The Improved Agriculture for Smallholders Western Kenya (TASK) is one of five projects in the five-year USAID funded Development Assistance Program (DAP) II referred to as Sustainable Livelihood Security for Vulnerable Households program in Nyanza province. It aims to improve, in a sustainable manner, food and livelihood security for 4500 vulnerable households in 7 districts in Nyanza province.
This article adds to the literature about the impact of social networks on the adoption of modern seed technologies among smallholder farmers in developing countries. The analysis centers on the adoption of hybrid wheat and hybrid pearl millet in India. In the local context, both crops are cultivated mainly on a subsistence basis, and they provide examples of hybrid technologies at very different diffusion stages: while hybrid wheat was commercialized in India only in 2001, hybrid pearl millet was launched in 1965.
Social structure, especially in the form of social networks, affects the adoption of agricultural technologies. In light of an increasing focus on new demand-driven agricultural extension approaches that leverage social networks as an opportunity, too little is known about (a) which network characteristics matter? and (b) how do specific network characteristics matter? This paper investigates the impact of social networks in relation to smallholder dairy production technology adoption in Ethiopia.
This paper estimates the farm level impact of producer organizations’ (PO) membership in Slovakia and the effectiveness of support provided to POs under the EU Rural Development Programme (RDP). The study employ the Propensity Score Matching and Difference in Differences econometric approach on a database of large Slovak commercial farms for 2006 and 2015. First, our results show that belonging to a PO improves the economic performance of farms in Slovakia.
This paper investigates the effect of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) regulation on the governance of agri-food value chains (AFVC) with a small-scale survey of kiwi producers in Italy. We found that AFVC trading-protected (club) plant varieties are more likely to exhibit captive governance forms than those trading the free varieties. Nevertheless, the producers of club kiwis achieve higher returns from their investments and bear less risk than others.
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.
The Global Innovation Index (GII) aims to capture the multi-dimensional facets of innovation by providing a rich database of detailed metrics for 127 economies, which represent 92.5% of the world’s population and 97.6% of global GDP. As Ban Ki-moon, the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations, noted at the UN Economic and Social Council in 2013, the GII is a ‘unique tool for refining innovation policies . . . for providing an accurate picture on the role of science, technology and innovation in sustainable development’.
The contributions and dynamic interaction of thousands of stakeholders from all sectors have created the GCARD (Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development) Roadmap, providing a clear path forward for all involved. The Roadmap highlights the urgent changes required in Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) systems globally, to address worldwide goals of reducing hunger and poverty, creating opportunity for income growth while ensuring environmental sustainability and particularly meeting the needs of resource-poor farmers and consumer.
The main cash crop of The Gambia is groundnuts. The country is primarily a agricultural country with 80 percent of the population of just over 2 million depending on agriculture for its food and cash income. The farming economy is the only means of income creation for the majority of rural families most whom live below the poverty line. The agricultural sector is the most important sector of the Gambian economy, contributing 32% of the gross domestic product, providing employment and income for 80% of the population, and accounting for 70% of the country's foreign exchange earnings.
The Foresight project Global Food and Farming Futures final report provides an overview of the evidence and discusses the challenges and choices for policy makers and others whose interests relate to all areas that interact with the food system.