The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large...

Livestock is still the main source of income of rural populations in the West Asian and North African (WANA) countries. However, many factors among which climate change are threatening the production systems. There are considerable gaps in our knowledge of how climate change will affect livestock systems and the livelihoods...

我们的妇女和粮食主权物品收件箱中包含处理当地和区域粮食市场的好几篇文章. 为了给你一个关于种种市场机会意见和妇女所面临的约束, 我们总结了一些用品.

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) aims to revitalize African farming in order to reduce rural poverty and hunger. This is a massively important undertaking for a continent where a third of the population continue to struggle with chronic malnutrition. But is CAADP getting the right strategies, policies and...

A beekeeper with a colonized hive must remember that the success in keeping bees depends on the exercise of his knowledge of colony organization. Three practices of colony management are discussed in greater detail in this entry. The first part gives a step-by-step description of how to divide a very...

 Legumes are the main source of protein for more than one billion people in South Asia. ICARDA and its partners have developed new legume varieties with high yields, enhanced nutritional value, as well as other traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance.

Honeybees that nest in the open produce far less honey than those confined in enclosures. There are good reasons for this. Colonies in the open are exposed to predators and therefore have to employ numerous workers as guards to fight intruders. They have to consume large quantities of honey, which...

This newsletter also contains a special Dossier on Radio & ICTs in Rural Areas that puts together a variety of experiences in this field, from an electronic forum on Gender, ICTs and Rural Livelihoods, over participatory community radio to empower rural women and men, to the use of different methodologies...

Using lessons from the case studies this paper draws out five practical steps in reaching and supporting women marginal farmers: 1) take the lead from women marginal farmers themselves in helping build their networks and groups, 2) promote alliances and external links, 3) organising needs based training workshops and regular...

Au Togo comme au Bénin, l’agriculture repose sur de petites exploitations familiales dont l’unité socio-économique de base est le ménage. Le nombre moyen d'actifs agricoles par ménage est de 2 à 4 personnes. Les travaux agricoles sont essentiellement manuels, l’utilisation de la traction animale et de matériel adéquats étant négligeable....

Les bas-fonds sont aujourd’hui au centre de nombreux projets de développement visant une  sécurisation alimentaire à travers des projets de petite irrigation. La première partie de ce  travail traite des stratégies mises en oeuvre par le gouvernement béninois qui a fait de  l’aménagement des bas-fonds une de ses priorités. Cependant,...

As population density increases and available natural resources diminish, tensions and competition increase among stakeholders for access to land for farming and animal husbandry as well as access to forest, fishery and wildlife resources. The scramble for resources involves communities, economic interest groups, governments and the private sector as they...

With financial assistance from the Irish embassy and the embassy of the kingdom of The Netherlands, SNV supports since 2007 fruit marketing cooperatives in Southern Ethiopia. SNV strengthens the cooperatives through facilitating business to business arrangements, business planning and improved operational management, and access to critical services. Results of the...

Successful examples of agriculture best practice offer a means to enhance current food security frameworks. Promoting and disseminating success stories from the field is vital for ensuring the efficient allocation of limited resources and avoiding the pitfalls of previous interventions. Critically best practice examples provide the opportunity to scale up...

Agriculture remains an important means of alleviating poverty, but shortage of finance can constrain its development. At the same time, agriculture is evolving towards a global system requiring high-quality, comptetitive products, and is organized in value chains which often exclude smallholders. Value chain financing in agriculture offers an opportunity to...

A retrospective cross-sectional study of mortality was conducted on smallholder dairy farms in 2 separate regions (Iringa and Tanga) of Tanzania during the period of January to April 1999. A total of 1789 cattle from 400 randomly sampled smallholder dairy farms (200 each from Iringa and Tanga regions) were included...

Crop production in smallholder farming systems of Zimbabwe is limited by low inherent soil fertility, particularly N and P and available soil moisture. One of the major agricultural challenges in developing countries is the development of technologies that are able to sustain soil fertility and conserve soil and moisture. The...

Producer organisations are widely heralded as leading contributors to poverty reduction and the achievement of food security. Following the withdrawal of state support as part of measures for liberalization, producer organizations in Africa have been in a process of transition, attempting to define appropriate strategies in a competitive open market...

Most Africans depend on small-scale farming systems as the primary source of their livelihoods. Yet they are marginalized and often do not produce enough to enable their families to have sufficient food to eat throughout the year. Smallholder farmers are also particularly vulnerable to climatic and economic shocks. Despite these...

Demographic trends point to more young people in the African population than ever before – approximately 70 percent of Africa’s 1 billion people is under the age of 30. Across the continent many young people are reportedly choosing not to pursue livelihoods in agriculture, especially as farmers. If this is...