ASARECA has been praised for providing mechanisms and technical backstopping for regional centres of excellence to work together and share technologies, Innovations and Management Practices during EAAPP Phase 1.

The video presents the first achievements of the project “Youth at Work: Reducing rural poverty”, launched by FAO and the Malian Ministry of Agriculture in August 2014. The project is funded by the Africa Solidarity Trust Fund (ASTF) and aims at generating attractive and decent job opportunities for rural youth...

Repotage dans le village de Vousnango, à 70 km au Nord de Ouagadougou, où les femmes apprennent à fabriquer des foyers améliorés avec des matériaux locaux qui consomment 60% de bois en moins. Une révolution pour leur vie quotidienne qui ralentit la déforestation du Sahel. L’ONG Tiipaalga et le Fonds...

Brazil’s influence in agricultural development in Africa has become noticeable in recent years. South–South cooperation is one of the instruments for engagement, and affinities between Brazil and African countries are invoked to justify the transfer of technology and public policies. In this article, we take the case of one of...

FAO and Gayaza High School in Uganda are working together to develop opportunities for students to learn and acquire agricultural skills while eating healthier and nutritious food. A FAO project to help the high school acquire production input and facilities is showing promising results. Through the project, a greenhouse for...

Nigeria liberalized input distribution and established the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) in 2011 to deliver subsidized inputs to farmers as part of its Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). Despite the relevance of the GESS as a subsidy delivery mechanism, its achievements during the first year of implementation (2012) were below...

The Republic of Niger and the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed an agreement to finance the Family Farming Development Programme (FFDP) in Maradi, Tahoua and Zinder Regions. The funding comprises a US$24.25 million loan, a $24.25 million grant and an additional $13 million grant from IFAD’s...

This document was prepared collaboratively within the FAORAF West Africa Team with a focus on the forestry sector. It is the product of a series of sub-regional consultations with forest-related civil society organizations in a selected number of countries in West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal).

The new Montpellier Panel report ‘The Farms of Change: African Smallholders Responding to an Uncertain Climate Future’  was presented by Agriculture for Impact on Friday 25th September 2015, ahead of Climate Week in New York.

Two of the greatest challenges of the 21st century are the increasing demands for food, water and energy from a growing population and climate change. Agriculture and smallholders are central to both, perhaps nowhere more so than in Africa. Whilst progress has been made during the last two decades to...

In December 2012, the programme on “Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume cropping systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa” (SIMLESA) commissioned a study to compile case studies of good practices in gender mainstreaming in the areas covered by the programme. This study was a result of an action point...

• Enteric fermentation is the largest contributor to GHG emissions • Emission intensities are higher for mixed crop-livestock systems when measured per area, but lower per liter milk produced • N balances are negative for mixed farming, and positive for agro-pastoralists due to the manure produced by the relatively big herd • Livestock...

Women play a critical role in every link of the value chain in small-scale fisheries, although their best-known roles are in processing and marketing of fish and other fishery products. This perception of the highly gender-segregated division of labour (men fishing / women processing) has shaped the generalized approach in...

In Swaziland, the marketing initiative of the Swaziland Agricultural Development Programme, led by the government with assistance from the European Union and FAO, is helping farmers gain access to finance and markets.  

The Vikizijula community in Swaziland talks about bees as the 'insect of hope'. This refers to the way beekeeping and producing honey has transformed their lives. Parents are now able to send their children to proper schools, and some have also been able to construct larger houses. Bees have been...

Keeping its tradition of exploring major emerging issues, Nature & Faune has chosen to dedicate this edition to looking at the implications of this rapid urbanization and its implications for urban food and nutrition security, focusing on the specific roles of sustainable management and utilization of natural resources in Africa‘s...

Smallholder irrigated vegetable production in the Central Rift Valley region of Ethiopia is instrumental in ensuring the year-round availability of fresh vegetables in the local market in the country. However, a number of problems constrain irrigated vegetable production in the region. Therefore, asurvey was conducted with the objectives of assessing...

Many rural development initiatives attempt to improve the lives of small-scale farmers. Some succeed, some fail – but all of them can offer valuable lessons for the future. In a two-phased documentation workshop, a group of experts working in IFAD-funded projects in Zambia described, analysed and wrote down some of...

The study was conducted in 2011 at Hamamavhaire and Mhende irrigation schemes in Chirumanzu district in Zimbabwe to determine the typology of the farmers using different irrigation technologies. A structured household survey was carried out on a sample of 79 respondents drawn from farmers using the sprinkler (n=32), flood (n=39)...

The IFAD-funded PAMA Programme - the Agricultural Markets Support Programme - supports the implementation of major economic reforms launched by the government during the 1990s, including the commercialization of small-scale farming through better access to markets and improved linkages with private sector operators. The programme enables small-scale farmers in Boane,...