin through the consumption of staple foods, leading to cancer and childhood stunting as...

Depuis la Conférence des Nations Unies sur le développement humain, tenue en 1972 à Stockholm, le Burkina Faso à l’instar des autres Etats membres des Nations Unies, est entré dans la dynamique de gestion durable de l’environnement au niveau national, prenant en compte la dimension globale. Cette volonté s’est poursuivie...

In this chapter we assess the vulnerability of Botswana’s agriculture to climate change, with special emphasis on impacts on the poor. The agriculture sector is inherently vulnerable to climate change, and Botswana’s semiarid climate already severely limits agricultural production. Following a broad overview of current economic and demographic indicators, land...

In examining agricultural vulnerability to climate change in South Africa, we see that an important factor is the enormous existing socioeconomic disparity in access to resources, poverty levels, and capacities to adapt. Recent research results suggest that the South African farming sector is characterized by medium-level exposure risk, coupled with...

Stimulated by work pioneered in Bangladesh, the paper outlines a conceptual framework for using poultry as a tool in poverty alleviation. There is now evidence from several coun- tries that small poultry enterprises with adequate institutional support targeting the poorest rural women and their families can help them take the...