The objective of the assessment is to analyse the agricultural and rural sector of Zimbabwe from a gender perspective at the macro (policy), meso (institutional) and micro (community and household) levels in order to identify gender inequalities in access to critical productive resources, assets, services and opportunities. In particular, the...

These guidelines have been prepared by IFOAM-Organics International as part of theGlobal Policy Toolkit on Public Support to Organic Agriculture. This is a special adaptedversion of a more complete report. It has been adapted to suit the needs and currentcontext of Sub-Saharan African countries. Country examples are chosen to reflectsituations...

The civil conflicts in South Sudan has since 2013 resulted into increased influx of refugees into West Nile, Uganda. As at February 2017, the FAO estimated the total refugee population in West Nile region at 628,000 people (86% women and children, 3% the elderly, and 5 people per household). While...

Bimestriel d'informations du monde rural et de l'environnement en République Démocratique du Congo

With only one-quarter of expected rainfall received in the Horn of Africa in the October-December period, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) called for an immediate response to prevent widespread drought conditions from becoming a catastrophe. “The magnitude of the situation calls for scaled up action and coordination at national and...

Despite growing consensus on the socio-economic benefits emanating from enhanced land tenure security, issues related to how best to measure it and what constitute universal indicators of tenure (in)security are poorly understood. As a result, issues of what drives tenure security are poorly understood and inconclusive. This study, thus, examines...

Persistent poverty and under-development in South Africa’s former homeland communal areas have been little changed by post-apartheid ‘rural development’ policy. Rural development policy has often been characterised by impulses towards topdown planning, a default assumption that agriculture ought to drive rural development, a reliance on resource-intensive income generation projects, and...

The shouts can be heard from a distance as one approaches Domboshawa, 30 kilometres northeast of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare. Tokupai madomasi! Tokupai mbambaira! Do you want tomatoes or sweet potatoes? Mune marii? How much do you have? Scores of women and children carrying bundles of vegetables, sacks of sweet...

Major global corporations have tried to advance digitalization of African agriculture by launching payment systems, credit platforms, and digital insurance. But to serve largely subsistence farmers, they have to compete against the local startups — particularly on cost of service in a highly fragmented business, with no easy path to...

Mozambique has a population of about 25 million people. Most live in rural areas and rely on farming for all or part of their household income. Located on Africa’s south-eastern seaboard, the country encompasses biodiversity sites of great significance. Today agriculture is said to account for 25% of Mozambique’s gross domestic...

In rural Rwanda, where roughly one in four people lack access to a safe water source, many communities rely on rivers and streams to drink, wash, clean, farm, and play. Conventional coffee farming methods and processing can poison water used by people downstream. Responsible coffee production, as demonstrated by this...

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the Sahel whose economy is highly dominated by agriculture and livestock husbandry, with more than 70% of the population living in rural areas. The prevailing farming system is smallholder agriculture based on cereal production, especially sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) and pearl millet...

This presentation will provide the policy background, then look at the current status of main South African stocks, followed by a discussion on the economic returns from small-scale fishing and what can and cannot be expected from implementation of the policy; concluding with recommendations on the way forward.

In agriculture, pests are organisms that significantly interfere with the productivity of crops or animals. In conventional agriculture, farmers often use chemical pesticides to manage pests. These can be effective at keeping pests away but they come with negative side effects. Chemical pesticides are costly, damaging to the environment and...

In Mali, agriculture is the main source of employment. Over 80% of the population is engaged in agriculture that is mostly carried out by small farmers with income of less than US$1 per day. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an important cereal grain used as food and animal fodder...

Les journées portes ouvertes de Foumbot, dans la région de l’Ouest Cameroun, qui se sont déroulées le 31 mars 2017, ont été l’occasion de faire découvrir au public, les produits issus des exploitations maraîchères. Cet événement organisé dans le cadre du projet d’horticulture urbaine et péri-urbaine intitulé «Renforcement de la...

According to the World Bank, since 2005 Zambia has experienced impressive economic growth at an average of around 6-7 % per year, although this has decreased to less than 3 percent in recent years.  This decline has been driven by drought and a fall in the price of copper, one...

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...