In Zimbabwe and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, farmers use grain stores constructed from grass, stalks of cereal crops and wooden poles. Some of these constituent parts are increasingly scarce. Mud plastered stores, supported on concrete-filled plastic pipes, offer the benefits of improved resistance to termites, insect grain pests and...

West Africa has all the ingredients to become the epicenter of the global agroecology movement, and one of the frontrunners in transition to sustainable and equitable food systems. Through a three-year participatory research process, IPES-Food identified eight key obstacles to agroecology in West Africa, but also four leverage points where sustained action could...

Farmers all over the world incur serious losses to stored produce because of insect damage and are frequently forced to sell prematurely. Many use traditional storage protectant practices or, when they can afford it, purchase synthetic chemical pesticides. The effectiveness of traditional practices is variable. Using synthetic pesticides also has...

Baobab fruit juice made from the pulp is very healthy, and can be added to porridge and sauces. However, the quality of the pulp can be greatly affected if fruits are not handled well during and after harvest. When baobab pods are damaged and have splits in the shell, moisture...

La mise en place de pépinières d’arbres, des terrains où l’on plante de jeunes arbres qu’on cultive jusqu’à ce qu’ils puissent être transplantés, pourraient satisfaire la demande croissante de populations en Afrique orientale qui se trouvent confronter à l’épuisement de ressources arbustes. Ces populations dépendent de forêts et d’arbres pour...

In collaboration with Biovision and the Institute of Development Studies, IPES-Food analyses the all-important financial flows in food system research that go to sub-Saharan Africa. Our new data shows that only a fraction of agricultural research funding in Africa is being used to transform food and farming systems.

Crossbred milking goats have proved to be a popular source of cash income, household daily milk requirements, and manure for smallholder farmers in medium to high potential zones of Kenya. The three-quarter Toggenburg crossbred appears to be the most suitable in terms of both milk production and growth rates. This...

Voici un document très complet sur les avancées de l'agroécologie en Afrique de l'Ouest, et les expérimentations réalisées avec nos partenaires sur place. Depuis bientôt 30 ans, Terre & Humanisme transmet et soutient l’agroécologie vers tous les publics, pour accompagner la transition vers un modèle agricole écologique, humain et solidaire....

This technology describes utilizing rooftop water harvesting facilities to increase the availability of water for domestic use and irrigation of backyard ntula/ eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum L.) gardens. This measure allows small-scale farmers to harvest rainwater from roofs and store it in tanks, ensuring ntula production also during the dry season,...

Vijay Kumar presents the revolutionary CMNF initiative which has already converted 600,000 farmers to agroecology.

Cereal stovers are widely used for feeding ruminant livestock, and in semi-arid areas sorghum stover may be an important part of livestock diets during the dry season, helping to maintain condition and increase survival. Bird-resistant varieties of sorghum have been bred for use in semi-arid zones to increase yields of...

Improved grazing land management is vital to increasing food security and alleviating poverty. It also provides environmental benefits. To address these problems, the national Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) programme in Ethiopia initiated a grazing land management project in 2000. Implementation of the technology includes the initial delineating of the...

Insecticide treatment of cattle is an important method of tsetse control. However, insecticides applied to cattle have been shown to contaminate dung. This has a significant impact on insects using the dung as a resource, e.g. dung beetles. This reduces the recycling of dung and has a negative impact on...

Drying meat under natural temperatures, humidity and circulation of the air, including direct influence of sun rays, is the oldest method of meat preservation. However, various methods, typical for different regions, exist to produce dried meat with or without additional treatment. The following examples of dried meat techniques are part...

In March 2020, a regional inception workshop was held in Ghana a project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) entitled Enhancing the contribution of small-scale fisheries to food security and sustainable livelihoods through better policies, strategies and...

The availability of feed resources is, in many areas, a major limiting factor to smallholder milk production. Storage and transport of conserved fodder is an integral component of solutions to this constraint. Using farmer-evaluated strategies, a low-cost, practical and economical method for transporting animal feed material was developed. The technique,...

The meat dryers are constructions of wood, metal and/or concrete, stationary or mobile, without or with a roof. For strips suspended by hooks or with a loop attached or fixed by clips, removable horizontal bars, either made of wood or metal or horizontal wire strings are needed. The following description...

Many farmers in low potential areas own cattle and milk them for their own consumption and sale. However, in the dry season, natural grazing and crop residues are inadequate to support lactation, making supplementary feed necessary to maintain milk production. This practice includes descriptions of techniques for growing the crops...

The Androy region, in southern Madagascar, is known as a semi-arid climate region, with high variability in rainfall and regularly suffers from droughts. As noted above, environmental issues (droughts, rainfall) drive several disturbances, affecting frequently the production systems in the region and livestock activities.   In response to climate vulnerability, there is...

This report, co-developed by Biovision, IPES-Food and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), zooms in on the all-important financial flows in food system research to sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to understanding more about the limitations in current trends to unlock sustainable transitions and where the opportunities lie for sparking agroecological transition. From the Green...