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.
While livestock constitute a strategic sector to reduce poverty and enhance growth in developing countries, decision makers often lack data reflecting the diversity of livestock functions and systems. The authors therefore mobilised the Livestock Sector Investment Policy Toolkit to assess the economic contributions of livestock in Zambia. Valuing their plural contributions by system, we found that mixed rainfed systems were the main contributors to added value, even if specialised intensive systems provided around 45% of meat and milk production.
There is a broad consensus that farmers are not simply recipients of promoted techniques: rather, they are also an important source of agricultural innovations. They invent farm tools and equipment, develop new crop varieties, and add value to externally promoted technologies. When scouting, documenting and promoting such farmer-generated innovations, the thorny issue of intellectual property rights (IPRs) often emerges.
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.
In eastern Zambia, population growth has reduced per-capita land availability to such an extent that traditional bush fallows can no longer be practiced, and low soil fertility is a major constraint to crop production. Improved fallows (IF) based on leguminous trees are a low cash-input agroforestry practice to restore soil fertility. The objective of the study reported here was to assess the adoption of IF by farmers who tested the technology, including the extent to which the technology is practiced relative to its potential scale.
Animal-source foods (ASF), such as fish, provide a critical source of nutrients for dietary quality and optimal growth of children. In sub-Saharan Africa, children often consume monotonous cereal-based diets, a key determinate of malnutrition such as stunting. Identifying existing sources of ASF for children’s diets will inform the development of nutritious food systems for vulnerable groups.
Fish is a key source of income, food, and nutrition in Zambia, although unlike in the past, capture fisheries no longer meet the national demand for fish. Supply shortfalls created an opportunity to develop the aquaculture sector in Zambia, which is now one of the largest producers of farmed fish (Tilapia spp.) on the continent. In its present form, the aquaculture sector exhibits a dichotomy.
While smallholder farmers are the primary food producers in Southern Africa, contributing to 90 percent of food production in some countries, often systems in the region do not support profitability for them. WFP is working across Southern Africa to address bottlenecks in food systems to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers. This factsheet gives an overview of WFP’s approach to smallholder farmers.
This report elaborates on how to use the agricultural knowledge and innovation systems framework to promote innovation at different levels with special focus on European issues related to the implementation of Horizon 2020. It is of value as a conceptual and methodological reference regarding the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS).