This issue of the Journal highlights the unique features of Africa's agriculture, including (i) the urgent need for improving productivity; (ii) the importance of the agricultural sector in Africa's economies in terms of employment; and (iii) the climate-resilient opportunities within agriculture to cope with climate change challenges. It draws attention...

L’objectif principal de la Route est d’améliorer la compréhension, parmi les projets du FIDA et les principales parties prenantes, des problématiques liées à la garantie des droits à la terre et à l’eau dans des systèmes d’irrigation pour une meilleure productivité agricole, et ainsi améliorer les moyens d’existence des personnes...

This paper helps to fill an important gap that exists in gender responsive fish value chains by analysing the factors that influence women’s participation in fish value chains and value chain governance in Malawi. The study was based on the premise that there is limited information on how fish trade...

Zone climatique géologiquement très ancienne, la zone soudano-sahélienne a vu son sol profondément transformé sous l’effet du climat chaud et humide des temps très anciens. Ceci a eu comme résultat une désagrégation et une érosion du sol avec la formation d’une croûte latéritique imperméable qui empêche l’infiltration de l’eau et...

This report assesses trends in investments, human resource capacity, and outputs in agricultural research in SSA, excluding the private (for-profit) sector. The analysis uses information collected by Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI)—led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) within the portfolio of the CGIAR Research Program on...

“Invest more in smallholder agriculture”. That's the message a group of farmers and villagers from Kasama, Zambia – a landlocked country in Southern Africa – set out to tell the world when they created an investment report like no other. Carved into the very land that farmers use to feed...

Aujourd’hui, le changement climatique est une menace qui vient exacerber la vulnérabilité des ménages déjà mis à l’épreuve par une conjoncture économique difficile. Les bouleversements environnementaux n’arrêtent donc pas d’être des facteurs décisifs dans l’émigration des Sénégalais car continuant de représenter des déclencheurs et/ou des accélérateurs des migrations. Cependant, par leurs...

Small towns are an essential but often-neglected element of rural landscapes and food systems. They perform a number of essential functions, from market nodes to providers of services and goods and non-farm employment to their own population as well as that of the wider surrounding region.  In demographic terms, they...

What is the optimal size and composition of rural financial cooperatives (RFCs)? With this broad question in mind, we characterize alternative formations of RFCs and the implications of each in improving the access of rural households to financial services, including savings, credit, and insurance services. We find that some features...

Cette note s’emploie à évaluer la cohérence des politiques agricoles et alimentaires mises en œuvre au Sénégal entre 2010 et 2015. L’analyse révèle notamment une hausse et un rééquilibrage des dépenses publiques en soutien à la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition. Toutefois, les politiques agricoles et alimentaires du Sénégal continuent...

Zambia’s Social Cash Transfer (SCT) Programme is implemented by the Ministry of Community Development, Mother and Child Health and has been operating in Zambia since 2003. As of December 2014, the programme reached 150,000 households across 50 districts and there are concrete plans to scale it up nation-wide in the...

In Mali, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is implementing the “Caisses de Résilience” approach with a strong focus on nutrition to support 3 000 vulnerable households in 64 villages in the Mopti region (district of Bandiagara). The three-year programme, launched in February 2015, aims to...

The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) places responsible governance of tenure of land, fisheries and forests in small-scale fisheries as central for the realization of human rights, food security, poverty eradication, sustainable livelihoods, social stability, housing security, economic growth, and rural and social development. As such,...

This study was conducted in June and July 2016, in the fishing areas of Mwanza and Kagera regions in the Lake Victoria side of Tanzania. The focus of this study was on dagaa (sardines) (Rastrineobola argentea) fishery which involves mostly women in its overall value chain. The study sites were...

Cash transfer programmes in sub-Saharan Africa impact the productive activities of both beneficiary and non-beneficiary households in the communities where they are implemented. These programmes have led to an increase in agricultural activities in beneficiary households, including greater use of agricultural inputs, more land area in crop production and higher...

Due to inaccurate methods of harvesting, farmers tend to destroy the quality of the mangoes and obtain reduced yields of the fruit which results in a loss of income of the farmers. Through selective harvesting techniques, mangoes are harvested in three stages from the trees based on their maturity level....

The Jangokoro Food Security Project was developed afer a 3-year no-funding phase. The project design process involved partcipatory methods that did not provide a strong baseline status of the various drivers and efects of livelihood insecurity. This baseline study was therefore conducted primarily to determine the baseline status for the...

Droughts in the Horn of Africa have been increasing in severity and frequency, and aggravated by desertification, land degradation and climate change. With multiple consecutive years of poor rains, dry spells and drought, including the El Niño-induced drought in 2015/16, there has been little to no recovery among affected households...

The report examines the impacts of an unconditional cash transfer in Lesotho, the Child Grants Programme, aimed at enhancing children’s nutrition and schooling. Using an experimental impact evaluation design, the analysis looks specifically at gender-differentiated impacts in children’s school participation and time use among agricultural households two years after the...

In sub-Saharan Africa good progress was made in reducing hunger until 2010, after which time the decline in the prevalence of undernourishment came to a halt and then rose to 22.7 percent in 2016, while the number of undernourished rose to 224.3 million. In many countries, the worsening situation in...