This paper shows that the current generation of transgenic crop varieties has significant potential to improve economic welfare in low-income countries. These varieties might increase crop yields in low-income countries in cases when pesticides have not been used. They will reduce negative health effects of chemicals when they replace them. With low transaction costs, appropriate infrastructure, and access to intellectual property, multiple varieties of transgenics will be introduced.
Agriculture faces an enormous global challenge of feeding nine billion people by 2050. This means a comprehensive intensification of agriculture is required. Ecological intensification is gaining momentum as a clearly defined vision for increasing agriculture productivity and sustainability. How ecological intensification could be tailored to benefit smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains the major question. In this study, we develop pathways relying on ecological intensification technologies and suiting different farm types of smallholder agriculture.
Monitoring animal performance is a challenge due to lack of systematic recording in the smallholder dairy sector in Malawi. A mobile recording system using short messaging service (SMS) was therefore trialled for data capturing and subsequent feedback provision to farmers following analyses and interpretation. This study aimed at drawing lessons regarding use of SMS recording system among dairy farmers. Of the 210 participants, 85% were farmers and 25% were other dairy value chain players.
This report details the results of the Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) of the Sustainable Nutrition and Agriculture Promotion (SNAP) program in Sierra Leone. This is a five-year USAID Food for Peace (FFP) Multi-Year Assistance Program. The overall goal of SNAP is to reduce food insecurity and increase resiliency among the most food insecure and vulnerable rural populations.
The Bureau for Food Security (BFS) of USAID commissioned five country studies examining the scaling up of agricultural innovations through commercial pathways in developing countries, to understand how the Agency – including its country missions and implementing partners (IPs) – can use donor projects to achieve greater scale and long-term commercial sustainability.
The USAID-Inma Agribusiness Program focuses on developing Iraq’s private agribusinesses by facilitating the formation of fully-integrated value chains and improving agricultural quality and production. Inma, the Arabic word for ‘growth’, connects farmers to markets, increases the competitiveness of Iraqi agribusinesses, and facilitates domestic and foreign agricultural partnerships.
Esta publicación es el resumen de los resultados del proceso de sistematización participativo del proyecto ACORDAR, financiado por USAID, para las temáticas de cacao, café, frijol, hortalizas y malanga, género, municipalismo y desarrollo empresarial en Nicaragua. Cinco años de trabajo en campo, más de 52 millones de dólares invertidos, cerca de 200 organizaciones trabajando en alianza, 50 municipalidades cobijadas (un tercio de las municipalidades del País), 25 gobiernos locales que invirtieron más de 20 millones de dólares en el fortalecimiento de las cadenas de valor, 7711 familias produc
Los casos incluidos en el presente documento se construyeron a partir de información suministrada, mediante entrevistas, por personas vinculadas a las organizaciones socias de ACORDAR, que son las protagonistas de estos casos. La escritura de los 10 casos de éxito fue realizada por el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) y retroalimentada por las organizaciones que suministraron la información y por Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
While the development commu nity has recently begun the turn toward climate-sensitive program ming, climate-related efforts have focused on big transformations and big polluters. Energy generation and deforestation are easily identified sources of greenhouse gas emissions for which we have data and policy tools, and therefore a certain degree of comfort. Certainly, global emissions are greatly influenced by energy generation, distressing rates of deforestation in what remains of the world's tropical forests, and other large sources of greenhouse gas emissions.
There have been repeated calls for a ‘new professionalism’ for carrying out agricultural research for development since the 1990s. At the centre of these calls is a recognition that for agricultural research to support the capacities required to face global patterns of change and their implications on rural livelihoods, requires a more systemic, learning focused and reflexive practice that bridges epistemologies and methodologies.