Ethiopia has more livestock than any other country in Africa. The sales of meat, milk and other animal products from
57 million cattle, 29 million sheep, 29 million goats, 7 million donkeys, 2 million horses, a million camels and half a million mules make up one-quarter of national gross domestic product (GDP), 45% of agricultural GDP, and provide 16% of foreign earnings from the export of live animals, hides and skins. In addition, but more difficult to measure, is the work these animals provide, for ploughing, threshing, and transporting farmers, families and farm products to market and bringing back domestic needs.
To ensure food security, farmers must have access to quality seed, in adequate quantities. The government of Ethiopia acknowledges this, and has responded by investing in improving the seed sector. However, as this example shows, not all challenges can be...
Rwanda has benefited from ‘hard’ agricultural invest ment projects in the past two decades, promoted by a supportive and responsive government in collaboration with various donors and development actors. CDAIS looked to increase the impacts of such investments through strengthening ‘soft’...
The CDAIS ‘marketplace’ to promote agricultural innovations in Burkina Faso took place on 6 July 2017 in ouagadougou. It was a rich event involving more than 80 people who are working directly with, or interested in working with, different partnerships. The marketplace...
For many years, rural women have been creating their own food processing companies that promote local agriculture by bringing to the market original foods in products that are accessible to urban populations. The aim of CDAIS is to support these companies’ develop-...
The Government of Burkina Faso embraced innovation in agriculture many years ago, thus CDAIS could build on solid foundations. Six innovation niche partnerships were selected, each working on very different types of innovations, technically, socially or organisationally, and facing contrasting challenges for...
