Due to political conflict, hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their homes in northern Mali in the last decade. Many have since returned to their home but struggle to regain their livelihoods. In the Timbuktu region, food insecurity is very high and 15 percent of children under 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition. Goundam, one of the administrative districts of the Timbuktu region, is populated by livestock farmers. Among the previously displaced people, many have lost all their livestock, and with that their traditional means of livelihood.

Providing food through schools has well documented effects in terms of the education, health and nutrition of school children. However, there is limited evidence in terms of the benefits of providing a reliable market for small-holder farmers through “home-grown” school feeding approaches. This study aims to evaluate the impact of school feeding programmes sourced from small-holder farmers on small-holder food security, as well as on school children’s education, health and nutrition in Mali.

This article explores how conflict-induced displacement influences agricultural innovation processes and systems, and its implications after the return home or permanent resettlement of smallholder farmers. Results show that high rates of agricultural innovation occurred during displacement in the Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005), many of which were maintained afterwards.

Present research set out the public and private agricultural extension services with the term of human resources practices. Five districts, one from each ecological zone, were taken purposively: namely Kech, Lasbela, Kalat, Killa Saifullah and Sibi. A sample of (250) farmers and (100) public and private Extension Field Staff (EFS) was taken as sample size by using the multi-stage random sampling technique. Null hypothesis was also tested in order to know the variances in the perceptions of the respondents.