The Challenge of Capacity Development: Working Towards Good Practice draws on four decades of documented experience provided by both bilateral and multilateral donors, as well as academic specialists, to help policy makers and practitioners think through effective approaches to capacity development and what challenges remain in the drive to boost country capacity. The analysis is underpinned by a conceptual framework which guides practitioners to view capacity development at three interrelated levels: individual, organisational and enabling environment levels.
The publication reviews forty years of development experience and concludes that donors and partner countries alike have tended to look at capacity development as mainly a technical process, or as a transfer of knowledge or institutions from North to South.
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by: advancing scientific and technological research; investing in infrastructure; fostering higher technical training; and creating regional markets.
Over the last 20 years, poor rural farmers in Nigeria have seen the benefits of community organization as a tool for local economic development under the National Fadama Development Project series. They have witnessed improvements in rural areas that have embraced a more inclusive and participatory model of local economic decision making. Many communities have come together under the umbrella of new institutional arrangements for addressing local issues. These arrangements have visibly improved economic conditions, boosted agricultural incomes, and helped reduce rural poverty.
This study presents the results from a meso-inventory conducted in Kebbi State, Northern Nigeria between March and July 2018. Was explored the extent to which the farmed-fish value chain is transforming structurally and the roles of capture fishing versus farmed fish. Kebbi is one of Nigeria’s leading states for fish production. Though largely Sudan Savanna (in the north) and Northern Guinea savanna (in the south), and thus semi-arid tropics, there is still a lot of water and a lot of fish.
In many countries of the world, technology plays a leading role in the transformation of businesses. This study adopts a survey of literature in agriculture sector and gives certain recommendations which are evolved after descriptive analysis of literature. After systematic review of literature in Chinese, Pakistani and Nigerian context, our paper describes that agricultural policy and agricultural funding are connected to many problems in agriculture field and needs social and strategic steps to be taken particularly in Nigeria.
Nigeria is arguably the largest importer of dairy products in Africa. Available statistics shows that up to 98% of the total dairy products consumed in the country are imported; and that about 75% of the entire dairy market is controlled by FrieslandCampina WAMCO (FCW). The purpose of this study is to examine the basis for the prevailing import orientation in the dairy industry since 1973. Is the orientation traceable to operations of multinational companies or the institutional and governance challenges in the country?
Following the food price crisis in 2008, African governments implemented policies aiming at crowding in investment in rice value chain upgrading to help domestic rice compete with imports. This study assess the state of rice value chain upgrading in West Africa by reviewing evidence on rice millers’ investment in semi-industrial and industrial milling technologies, contract farming and vertical integration during the post-crisis period 2009–2019. We find that upgrading is more dynamic in countries with high rice production and import bills and limited comparative advantage in demand.
This brief summarizes a report on the first large survey of maize traders in Nigeria in the past several decades. The sample of about 1400 traders covered one state in the South and four in the North, with traders in city wholesale markets in the North (Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina) and South (Ibadan) and regional markets in secondary cities in the North.
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.