Food for All in Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Conway ◽  
Ousmane Badiane ◽  
Katrin Glatzel
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Natural Capital ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
Rural Poor ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Agricultural Transformation

Africa requires a new agricultural transformation that is appropriate for Africa, that recognizes the continent's diverse environments and climates, and that takes into account its histories and cultures while benefiting rural smallholder farmers and their families. This book describes the key challenges faced by Africa's smallholder farmers and presents the concepts and practices of sustainable intensification as opportunities to sustainably transform Africa's agriculture sector and the livelihoods of millions of smallholders. The way forward, the book indicates, will be an agriculture sector deeply rooted within sustainable intensification: producing more with less, using fertilizers and pesticides more prudently, adapting to climate change, improving natural capital, adopting new technologies, and building resilience at every stage of the agriculture value chain. This book envisions a virtuous circle generated through agricultural development rooted in sustainable intensification that results in greater yields, healthier diets, improved livelihoods for farmers, and sustainable economic opportunities for the rural poor that in turn generate further investment. It describes the benefits of digital technologies for farmers and the challenges of transforming African agricultural policies and creating effective and inspiring leadership. The book demonstrates why we should take on the challenge and provides ideas and methods through which it can be met.

scholarly journals Agricultural Policies and Rural Development in Nepal: An Overview

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-46
Author(s):  
Deepak Chaudhary
Keyword(s):  
Rural Development ◽  
Rural Area ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Rural Nepal

This paper analyzes agricultural development in terms of policy and implementation in Nepal. More than two-thirds populations in Nepal reside in the rural area and most of them depend on agriculture. Subsistence form of agriculture is common in Nepal. Rural Area and agriculture are interrelated; like two parts of the same coin. The contribution of agriculture to national Gross Domestic Product is remarkable; however, it is declining over the decades. In fact, the agricultural sector cannot attract young people; the trend of migration from rural to urban is significantly increasing. The poverty is exceedingly marked in rural Nepal. The Government of Nepal emphasizes agriculture development in for poverty alleviation. Order to alleviate poverty, rural development, and national economic growth through the policy level. However, available data and qualitative analysis reveal that the outcome from the agricultural sector is not satisfactory due to several factors. In such situation, more than half of the population has been facing food insufficiency. Because of weak policy and implementation, the agriculture sector s been suffering poor outcome. In that way, the government of Nepal along with concerned authorities should effectively implement agriculture policies in order to reduce poverty and rural development. The agriculture-rural accommodating policies and successful performance are crucial for poverty alleviation and rural development.

scholarly journals Agricultural Value Chain Extension: A panacea for Agricultural Transformation in Nigeria

1970 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
B. O. Oyelami ◽  
A. A. Ladele
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Chain Extension ◽  
Harvest Management ◽  
Post Harvest ◽  
Agricultural Transformation ◽  
A Value ◽  
The Impact

The study examined the effectiveness of value chain extension using some field activities among smallholder farmers in Nigeria and beyond and some farm projects that have adopted value chain extension approach. It revealed that the impact of a value chain extension approach if adopted include increased productivity, better post-harvest management, guaranteed and more remunerative market among others. The study also revealed that quite a number of problems constraining farmers from transforming into agribusiness could effectively be managed using the agricultural value chain extension approach. It was therefore recommended that agricultural value chain extension approach be piloted in selected states in Nigeria with a plan for gradual up-scale, as associated teething problems are being identified and appropriately managed to achieve desired outcomes.Keywords: Agricultural Value Chain Extension; Agricultural Transformation, Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.

scholarly journals Tulsi - An Alternative Livelihood for the Poor and Smallholder Farmers

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghulam-Muhammad Shah ◽  
Farid Ahmad ◽  
Shailesh Panwar ◽  
Manber Khadka ◽  
Ajaz Ali ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Cereal Crops ◽  
Rural Poor ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Alternative Livelihood ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
Total Crop ◽  
Crop Income

