This edition of the Dimitra newsletter focuses on rural women, information and empowerment. Two workshops, organized by our local partners, Amsed in Morocco and Women’s NET in South Africa, take the spotlight. The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for rural women was on the programmes of both events....

This newsletter exclusively focuses on three countries of the sub-region: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi. We lay open the pages to organizations which have provided us with articles explaining their difficulties, their strategies and the solutions they have found to improve the living conditions of rural...

La notion d’exploitation agricole familiale trouve son origine dans l’organisation de la production agricole en Europe. Elle a pris corps et s’est consolidée dans le discours théorique des agronomes et des économistes agricoles à partir du début du XX ème siècle. Elle repose sur une dominance historique longue en Occident...

This paper presents an overview of rice production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and discusses the importance of rice to smallholder farmers. The paper further describes the impact of the application of appropriate rice production technologies, through the introduction of integrated production pest management (IPPM) and farmer field schools (FFS) by...

Land and water for agriculture are scarce natural resources hence the promotion of good land management has taken center stage in Zambia. This study attempts to measure the factors that could be associated with the adoption of conservation farming practices considering that farmers have multiple practices to choose from and...

In this note of food security and land tenure security in Lesotho, the authors present arguments in favour of the enactment and implementation of legislation in Lesotho that will enhance land tenure security in the country. Some of the arguments include: Tenure insecurity is not the primary constraint on the...

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...