The guidelines resulting from this report are principally directed towards sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the lack of farm power and appropriate machinery is having a deleterious effect on rural livelihoods. The farm power and machinery supply chain includes a range of stakeholders from manufacturers and importers through dealers, hire service...

Les agriculteurs de l'Androy, région rurale très enclavée, située à l'extrême Sud de Madagascar, soumis à des crises alimentaires récurrentes, cherchent à diversifier leurs activités économiques et à compléter leurs faibles revenus issus de l'agriculture. Les producteurs valorisent alors leurs ressources agroalimentaires et leurs savoir-faire artisanaux pour développer des activités économiques....

Women are a major human resource and assure adequate nutrition, health and cognitive development of their households and children in their formative years. However, women are over-represented among the poor, suffer heavy workloads and have little control over resources for family care. Poverty and food insecurity are enhanced by lack...

This is a story about how FAO assisted groups of farmers in five farming communities in the moist savannah zone of South Western Burkina Faso to enhance their crop-livestock systems through Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices, including crop diversification, using an innovative farmer discovery process, to bring about agricultural intensification and...

Agriculture and agro-processing are important in Zambia's economy, representing more than 40 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and contributing about 12 percent of national export earnings. Agriculture employs some 67 percent of the labor force and supplies raw materials to agricultural industries, which account for some 84 percent of...

Unacceptably high rates of micronutrient deficiencies persist mostly among resource-poor communities who rely on subsistence farming. In these communities, consumption of vegetables and fruits is the most sustainable way of reducing micronutrient deficiencies. Apart from enhancing dietary diversity, indigenous vegetables and fruits are often easier to grow, resistant to pests,...

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...

This paper uses a rural household survey dataset collected in 2006 and 2008 to investigate the impact of a market-based land resettlement project in southern Malawi. The program provided a conditional cash and land transfer to poor families to relocate to larger plots of farm land. The average treatment effect...

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...

The present edition offers a collection of 14 diverse articles highlighting different aspects of mangroves - from the lush natural stands, wildlings, nursery practices, enrichment planting, to the various uses of the mangrove ecosystems as paddy rice fields, along with fisheries and wildlife sanctuaries and salt exploitation areas. The Special...

This paper analyses Malawi’s smallholder agricultural efficiency, using a nationally representative sample survey of rural households undertaken by the National Statistical Office in 2004/2005. It aims to inform agricultural policy about the level and key determinants of inefficiency in the smallholder farming system that need to be addressed to raise...

This Issue of the magazine aims at reflecting on and rekindling interest in successful field projects, capacity-building initiatives and networking of natural resources practitioners. It is a strategy to sustain ideas that could enhance conservation of wildlife and natural ecosystems and improve Africa's rural livelihoods. This edition of Nature &...

Livelihoods in Darfur are intimately linked to the conflict, none more so than the livelihoods of the Northern Rizaygat—a group of Arabicspeaking, camel-herding nomads living in the Sudanese states of North, South, and West Darfur. They have achieved notoriety for their role in the Janjaweed—the pejorative name given to the...

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...

Seed interventions are the major agricultural response during emergency and recovery phases of humanitarian relief. They are implemented by diverse agencies, and widely promoted: for instance the FAO alone managed 400 such projects between 2003 and 2005. However, seed aid suffers from a lack of critical attention, perpetuating widespread myths...

Informal markets receive little attention from governments and researchers, despite their centrality to farmers’ seed security. This paper documents the importance of informal markets for supplying seed and restocking critical plant genetic resources in normal and stress periods. It analyses farmers’ rationales for using such markets and their strategic actions...

The project has supported the Volta Mango Growers Association (VOMAGA). This report presents the results of a survey among a sample of the mango farmers on the impact of the project. The report first gives an introduction to the mango sector in Ghana and the project partners and activities. Subsequently...

The FAO project “Increasing incomes and food security of small farmers in West and Central Africa through exports of organic and fair-trade tropical products” has supported the Ekumfi Atwia WAD Organic Farmers Association (EAWOFA) and its exporter Weya Agricultural Development/African Foods Ltd (WAD). This report presents the results of a...

Déclaration liminaire à la conférence publique animée par la Coordination régionale de la Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africain-COPAGEN à Cotounou, Bénin, sur les politiques agricoles africaines et le développement des exploitations agricoles familiales.

The project has supported the cocoa farmers association Kpeya Agricultural Enterprise (KAE). This report presents the results of a survey among a sample of the cocoa farmers on the impact of the project. The report first gives an introduction to the cocoa sector in Sierra Leone and the project partners...