There are growing expectations that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications could help improve on-farm yields amongst smallholder farmers in developing countries, and consequently, food and nutrition security. However, few studies have quantified the actual contribution of ICT applications on farmers’ yields, and these studies predominantly focused on crop production. We assessed the potential of ICT applications to close milk yield gaps among small- and medium scale dairy cattle farmers in Africa.
Food insecurity remains a major challenge to rural households in Eastern Ethiopia. To improve food and nutrition security of vulnerable households in eastern Ethiopia, several agricultural technologies have been scaled-up by Haramaya University for more than six decades. However, the impact of these technologies on household nutritional outcomes was not systematically studied. This study examined the impact of selected agricultural technologies on household food and nutrition security. Cross-sectional data were generated from 248 randomly selected rural households.
This paper discusses innovation in low and middle-income countries, focusing on the role it has played in local and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lessons from this effort for how innovation might be harnessed to address wider development and humanitarian challenges by mobilising resources, improving processes, catalysing collaboration and encouraging creative and contextually grounded approaches. The paper also examines how international development and humanitarian organisations can improve their support for local and national innovation efforts.
Social learning processes can be the basis of a method of agricultural innovation that involves expert and empirical knowledge. In this sense, the objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness and sustainability of an innovation process, understood as social learning, in a group of small farmers in the southern highlands of Peru. Innovative proposals and its permanence three years after the process finished were evaluated. It was observed that innovation processes generated are maintained over time; however, new innovations are not subsequently generated
Agriculture remains the mainstay of Indian economy and major source of livelihood of rural household, predominantly by small and marginal farmers, and securing the food and nutritional security. This paper describes the reality of small and marginal farmers in India. These farmers face several problems of credit, input supply, proper linkage with market as so on. Women farmers are lagging behind in adopting the drudgery reduction technologies followed by health and nutrition of farm families.
Growing empirical evidence suggests that innovation platforms can be effective in enhancing agricultural research impact by creating an enabling environment for scaling of innovations such as novel technologies, practices and busines models . However, efforts to understand how these innovation platforms operate to scale innovations are insufficient. Such knowledge is critical for improving the design of agricultural innovation systems, specifically within the context of a rising interest in the innovation platform approach to support the transformation of agriculture across Africa.
There are very few published literature sources that focus on the potential benefits of m-Agri services in Africa and none of which explore their sustainability. This study, therefore, explores the evolution, provision, and sustainability of these m-Agri services in Africa. An overview of the current landscape of m-Agri services in Africa is provided and this illustrates how varied these services are in design, content, and quality.
Agricultural mechanization in developing countries has taken at least two contested innovation pathways—the “incumbent trajectory” that promotes industrial agriculture, and an “alternative pathway” that supports small-scale mechanization for sustainable development of hillside farming systems.
The main objective of this study was to investigate and analyse the farmers’ perceptions on criteria and indicators for sustainable management of indigenous agroforestry systems in Uttarakhand state of India. The present study was conducted to document the traditional knowledge and considered five broad categories including agriculture management, livestock management, forest sustainability, social benefits, and policy inputs along with 16 criteria and 34 indicators were identified.
European agriculture is facing increasing economic, environmental, institutional, and social challenges, from changes in demographic trends to the effects of climate change. In this context of high instability, the agricultural sector in Europe needs to improve its resilience and sustainability. Local assessments and strategies at the farming system level are needed, and this paper focuses on a hazelnut farming system in central Italy. For the assessment, a participatory approach was used, based on a stakeholder workshop.