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.
This paper uses household and key informant survey data from Ethiopia to: (1) understand the organizational structures that influence change in dairy production systems; (2) explore how local-level innovation system networks are functioning in the smallholder dairy production and (3) identify intervention points for strengthening innovation capacity. Results revealed that public sector actors are the major role players in the dairy production system despite their minor role in marketing linkages. We also found out that the private sector actors play peripheral roles in the network.
This article describes one of the local innovations identified by the Northern Typical Highlands (NTH) platform of Prolinnova-Ethiopia: an intricate system of harvesting water from waterlogged land to allow cultivation in the long wet season, coupled with storage of this harvested water to use for supplementary irrigation in the following dry season.
Empirical studies on agricultural technology adoption generally divide a population into adopters and nonadopters, and analyse the reasons for adoption or nonadoption at a point in time. In reality, technology adoption is not a one-off static decision, rather it involves a dynamic process in which information gathering, learning and experience play pivotal roles, particularly in the early stage of adoption. A conceptual framework for an adoption pathway is suggested in which farmers move from learning to adoption, to continuous or discontinuous use over time.
Inadequate feed and nutrition are major constraints to livestock production in sub-Saharan Africa. National and international research agencies, including the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), have developed several feed production and utilisation technologies. However, adoption of these technologies has so far been low. Identification of the major socio-economic and policy factors influencing the adoption of improved feed technologies is required to help design policy and institutional interventions to improve adoption.
En Afrique, 45% du territoire est situé dans des régions où l’agriculture pluviale est fragilisée par les sécheresses récurrentes. Au Burkina Faso, la dégradation des sols peut être limitée grâce à la technique du Zaï, technique manuelle traditionnelle très exigeante en main d’œuvre (300h/ha). La mécanisation de l'opération permet de passer à 40h/ha. L’amélioration de la technique touche aujourd’hui plusieurs centaines de fermes et d’artisans dans une vingtaine de villages du nord du Burkina Faso.
The objective of the study was to identify a viable trade-off between low data requirements and useful household-specific prioritizations of advisory messages. At three sites in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania independently, we collected experimental preference rankings from smallholder farmers for receiving information about different agricultural and livelihood practices. At each site, was identified socio-economic household variables that improved model-based predictions of individual farmers’ information preferences.
Using a combination of an ordered logit and Heckman selection models and a case study from an out-scaling program for a barley technology package in Ethiopia, this study provided evidence that a newly introduced farmer-to-farmer extension approach offers a viable option for tackling this development challenge. Model results showed that unlike the conventional approach, the new extension approach was effective in creating better access to seeds of the improved varieties and positively influencing farmers’ perceptions, ultimately leading to favorable adoption decisions.
This study explores the role of gender-based decision-making in the adoption of improved maize varieties. The primary data were collected in 2018 from 560 farm households in Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia, and were comparatively analyzed across gender categories of households: male decision-making, female decision-making and joint decision-making, using a double-hurdle model. The results show that the intensity of improved maize varieties adopted on plots managed by male, female, and joint decision-making households are significantly different.
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.