Ethiopian agriculture is changing as new actors, relationships, and policies influence the ways in which small-scale, resource-poor farmers access and use information and knowledge in their agricultural production decisions. Although these changes suggest new opportunities for smallholders, too little is known about how changes will ultimately improve the wellbeing of smallholders in Ethiopia. The authors of this paper examine whether these changes are improving the ability of smallholders to innovate and thus improve their own welfare.
Many of the world’s food-insecure and undernourished people are smallholder farmers in developing countries. This is especially true in Africa. There is an urgent need to make smallholder agriculture and food systems more nutrition-sensitive. African farm households are known to consume a sizeable part of what they produce at home. Less is known about how much subsistence agriculture actually contributes to household diets, and how this contribution changes seasonally. We use representative data from rural Ethiopia covering every month of one full year to address this knowledge gap.
Rural extension is a process of work and accompaniment with the producer aimed to sustainable development of their skills. In Mexico, a series of extension models have been adapted, that goes from the US, implemented in the early 1980’s, to the hub model or innovation node (platform - demonstration module - extension area) applied since 2010 under the MasAgro Program. The aim of this paper is to analyze the various processes of extension in Mexico.
This paper looks at brokerage functions in a project on building innovation capacity through improved networking. Innovation capacity influences how actors respond to changes in their environments. In such dynamic environments well connected sets of actors are at an advantage in that they can combine skills to address the emerging opportunities and challenges. However, policy and cultural barriers especially in African innovation systems raise the transaction costs of networking leading to weak connectivity among actors thus poor innovation capacity.
Within the last four years, a number of high profile reports outlining new strategies for pulling African agriculture out of its current impasse have emerged. These include the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme of NEPAD, and the InterAcademy Council Report commissioned by UN Secretary General Koffi Annan.
Les populations rurales sédentaires de la commune de Hombori (Mali) pratiquent presque toutes la culture de mil associée au petit élevage non transhumant. Au-delà des contraintes environnementales d’une région semi-aride, le maintien de l’agro-élevage repose sur une double maitrise, des territoires et des ressources, l’une et l’autre ne pouvant se confondre.
Procurando contribuir a la comprensión de los fundamentos psicosociales de las prácticas extensión, se estudió la representación social que los extensionistas tienen de los pequeños productores a partir de una encuesta realizada a técnicos que trabajan en distintas instituciones publicas argentinas (n=219). Las preguntas abiertas fueron categorizadas siguiendo los principios de la Teoría Fundamentada. Luego, los resultados de esta etapa fueron cuantificados, asociados con diferentes variables sociodemográficas y utilizados para la construcción de clusters
Le secteur agricole constitue une activité importante au Maroc, représentant 14 % du produit national brut et employant 40 % de la population active. Avec l’émergence de la pandémie de la Covid-19, il a été ébranlé par des incertitudes économiques et par la distanciation physique qui a accentué les contraintes du travail. Toutefois, l’agriculture s’est imposée comme une activité cruciale, puisqu’elle a continué à assurer l’approvisionnement alimentaire à des prix abordables.
Explicitly integrating reflection in the learning process of multi-stakeholder processes (MSPs) increases the likelihood that purposeful change will occur. When reflectivity is made part of learning in MSPs, learning will become clearer and better articulated and it will contribute more strongly to purposeful change in a complex context. MSP facilitators should deliberately include reflective learning sessions and tools in the process design and implementation.
This study developed a model called the Indonesian Palm Oil Simulation (IPOS). This aims to understand the value chain of the palm oil industry. It provides options for policymakers and decision-makers about possible futures for the Indonesian palm oil industry at the national level.