This article addresses the impact of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) on food security among smallholder farmers in three countries of southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi). Southern Africa has suffered continued hunger despite a myriad of technological interventions that have been introduced in agriculture to address issues of food security, as well as poverty alleviation.
There is an increasing interest among researchers, practitioners and donors in using agricultural innovation systems approaches to reach development outcomes. Limited practical experiences have been shared on the dynamics of these innovation processes and how project partners have dealt with that. The objective of this paper is therefore to share experiences from a smallholder livestock development project − the imGoats project in Mozambique – by reflecting on the dynamics of innovation processes in the project.
The project of “Small ruminant value chains as platforms for reducing poverty and increasing food security in dryland areas of India and Mozambique (imGoats)” aims to pilot sustainable and replicable organizational and technical models to strengthen goat value chains in India and Mozambique that increase incomes, reduce vulnerability and enhance welfare amongst marginalized groups, including women, and to document, communicate and promote appropriate evidence‐based model(s) for sustainable, pro‐poor goat value chains.
The USAID Feed the Future Mozambique Agricultural Innovations Activity (FTF Inova) is a five-year project that seeks to increase equitable growth and incomes in the agriculture sector in Mozambique by increasing the competitiveness of selected value chains, expanding the number of enterprises that can compete and upgrade their products and services in selected markets, and improving relationships and linkages between those firms and other market participants throughout the value chains.
The Government of Mozambique is seeking to achieve its strategic objectives and targets for socio-economic and political development by intensifying the implementation of its five-year government plan (PQG). It is also taking preparatory steps for the next phase of its PQG, which coincide with the new government period following the national elections taking place in 2019.
This report is the result of a study that was carried out for the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS), to make an inventory of experiences with ‘market-oriented agricultural advisory services’ (MOAAS). Lessons learned have been drawn from the cases studied. These lessons are the basis for guidelines formulated for setting up market-oriented agricultural advisory services.
The project case-studies described in this document a range of local-level, mainly donor-funded projects in four countries (Sierra Leone, Benin, Uganda and Mozambique). These projects incorporate climate change in their design and rationale in different ways, but generally base themselves on broad-brush climate trends or climate uncertainty rather than on specific downscaled projections. They also demonstrate a continuum ranging from pure knowledge provision, through breeding, seed supply, input provision and marketing, to provision of hardware and infrastructure, especially in irrigation.
This report identifies key obstacles to job creation within the cashew sector and provides insight on how to remove obstacles. It begins with a general description of cashew culture, its characteristics and cultivation practices, and emphasizes the multipurpose uses of cashew, including a range of by-products that could support generation of new and better jobs. The report also presents an overview of the world cashew industry.
In order to address food insecurity, the New Green Revolution for Africa (GR4A) promotes tighterintegration of African smallholder farmers, especially women, into formal markets via value chains to improve farmers’ input access and to encourage the sale of crop surpluses. This commentary offers a theoretical and practical critique of the GR4A model, drawing on early findings from a five-year study of value chain initiatives in Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, and Mozambique.
Strengthening the abilities of smallholder farmers in developing countries, particularly women farmers, to produce for both home and the market is currently a development priority. In many contexts, ownership of assets is strongly gendered, reflecting existing gender norms and limiting women’s ability to invest in more profitable livelihood strategies such as market-oriented agriculture. Yet the intersection between women’s asset endowments and their ability to participate in and benefit from agricultural interventions receives minimal attention.