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...

Local agricultural knowledge in dry-land land-use systems is centred on the conservation, use and optimisation of soil moisture and soil organic matter. Additionally, biodiversity is carefully managed and nurtured to interface with hydrological and nutrient cycling to provide for ecosystem resilience, food security and diversity, and risk minimisation.

Secondary forests in Africa Tropical secondary forests are those forests that have developed after clearance (usually by humans) of the original natural forest. Although not appearing as such in statistics, tropical secondary forests occur throughout the tropics, including Africa, and the area is extensive and increasing rapidly. Tropical secondary forests are usually...

A Satellite Event on Biodiversity and the Ecosystem Approach in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was held on the occasion of the Ninth Regular Session of the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, in FAO, Rome, 12-13 October 2002. An informal presentation of the Satellite Event’s discussions and results...

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...

The Gambian government, with the assistance of donors, is involved in the promotion of the local milk and dairy products sub-sector. The farming system in this country is characterised by the predominance of mixed crop-livestock production. The cattle stock is mainly composed of N’Dama, a breed described as a low...

The People, Land Management and Environmental Change (PLEC) project is a largely farmer-driven demonstration project consisting of five ecosystem clusters and spread over eight countries: Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, China, Papua New Guinea and Brazil. PLEC was initiated in 1992 by the United Nations University (UNU) as an international...

The eastern Africa region faces serious and worsening problems of food security, decreasing per capita food production and massive poverty. Agriculture in this region is dominated by smallholder farmers. Yield levels on these farms are generally very low for a variety of reasons. One important reason is the declining soil...

This paper was prepared as an initial scoping study for the Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC) Secretariat to provide the basis for developing a longer term programme of work to examine the transformations underway in West African agriculture, and the challenges faced by smallholder production systems. The following question...

This paper provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of land allocation and its relation to income poverty within the smallholder sectors of Eastern and Southern Africa. Results are drawn from nationally-representative household surveys between 1990 and 2000 in five countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Zambia. The paper shows that...

Contract farming, has in one form or another, been practiced since time immemorial and is a common feature of commercializing agriculture in developing countries as well as in developed countries. Its pre-eminence in developing countries is attributed to a response in the trend towards coordination of agricultural production and processing...

This Policy and Strategy Paper contributes to an on-going policy debate-within the Bank but also with its client governments-about the role of tree crops in various production systems, and as key commodities in the trade portfolio of various African nations. It attempts to answer the following questions: a) What is...

This journal article from Leisa Magazine illustrates examples of Conservation Agriculture in Africa. Considerable efforts have been made in Africa to try to arrest the tendency towards soil degradation, loss of fertility and frequently declining yields. These have focused on better ways to conserve soil moisture, to prevent soil loss,...

This paper searches for the most effective technology for agricultural growth in Africa on the basis of FAO data available during the last forty years. The paper discusses the challenges for agricultural growth and evaluates the development assistance that was made by donors to the agricultural sector in Africa in...

In the winter of October 1999, as part of a programme of ICSF, three persons converged on the Treasure Guest House in Accra, Ghana. They came from three very distinct parts of the world, each bringing along a different baggage of culture and upbringing. What they shared, however, was a...

The rising world population is increasing the pressure on agriculture to produce more food. This is more so for the African continent, where it is not just about food supply, but also a critical factor in economic development, poverty alleviation and improving living standards especially in rural areas. On the...

Fisheries, and in particular, the artisanal fisheries sector, is a vital source of livelihood for the communities that live along the approximately 4,545 km long coastline of West Africa. There are around 1.8 Million people, mostly women, directly engaged in processing and marketing fish in the region. Nonetheless, despite the...

Pour les populations qui vivent sur les cotes d'Afrique de I'Ouest, longues de 4545km, la peche, tout particulierement la peche artisanale, est une activite vitale. Envirom 1.8 million de personnes, surtout des femmes, transforment et vendent le poisson. Ce secteur dynamique est toutefois confronte a de nombreux problems et les...

A long-standing demand of the women of fishing communities in the region has been towards enhancing regional fish trade. It is against this background that the Workshop on Problems and Prospects for Developing  Artisanal Fish Trade in West Africa was organized from 30 May to 1 June 2001,  followed by...

The first half of the twentieth century witnessed profound changes in smallholder agriculture in many parts of Africa. There was a rapid spread of exotic staple food crops such as maize, cassava and sweet potatoes. In many cases the adoption of these crops led to increases in productivity as they...