The rise of new powers in development has generated much debate on the extent to which South–South Cooperation (SSC) constitutes a new paradigm of development more relevant to African needs or a disguise for a new form of imperialism. This paper critically examines the rise of Chinese and Brazilian technical and economic cooperation in African agriculture with two cases drawn from Ghana and Mozambique.
Rice is one of the most important food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, variability, and economic globalization threatens to disrupt rice value chains across the subcontinent, undermining their important role in economic development, food security, and poverty reduction. This paper maps existing research on the vulnerability of rice value chains, synthesizes the evidence and the risks posed by climate change and economic globalization, and discusses agriculture and rural development policies and their relevance for the vulnerability of rice value chains in sub-Saharan Africa.
This chapter starting presenting the current status of agricultural research systems in SSA at national and regional levels against a backdrop of key policy changes and progressive elaboration of agricultural knowledge frameworks registered in the last decade or so. The section argues for endogenous mechanisms to encourage sustainable funding of agricultural research in the region. Section 2 discusses key trends and some innovative approaches that are helping bridge the supply and demand mismatch in AAS.
Recent approaches at enhancing the provision of agricultural support services to rice farmers in Nigeria involve multi-stakeholder partnerships. For effective performance, there is the need for right mix of partners' interests and resources otherwise conflicts may become inevitable. This study therefore investigated challenges in a multi-stakeholder partnership in rice production in Benue state that may predispose the system to conflicts and make it unsustainable.
Although many smallholder communities are yet to embark on their journey towards gender empowerment, this report presents best practice examples which demonstrate that significant strides can be achieved in relatively short time periods. Women’s Coffee initiatives are engaging consumers about the role of women in coffee production, and providing additional premiums that fund projects targeted at women, such as the projects implemented by UNICAFEC in Peru and Soppexcca in Nicaragua.
The Livestock and Irrigation Value Chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project supports the efforts of the GoE to transform the smallholder agriculture sector to a more market-oriented sector. LIVES uses a value chain framework to develop targeted livestock and irrigated agriculture commodities through integrated technical and institutional innovations. Such a framework recognizes that value chain actors add value at different stages of the value chain and that individuals and organizations provide inputs and services to the value chain actors.
Agricultural innovation systems require strong linkage between research and extension organizations in particular, and among the various actors engaged in the agricultural sector in general. In the context of Ethiopia and the Amhara regional state, the agricultural research and extension system is characterized by a large number of actors in a fragmented and underdeveloped innovation system, resulting in very low national and regional innovation capacities. Farmers are generally viewed as passive recipients of technology.
Kenya has emerged as a frontrunner in information and communication technologies (ICT) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The government has been actively supporting the ICT sector as one of the key drivers of economic growth. In addition to large international firms that are setting up offices in Nairobi, such as Nokia, IBM and Google, local start-ups have also been expanding rapidly.
Smallholders in Asia and Africa are affected by increasingly complex national and global ecological and economic changes. Agricultural innovation and technology shifts are critical among these forces of change and integration with services is increasingly facilitated through innovations in institutions. Here the authors focused mainly on innovation opportunities for small farmers, with a particular emphasis on marginalized small farm communities. The chapter elaborates on the concept of the ‘small farm’ and offers a synthesis of the findings of all the chapters in this volume.
Smallholders have begun to take advantage of a growing pool of investment in climate change mitigation. Meanwhile, early movers in this area are working to develop innovative models that will allow projects to be financially sustainable and scalable while benefiting local actors. This study focuses on two of these projects in East Africa, managed by Vi Agroforestry in Kenya and ECOTRUST in Uganda. They engaged in a participatory action research process to identify ways that local actors could take on expanded roles within the projects