The provision of basic market information is a service that aims to increase the efficiency of agricultural markets and contribute towards overcoming basic issues of market failure based on asymmetrical access to information. However, debate on the need for long-term support to a market information system (MIS) continues. A quantitative and qualitative survey was undertaken to provide a measure of accessibility, usefulness and utility of the current MIS, and to access how this type of service may be financed and improved in the future.
Cross bred cow adoption is an important and potent policy variable precipitating subsistence household entry into emerging bulk markets. This paper focuses on the design of policies that create and sustain milk-market expansion among a sample of households in the Ethiopian highlands. In this context it is desirable to measure a household's `proximity' to market in terms of the level of deficiency of an essential input. This problem is compounded by four factors.
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 inadequate linkage of knowledge generation in agricultural research organizations with policy-making and economic activity is an important barrier to sustainable development and poverty reduction. The emerging fields of sustainability science and innovation systems studies highlight the importance of “boundary management” and “innovation brokering” in linking knowledge production, policy-making, and economic activities. This paper analyzes how the Papa Andina Partnership Program, based at the International Potato Center, functions as an innovation broker in the Andean potato sector.
This study assessed intermediate results of an investment intended to support climate change adaptation and resilience-building among farmers’ cooperatives in Rwanda. The assessment was based on a purposive sampling survey of farmers’ perspectives conducted in sites in 10 programme intervention districts of the country’s 30 districts.
With irrigated vegetables development, interventions on the uses of improved inputs such as water lifting devices; varieties; on-farm water, nutrient and pest management, and access to credit and market information were introduced in Atsbi-Womberta district, Ethiopia. Besides, skill and uptake capacity of vegetable growers, extension service providers and vegetable traders were improved accordingly.
This paper shared lessons learnt from the project of Improving Productivity and Market Success in forage development approaches, scaling up strategies, opportunities and challenges in the process of farmer innovations and innovative interventions in the value-chain of market oriented livestock development in relation to sustainable use of natural resources in two districts in Ethiopia.
En dépit de son vaste potentiel agricole, l’Afrique est de plus en plus tributaire des importations alimentaires du reste du monde pour satisfaire ses besoins de consommation. La production alimentaire n’a pas suivi le rythme de la croissance démographique et plus de 80 % des gains de production depuis 1980 proviennent de l’expansion des superficies cultivées plutôt que d’une meilleure productivité des zones déjà cultivées (Rakotoarisoa et al. 2012).
Le Tuy, province de l'Ouest du Burkina Faso est une région soudanienne à forte pression démographique et pastorale où se posent avec acuité des problèmes de fertilité des sols. Face à la dégradation des ressources naturelles, opter vivre dans son milieu natal et s'assurer une bonne production agropastorale nécessite de la part des acteurs des actions concertées. Le projet Fertipartenaires aide les producteurs de cette province à se concerter, à réfléchir à leurs problèmes, proposer et expérimenter des solutions et les évaluer afin d'améliorer leur sécurité alimentaire.
Depuis plusieurs décennies, les pays de l’Afrique de l’Ouest se sont investis dans le développement et la diffusion des innovations agricoles dans le but d’accroître la productivité agricole et la production vivrière en particulier. Plusieurs mécanismes et approches ont été développés à cet effet en vue d’une utilisation efficace de ces innovations agricoles par les producteurs.