This paper examines the role of postsecondary agricultural education and training (AET) in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the region’s agricultural innovation systems. Specifically, the paper looks at how AET in sub-Saharan Africa can contribute to agricultural development by strengthening innovative capacity, or the ability of individuals and organisations to introduce new products and processes that are socially or economically relevant, particularly with respect to smallholder farmers who represent the largest group of agricultural producers in the region.
Innovation system approach offers an holistic, multidisciplinary and comprehensive framework for analyzing innovation process, the roles of science and technology actors and their interactions, emphazing on wider stakeholder participation, linkages and institutional context of innovation and processes. This paper was aimed to: 1. review the concept of innovation system; 2. appraise the application to agriculture and its relevance and 3. analyze the policy implications for agricultural extension delivery in Nigeria.
Many indigenous vegetables are generally underutilized across different cultures, but they remain alternatives to exotic vegetables that often are expensive. This study investigated effects of participation in indigenous vegetable production on livelihood of farmers. Multistaged sampling was used to collect data from 222 vegetable farmers sampled from using a semi-structured questionnaire. Principal component analysis and endogenous switching regression (ESR) were employed for analysis
This paper proposes the adoption of small-scale friendly postharvest techniques in the form of small-scale postharvest practices (SSPPs). To justify this proposal, the impact of SSPPs adoption on self-reported losses were investigated in Rivers State Nigeria. The factors influencing plantain farmers and traders intention to use SSPPs were also studied. Multistage and snowball sampling techniques were used to obtain data from farmers and traders, respectively
In this paper the authors provide climate smart agriculture (CSA) planners and implementers at all levels with a generic framework for evaluating and prioritising potential interventions. This entails an iterative process of mapping out recommendation domains, assessing adoption potential and estimating impacts. Through examples, related to livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa, they demonstrate each of the steps and how they are interlinked. The framework is applicable in many different forms, scales and settings.
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.
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.
Conventional approaches to agricultural extension based on top–down technology transfer and information dissemination models are inadequate to help smallholder farmers tackle increasingly complex agroclimatic adversities. Innovative service delivery alternatives, such as field schools, exist but are mostly implemented in isolationistic silos with little effort to integrate them for cost reduction and greater technical effectiveness.
In this paper, was analyzed farmers' preferences for high-input maize production supported by site-specific nutrient management recommendations provided by an ICT-based extension tool that is being developed for extension services in the maize belt of Nigeria. Was used a choice experiment to provide ex-ante insights on the adoption potentials of site-specific extension services from the perspective of farmers. We control for attribute non-attendance and account for class as well as scale heterogeneity in preferences using different models, and find robust results.
evelopment projects on interventions to reduce postharvest losses (PHL) are often implemented largely independently of the specific context and without sufficient adaptation to the needs of people who are supposed to use them. An approach is needed for the design and implementation of specific, locally owned interventions in development projects. This approach is based on Participatory Development and includes Living Lab and World Cafés. We applied the approach in a case study on reducing PHL in tomato value chains in Nigeria. The approach consists of nine steps.