This brief explores the evidence on the relationships between food aid transfers and investments in climate adaptive agriculture using data from Ethiopia, Malawi and United Republic of Tanzania. Four climate adaptive agricultural investments are considered, namely: adoption of cereal-legume intercropping, use of organic fertilizers such as manure and compost, construction of soil and water conservation structures in fields, and investments in livestock diversification.
Youth intention to pursue a career in agriculture and entrepreneurship is influenced by the knowledge they acquire through formal, informal, and nonformal settings. Changing youth perception of agriculture is essential for agriculture and youth development. The purpose of the study was to examine current youth perceptions of agriculture, solicit Tanzanian leaders' views of agriculture, and youth entrepreneurship.
Providing smallholder farmers with support through conventional government extension approaches is challenging as the number of extension agents is decreasing. At the same time, new information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as short message services (SMS) sent via mobile phones, show considerable promise to complement existing extension services. In the UP-scaling Technology in Agriculture through Knowledge and Extension (UPTAKE) Project, ICTs were used to create awareness and increase uptake and adoption of agricultural innovations by maize farmers in Tanzania.
mNutrition was a five-year global initiative supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) between 2013 and 2018, organised by GSMA and implemented by in-country mobile network operators (MNOs) and other providers. The evaluation was carried out by a consortium of researchers from Gamos, the Institute of Development Studies, and the International Food Policy Research Institute. This briefing summarises key evaluation findings and presents lessons learned on three key topics: 1.
The level of agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa remains far below the global average. This is partly due to the scarce use of production- and process-enhancing technologies. This study aims to explore the driving forces and effects of adopting innovative agricultural technologies in food value chains (FVC). These enhancing FVC technologies are referred to as upgrading strategies (UPS) and are designed to improve specific aspects of crop production, postharvest processing, market interaction, and consumption.
Food insecurity and the weak position of smallholders in food value chains are key challenges in many low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to increase food security and make agricultural value chains more inclusive, donors, governments and researchers increasingly stimulate partnerships between multiple actors, in which knowledge exchange, joint learning and knowledge co-creation play a central role in reducing the time lag between research findings and their translation into practical outcomes.
The building of sustainable innovation capabilities in Africa requires an innovation system capable of producing, disseminating and using new knowledge. This paper assesses the process of constructing the National Innovation System (NIS) in Rwanda. It is posited that consensus on and acceptance of the concept of NIS among stakeholders is crucial in the early process of constructing an efficient and dynamic innovation system. Primary empirical data are presented for the case of Rwanda and analyzed in a regional context.
This study uses 344 women and men survey respondents involved in conservation agriculture (CA) and small-scale irrigation schemes (SSIS) as data sources for examining the effect of gendered constraints for adopting climate-smart agriculture amongst women in three areas in Ethiopia. Qualitative and quantitative data collections were applied using survey, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's chi-square test and binary logistic regression using statistical software for the social sciences (SPSS) version 24.
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.
At present, agricultural policies in Kenya often ignore specific target groups because there is a lack of contextual information on farmers’ specific socio-economic conditions. The aim of this study was to fill this knowledge gap by answering the following research questions: 1. What determines the adaptive capacity of AIV farmers in Kenya? 2. How does access to capital assets differ by farming household characteristics and between the selected areas? 3. What are the AC levels of AIV farmers in the selected zones of Kenya? 4.