João Marcus Costa is a cassava farmer from Manjacaze, Mozambique. Like many Mozambican farmers, João's small cassava field used to face constant threats from drought, disease and pests. Even when he did manage to successfully harvest his cassava, he then faced additional challenges trying to get his cassava to market...

Tenure security is believed to be critical in spurring agricultural investment and productivity. Yet what improves or impedes tenure security is still poorly understood. Using household- and plot-level data from Ghana, this study analyzes the main factors associated with farmers’ perceived tenure security. Individually, farmers perceive greater tenure security on...

The Agency For Accelerated Regional Developement (AFARD) in partnership with Center for Governance and Economic Development (CEGED) secured a 3-year funding (2016-19) from the European Union in Uganda for Youth Economic Empowerment Project (YEEP) that aims at promoting sustainable and gainful youth employmentthrough a holistic andmulti-sectoral approach thattargets improving youth...

Agricultural intensification has only taken off to a very limited extent in Ghana. Adoption of land productivity-enhancing technology is low, even in areas with proximity to urban markets. Rather, farmers have increasingly been adopting labor-saving technologies such as herbicides and mechanization, for which vibrant private supply channels are emerging. Further...

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Malawi has the potential to reorient its smallholder agriculture away from being primarily directed towards assuring household subsistence and self-sufficiency to increased commercial production, including of soyabean. This shift would reduce the country’s reliance on tobacco and diversify its agricultural production and exports. As a legume, furthermore, soyabean would also...

Small-scale fishing communities in South Africa have to cope with unequal power relations as they seek effective means for the implementation of the SSF Guidelines

Smallholder farmers continue to dominate African agriculture although some countries--for example, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia--are experiencing a rise of medium-scale farms of between five and 100 hectares as part of the region’s broader economic transformation. Smallholder farmers still control the largest areas for production.  They employ 70% of the work...

Farmer Coumba Ndoffen Sene used to struggle to feed his family, but now he can pay his children’s school fees and buy them new clothes. He has also started a business raising chickens. Sene takes part in the IFAD-funded Agricultural Value Chains Support Project in Senegal. One of the ideas behind...

Le Malawi est un des pays les plus pauvres et les plus densément peuplés d’Afrique subsaharienne. Les faibles moyens économiques du pays ont fait de l’agriculture familiale le pilier principal de l’économie malawienne. En effet, plusieurs études ont été faites dans le but d’évaluer l’impact des faibles moyens économiques sur...

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Drylands make up about 43 percent of the region’s land surface, account for about 75 percent of the area used for agriculture, and are home to about 50 percent of the population, including many poor. Involving complex interactions among many factors, vulnerability in drylands is rising, jeopardizing the livelihood for...

This volume of the Integrated Crop Management series focuses specifically on agricultural mechanization, the opportunities provided by mechanization for intensifying production in a sustainable manner, value addition and food systems development, and the inherent opportunities implied for improved local economies and livelihoods. The establishment of viable business enterprises, agriprocessors, transport...

Esta guía presenta los pasos a seguir para la construcción de un práctico túnel cubierto con red para uso agrícola y las instrucciones sobre como manejar los cultivos de camote dentro del túnel para asegurar la provisión de material base de siembra de alta calidad, con baja o nula infección...

This anthology explores the future of African food systems and the role that digital solutions can play in overcoming the isolation of smallholder farmers and speeding up rural development. Farming is one of mankind’s oldest endeavors, and digital technology is one of its newest. The contributors to this fascinating volume...

This assessment targets agricultural water extension agents and technical experts, providing them with clear indications on how to improve water harvesting (WH) capacity for agricultural production in the three case study countries, as well as how to select feasible and suited WH techniques for different geographical areas. It is an...

FAO Sub-Regional Office for East Africa and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have signed a partnership agreement to coordinate cross-border efforts on animal health, trade and natural resources management coordination.  The programme will address community engagement on policy and investment as well as cross cutting areas of work such...

La co-conception de systèmes agricoles innovants est une piste prometteuse pour répondre au défi de l’innovation, notamment pour les exploitations agricoles familiales africaines confrontées à de multiples changements. Mais il faut penser à la place et aux rôles tenus par de multiples acteurs (agriculteurs, conseillers, chercheurs) pour produire les changements...

In food-scarce conditions, is bad food still better than no food at all? FoodAfrica research programme partner, ILRI researcher Johanna Lindahl says that it might be true, although with aflatoxin-contaminated food the judgement could be difficult. News article about the FoodAfrica Programme's research results on how to reduce aflatoxins in maize...

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