At the 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture in Bali, CCAFS, IFAD and USDA-FAS organized the Side event “Accelerating innovation development and scaling climate-smart agriculture to drive a transformation in food systems”. High-level representatives of > 20 governments, research, donor, financial and policy institutions, civil society and private sectors discussed their previously shared insights and agreed to act as an “Insight Group” for further related CCAFS research and action.
Du 3 au 5 au novembre 2020, s’est tenu à Kaffrine au Sénégal, l’atelier des acteurs régionaux pour le développement du profil de risque climatique de la région de Kaffrine. L’atelier a été organisé dans le cadre du projet de « développement de chaînes de valeur et paysage climato-intelligents pour accroitre la résilience des moyens de subsistance en Afrique de l’Ouest », financé par l’Union européenne (UE) et mis en œuvre par le CCAFS au Mali, Niger et Sénégal en partenariat avec les instituts de recherches agricoles nationaux (IER, INRAN, ISRA).
Agricultural research and extension systems are central to unlock the potential of agricultural innovation and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Public agricultural research, extension and advisory services are essential for increasing productivity and promoting sustainable agricultural growth and alleviating poverty.
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.
L’utilisation des services hydrométéorologiques et climatiques (SHMCs) constitue une opportunité pour le Mali dans ses efforts visant à réduire la pauvreté, renforcer la résilience et s’adapter au changement climatique. En effet, les SHMCs permettent de protéger les populations contre les risques climatiques à court terme ou à évolution rapide (inondations et tempêtes) et à long terme ou à évolution lente (p. ex. sécheresses et changement climatique durable).
With support from The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), through a call for proposal, Hello Tractor an agriculture technology social enterprise has been selected to implement ICT-enabled smallholder mechanisation services with the objective to create jobs for youth across Nigeria and Kenya over a one-year period. Hello Tractor has a bold vision to create sustainable value for tractor owners and to radically transform how the smallholder agricultural ecosystem interacts with and derives value from technology.
Genetic improvement on local breeds kept by small farmers in developing countries is challenging. Even though good pedigree and performance recording is crucial and an important component of breeding programs, it remain difficult or next to impossible under conditions of subsistence livestock farming. This means that standard genetic evaluations, as well as selection and planning of mating based on estimates of the animals' genotypes, cannot be done at any level in the population of the target breed or genetic group.
Digital platform enhances genetic progress in community-based sheep and goat breeding programs in Ethiopia:
- Up-to-date information on estimated breeding values and animal rankings is directly channeled to breeder organizations and used for selection decisions.
- The digital platform motivated use of more complicated evaluation models which improve accuracy of breeding values considerably.
- When upscaled, this will help create a permanent multi-country source of information.
Agricultural transformation and development are critical to the livelihoods of more than a billion small-scale farmers and other rural people in developing countries. Extension and advisory services play an important role in such transformation and can assist farmers with advice and information, brokering and facilitating innovations and relationships, and dealing with risks and disasters.
Literature is scanty on how public agricultural investments can help reducing the impact of future challenges such as climate change and population pressure on national economies. The objective of this study is to assess the medium and long-term effects of alternative agricultural research and development investment scenarios on male and female employment in 14 African countries. The authors first estimate the effects of agricultural investment scenarios on the overall GDP growth of a given country using partial and general equilibrium models.