Access to agriculture finance is a hot topic in Uganda, especially for small scale farmers. There is a lot of talk in the sector about working together to remove barriers for small holder farmers to access value chain financing. Most recently the 2011 Zipping Finance and Farming Event in Kampala...

The document presents a roadmap for developing commercially sustainable quality seed in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It focuses on directing investments in five key areas along the seed potato value chains. The objectives of this strategic roadmap are to improve productivity, raise incomes of smallholder farmers, enhance food...

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...

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...

Smallholder farmers in developing countries such as Uganda are faced with the difficulty of accessing sustainable markets. Such farmers include those growing sweet potato, and are becoming increasingly marginalized as urban markets demand better quality, quantity and sustainable supply of agricultural commodities. Research and Development (R&D) actors on the other...

Despite the importance of smallholder agriculture in East Africa, the strategic, conceptual and empirical analysis in the context of the crisis, which would guide policymakers and development practitioners in their efforts to revitalise agriculture in the aftermath of the crisis, is sparse. Moreover, recent studies tend to examine specific constraints...

This first issue after the merger of the old Baobab with the Kilimo Endelevu Africa (KEA) looks at the importance of livestock in the livelihoods of farmers. Livestock is an integral part of most family farms, and fulfills many functions such as food, assets and fertilizer. This issue focuses on...

The study aimed at examining how the policies and regulations in place (or lack thereof) impact on smallscale banana farmers in Isingiro district and share possible solutions with the government, farmers, interested donors and other stakeholders.

Smallholder agriculture continues to play a key role in African agriculture. This paper investigates trends, challenges and opportunities of this sub-sector in East Africa through case studies of Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. In these agriculture-based economies, smallholder farming accounts for about 75 percent of agricultural production and over 75...

Climate change is now recognized as serious with long term negative effects on agricultural productivity, and hence on the well-being of communities especially in Africa. Farmers have experienced climate change effects and have tried to mitigate these effects by adapting new/different production practices. This study has been set up to...

This report is based on extensive research and interviews with several hundred farmers, the majority of them women, carried out by ActionAid staff and consultants in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi throughout the last third of 2009. It is complemented by an extensive global literature review, and our study also benefited...

Based on the premise that smallholders often get excluded as markets become more commercial, this paper draws lessons from the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) Project by exploring the main issues and challenges facing extension service partners in five African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi). These lessons...

Dimitra Newsletter 19 highlights FAO’s strong interest in the exchange and capitalisation of good agricultural practices and in the methods that enable rural populations to access information and communication. The Knowledge Management and Gender programme, which organised a Knowledge Share Fair in Niamey in June 2010, illustrates the innovative methods...

Participants in the workshop shared experiences from nine projects in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. All projects had a common objective: to add value to an agricultural product and link smallholder farmers to profitable markets in a lasting way. The commodities included bulb onions in Kenya and Tanzania; fresh fruits in...

Despite the achievements of smallholders in Asia during the green revolution, there is scepticism that Africa’s smallholders — who dominate the farm area in most countries — can imitate this model and deliver agricultural growth. This paper assesses whether such pessimism is justified. Given the high transactions costs of hiring...

This paper uses the sustainable livelihoods framework to explore the contribution of smallholder production to food security in some sub-Saharan African countries and relates it to the South African case. Noting that many of the world’s hungry are smallholder farmers, it is clear that food insecurity is closely linked to...

Welcome to Dimitra Newsletter No. 16! This issue is devoted – as all our newsletters are – to the empowerment of women and men living in rural areas. FAO’s efforts in the Great Lakes Region highlight the fact that Farmer Field Schools can be instrumental in addressing a range of...

On 16 October 2008, FAO celebrated World Food Day with a parallel event entitled “­Women have solutions to the food crisis: towards long-term structural changes”. This issue of the Dimitra newsletter focuses in particular on how – in an international context of rising food prices and raw material shortages –...

Among the experiences shared in this newsletter, we would like to focus on Dimitra and its partners’ work in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the field of rural radio and participatory communication. A rural radio and listeners’ club project, conducted in South Kivu province with SAMWAKI and GTZ-Santé, is...

In developing the Scientific Conceptual Framework for the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) Programme, FAO seeks to accomplish the challenging task of integrating perspectives from those sciences that are most directly concerned with conservation and development: ecology, agronomy and forestry, economics, and anthropology. The goal is to scientifically conceptualise...