In the 90’s first steps were taken in Cuba to strengthen family farming. A participatory seeds breeding, multiplication and diffusion project started, a challenge to Cuban scientists, not used to involve farmers in the decision making process and recognizing them as equal partners. This project further evolved to become the Local Agricultural Innovation Programme, Spanish acronym PIAL (Programa de Innovación Agropecuaria Local).

The topics addressed in this book are of vital importance to the survival of humankind. Agricultural biodiversity, encompassing genetic diversity as well as human knowledge, is the base upon which agricultural production has been built, and protecting this resource is critical to ensuring the capacity of current and future generations to adapt to unforeseen challenges.

Strategic management (STM) is recognized as an important element for firms’ success; however, small firms, especially in agribusiness, have widely been overlooked because it is often thought that a systematic STM is exclusively for large corporate firms. Firms engage in STM practices such as environmental analysis, formulation of mission and vision statements, strategic planning, implementation, evaluation, etc., regardless of their size.

African farming systems are highly heterogeneous: between agroecological and socioeconomic environments, in the wide variability in farmers’ resource endowments and in farm management. This means that single solutions (or ‘silver bullets’) for improving farm productivity do not exist. Yet to date few approaches to understand constraints and explore options for change have tackled the bewildering complexity of African farming systems. In this paper we describe the Nutrient Use in Animal and Cropping systems – Efficiencies and Scales (NUANCES) framework.

Despite the rapid international development of biotechnology, we still lack knowledge and information about how low- and middle-income countries can best access this promising technology. Nor are the socioeconomic repercussions of applying biotechnology in these countries’ agricultural sectors well understood. This study seeks to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge by analyzing a biotechnology transfer project that provided proprietary recombinant potato technology to Mexico.

This study assessed the capacity for designing and implementing agricultural and rural development policies, strategies, and programs in Nigeria. Data for this study were derived from initial consultations at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (FMAWR), Federal Ministry of Women affairs and Social Development (FMWASD), and the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv) early in 2008. Two consultation workshops were also held, one for relevant staff in the ministries, parastatals, and NGOs; and the other for relevant university professors and researchers.

Agricultural research continues to be a good investment. The studies show that investments in international and national agricultural research account for almost all of the total factor productivity (TFP) growth in SSA and large shares of agricultural growth globally. The existing agricultural research institutions have, on average, delivered rates of return to public investment above 30-40%, which is much higher than the 5-10% available to other public investments or the 2-5% cost of borrowing public funds.

Climate change is a huge challenge for the agriculture and rural development (ARD) sector in Romania. On the one hand, agriculture is a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and must therefore be expected to contribute towards the climate change mitigation goals of the Europe 2020 strategy.

This evaluation seeks to understand the impact which certain measures of the CAP have had on reducing GHG emissions, agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change and its ability to provide adaptation and mitigation services to society. Most of the CAP measures analysed do not have climate action as their intended purpose but may have it as a secondary purpose. Some, such as those which sustain certain forms of agricultural production responsible for emissions, exist for economic, social and sometimes other environmental reasons.

Ghana’s cocoa production belt also serves as the main forests repository of the country. Cocoa farm- ing is both a direct and indirect driver of deforesta- tion in Ghana (UNEP, 2008). This implies that critical interventions are needed to deal with deforestation emanating from cocoa production.