This paper analyses a biotechnology-focused project which aims to promote the development and adoption of tissue culture bananas by small-scale farmers in Kenya. The paper highlights the generation of several important narratives that are used to justify the development and dissemination of this technology. First, a disaster narrative, a series of claims regarding rural livelihoods and banana production in Kenya, is generated. This creates a political and technical space for the creation of a new science that can solve these problems.
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 publication is a product of learning and sharing events supported by IFAD and its partner institutions. Presented in this publication are nine cases of development innovations selected from the IFAD country programme in the Philippines. These cases, selected and largely written by practitioners based on their experiences, reflect scaling up initiatives at different stages of maturity.
The purpose of this paper is to map some elements that can contribute to an IFAD strategy to stimulate and support pro-poor innovations. It is an initial or exploratory document that hopefully will add to an ongoing and necessary debate, and is not intended as a final position paper. The document is organized as follows.
The 2016 Rural Development Report focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. It analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation, and suggests four categories into which most countries and regions fall, each with distinct objectives for rural development strategies to promote inclusive rural transformation: to adapt, to amplify, to accelerate, and a combination of them.
Agriculture remains fundamental for Nicaragua from both a macroeconomic and social view. It is the largest sector of the Nicaraguan economy, and it remains the single biggest employer with around 30 percent of the labor force and including processed foods, like meat and sugar, agriculture accounts for around 40 percent of total exports value. Nicaragua appears to be gradually losing competitive edge of some of its key agricultural exports within the most important export markets.
El propósito de este Manual es ejercer de guía para profesionales y personal técnico al tratar cuestiones de género y al integrar acciones de perspectiva de género en el diseño e implementación de programas y proyectos agrarios. No se dirige a especialistas de género para que mejoren sus capacidades sino más bien a expertos técnicos para guiarlos a analizar a conciencia cómo integrar la dimensión de género en sus operaciones.
Este documento describe y evalua el programa de FIDA en Perú. Este programa involucró un enfoque multidimensional para escalonar con el tiempo, en sectores y a través de sectores, dentro y más allá de áreas geográficas, y con múltiples instituciones. El punto de partida fue el sector agrícola. El Proyecto FEAS (Fomento de la Transferencia de Tecnología a las Comunidades Campesinas en la Sierra) fue el primero de una secuencia de proyectos.
El presente estudio se basa en el análisis sobre la incorporación de los principios de actuación por los que ha de guiarse el Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), en su labor con Pueblos Indígenas y Afrodescendientes. El Programa de Desarrollo Rural en la Costa Caribe de Nicaragua, NICARIBE, fue el proyecto de referencia para el análisis.