Over the last 10 years much has been written about the role of the private sector as part of a more widely-conceived notion of agricultural sector capacity for innovation and development. This paper discusses the emergence of a new class of private enterprise in East Africa that would seem to have an important role in efforts to tackle poverty reduction and food security. These organisations appear to occupy a niche that sits between mainstream for-profit enterprises and the developmental activities of government programmes, NGOs and development projects.
This article rebuts the argument that shortcomings in Bt cotton studies and divergence between yield gains and extent of adoption of Bt hybrids make it impossible to conclusively say anything about the impact of genetically modified seeds. Further, it points out that there have been numerous studies that have controlled for selection and cultivation bias, and concluded that Bt cotton has had statistically significant positive yield effects.
Agriculture is crucial for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), involving approximately 50% of the economically active population and contributing an estimated 25% to the gross national product. However, agricultural production has remained low due to soil degradation and pest damage in cabbage and maize (particularly due to lepidopteron pests), amongst other reasons. To help improve productivity and address food security issues, CABI has been working in DPRK since 2002 to introduce integrated pest management (IPM).
This paper (Part I) present a case study of work conducted by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to adapt network mapping techniques to a rural and developing country context. It reports on work in Colombia to develop a prototype network diagnosis tool for use by service providers who work to strengthen small rural groups. It is complemented by a further paper in this issue by Louise Clark (Part II) which presents work to develop a network diagnosis tool for stakeholders involved in agricultural supply chains in Bolivia.
Innovations generally arise out of a network of actors and relationships and network structure determines how effective networks are at fostering innovation. This paper (Part II) presents work to develop a network diagnosis tool for stakeholders involved in agricultural supply chains in Bolivia. The prototype method used is based on social network analysis methodology. This paper concludes with a final section to identify lessons learnt and makes recommendations for future research.
As the name suggests, the original aim of the Rural Knowledge Network (RKN) was to make more information available specifically about markets, to smallholder farmers. The core idea was to provide information to farmers and traders about current market prices in different markets around the country. This was done by building a network of entrepreneurs who regularly collected the price information and sent it to a central collecting Internet platform facility.
Le volume «Fondements conceptuels» illustre les fondements conceptuels sous-tendant l’approche et l’opérationnalisation du renforcement des capacités (RC) des systèmes d'innovation agricole (SIA).
L'objectif du Cadre Commun de la TAP est de promouvoir une meilleure cohérence et un impact plus fort du RC en soutien aux SIA sous les tropiques. Développé en 2015 à travers un processus hautement participatif, il a été convenu que le Cadre devrait fournir des bases conceptuelles et des indications pratiques.
Este breve informe evalua la implementación del proyecto: ''Calidad de la Educación: Desarrollo de capacidades para instituciones de formación pedagógica (ProCalidad)"'. Los evaluadores analizaron los documentos relevantes del proyecto y realizaron entrevistas focalizadas y estructuradas en Alemania y en los dos países socios visitados. Para completar, se realizaron entrevistas a distancia (por teléfono, Skype, Internet) en el contexto de ProCalidad Guatemala.
This report assesses the impact of participation in farmer organizations (FOs) on food security of rural households in Cambodia. The study is particularly set out to following: (1) examine FOs’ roles and operation and challenges for improving household’s food security; (2) analyze household’s characteristics that determine participation in FOs; (3) assess the impact of FOs on food security and livelihood of the rural poor; and (4) provide specific recommendations for changes in relevant legal acts and regulatory frameworks associated with FOs.
After years of neglect, there is a renewed interest in agricultural mechanization in Africa. Since government initiatives to promote mechanization are confronted with major governance challenges, private-sector initiatives may offer a promising alternative. However, given limited scientific studies on such private-sector options such approaches are often viewed skeptically. One concern is that multi-national agribusiness companies take advantage of smallholder farmers. Another concern is that mechanization causes rural unemployment.