In an effort to raise incomes and increase resilience of smallholder farmers and their families in Feed the Future1 (FTF) countries, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) project. This project is led by Digital Green in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), CARE International (CARE) and multiple resource partners.
This paper uses a Rural Investment and Policy Analysis (RIAPA) model for the mainland Tanzania economy to identify the agricultural activities and value-chains whose expansion will be most effective at fostering economic development along four dimensions: generating economic growth in the agricultural-food sector of Tanzania; reducing national and rural poverty; generating employment; and improving nutrition by diversifying dietsThe results of scenarios run through the model suggests that there is no single value-chain that can achieve all of the policy objectives.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded the Assets and Market Access Innovation Lab (AMA IL) to advance knowledge and understanding of development approaches and technologies in order to increase rural households’ ability to acquire, protect, and effectively utilize productive assets. This evaluation assessed AMA IL’s overall program performance across five themes: research quality; outreach and dissemination; policy; capacity building; program management; and future directions.
Los enfoques y prácticas de extensión se han transformado notablemente en las últimas décadas. A la vez, numerosos autores han señalado la persistencia de enfoques difusionistas tanto en las instituciones como en las prácticas de los extensionistas. En esta investigación se analizan las prácticas de extensión implementadas en el noreste argentino, se las compara con propuestas institucionales y académicas actuales y se extraen aprendizajes. Para esto se realizaron 40 entrevistas a extensionistas que trabajan en el ámbito público en las provincias de Chaco, Corrientes, Formosa y Misiones.
En los últimos 25 años se han producido cambios significativos en la vida rural de América Latina, en sus dimensiones política, económica, social, laboral, demográfica, cultural y ambiental, a partir de lo que se denominó los Programas de Ajuste Estructural y de las decisiones políticas y económicas que tomó cada país en particular. Uno de los elementos centrales y determinantes de las reformas en los Sistemas de Extensión y Transferencia de Tecnología Agraria (SETTA) ocurrió a partir de fines de la década de los setentas y principios de la década de los ochentas.
Las problemáticas de las empresas familiares trascienden fronteras, escalas, entornos y rubros. Dentro del sector agropecuario, las empresas familiares representan en 80 por ciento de las unidades productivas que hacen al desarrollo económico de Argentina y Uruguay. Esta iniciativa forma una comunidad virtual donde el público objetivo son los propietarios, socios, fundadores, asesores, gerentes, potenciales sucesores y toda persona interesada en los temas relativos a la empresa familiar, sin distinción de género o edad, del sector agropecuario de estos países.
The problems of family businesses transcend borders, scales, environments, and areas. Within the agricultural sector, family businesses represent 80 percent of the productive units that contribute to the economic development of Argentina and Uruguay. This initiative forms a virtual community where the target audience is the owners, partners, founders, advisors, managers, potential successors, and anyone interested in issues related to the family businesses, without distinction of gender or age, in the agricultural sector of these countries.
This paper synthesizes Component 2 of the Regoverning Markets Programme. It is based on 38 empirical case studies where small-scale farmers and businesses connected successfully to dynamic markets, doing business with agri-processors and supermarkets. The studies aimed to derive models, strategies and policy principles to guide public and private sector actors in promoting greater participation of small-scale producers in dynamic markets. This publication forms part of the Regoverning Markets project.
The USAID Bureau for Food Security (BFS) has made available this Technical Brief on USAID role in Supporting National Agricultural Research Systems. USAID has launched its Feed the Future (FTF) program, which aims to address the root causes of hunger and poverty and which recognizes the importance of agricultural research as a critical (although not sufficient) input towards the solution in the longer term. Moreover, it is an input that has been relatively under exploited.
This paper represents a guidance to USAID on elements to incorporate into a strategy to improve agricultural research, and a technical brief to guide USAID investments in NARS strengthening. The paper is the final output from a one-day Roundtable which was held on March 5, 2013 and that brought together some 30 specialists in agricultural research and agricultural research systems to discuss which USAID interventions would best strengthen NARS in developing countries.