This study assesses the pursued impacts of Tulsi value chain development intervention on the livelihoods of rural poor in Uttarakhand state of India. Tulsi as an alternative livelihood, particularly for the rural poor, is less explored. With increased crop depredation of major cereal crops grown in the district by wild animals and pests, and decreasing availability of water agriculture, attempts were made to improve earnings from Tulsi as an alternative livelihood. Findings suggest that the average households’ gross profit from Tulsi farming increases by more than double within a span of two years. Total crop income of beneficiary farmers’ increases by 0.8 percent for every 1 percent increase in Tulsi income. Intervention helped enhance productivity of Tulsi, thereby enhancing earnings from Tulsi farming. Most importantly, intervention has shown a tremendous adoption rate. Towards the end of the intervention, the value chain work was out-scaled to another 19 villages in Chamoli district, thereby reaching out to more than 400 households.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Gordon Conway ◽  
Ousmane Badiane ◽  
Katrin Glatzel
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
The State ◽  
Processed Food ◽  
Pull Factor ◽  
Agricultural Transformation ◽  
African Agriculture ◽  
Food Staples

This introductory chapter presents an optimistic outlook into the state of African agriculture. It highlights the achievements made by African farmers—many of whom are smallholders—emphasizing how they can feed themselves and their families, and that they can generate enough income from their crops and livestock to send their children to school and to purchase medicines when they get sick, as well as have funds to invest in improving their farms. The issue then, as the chapter notes, is to bring these achievements to scale. The chapter anticipates that Africa's demand for food is projected to more than double by mid-century, owing partly to demands for more food staples, more varied and nutritious foods, and more processed food and partly to improved intraregional trade. This is generating a pull factor that reaches down the value chain to smallholder farmers. As such, the chapter explains that Africa requires a new agricultural transformation that is appropriate to Africa and that recognizes the continent's great diversity of environments and climates and its histories and cultures.

scholarly journals Is Sustainable Intensification Possible? Evidence from Ethiopia

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vine Mutyasira ◽  
Dana Hoag ◽  
Dustin Pendell ◽  
Dale Manning
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Sustainable Intensification ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Farm Mechanization ◽  
Multiple Regions ◽  
Development Goals

This paper explores the sustainable intensification possibilities facing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. We examine the internal consistency of jointly achieving “sustainable” “intensification” by exploring the factors that lead to complementarity or tradeoffs in the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of farms was examined in multiple regions of Ethiopia’s Highlands. The results show that some farmers can achieve both sustainability and intensification, while many do not, or cannot achieve both at the same time. We found that some actions have a common impact on both sustainability and intensification, while other factors only affect one outcome. Access to agricultural loans and farm mechanization significantly increases the likelihood of succeeding in sustainable intensification. Access to land will be critical for agricultural sustainability while access to farming information and technical services will drive agricultural intensification. Overall, opportunities to improve both sustainability and intensification are weak, but the opportunity to improve one without sacrificing the other are realistic. The results contribute to the ongoing debate on sustainable intensification and help policy makers explore alternatives for managing different intensification and sustainability scenarios to achieve agricultural development goals.

(Methods of Assessing the Impact of Agricultural Policies on Agricultural Development)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasily Yakimovich Uzun ◽  
Valery A. Saraykin ◽  
Natalia Karlova ◽  
Ekaterina Gataulinn
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Evaluating the Impacts of Smallholder Farmer’s Participation in Modern Agricultural Value Chain Tactics for Facilitating Poverty Alleviation—A Case Study of Kiwifruit Industry in Shaanxi, China

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 462
Author(s):  
Hongyu Wang ◽  
Xiaolei Wang ◽  
Apurbo Sarkar ◽  
Lu Qian
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Poverty Alleviation ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Multidimensional Poverty ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Reduction Degree ◽  
Poverty Level ◽  
Storage Technology

Market-based initiatives like agriculture value chain (AVC) are becoming progressively pervasive to support smallholder rural farmers and assist them in entering larger market interventions and providing a pathway of enhancing their socioeconomic well-being. Moreover, it may also foster staggering effects towards the post-era poverty alleviation in rural areas and possessed a significant theoretical and practical influence for modern agricultural development. The prime objective of the study is to explore the effects of smallholder farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain for availing rural development and poverty alleviation. Specifically, we have crafted the assessment employing pre-production (improved fertilizers usage), in-production (modern preservation technology), and post-production (supply chain) participation and interventions of smallholder farmers. The empirical data has been collected from a micro survey dataset of 623 kiwifruit farmers from July to September in Shaanxi, China. We have employed propensity score matching (PSM), probit, and OLS models to explore the multidimensional poverty reduction impact and heterogeneity of farmers’ participation in the agricultural value chain. The results show that the total number of poor farmers who have experienced one-dimensional and two-dimensional poverty is relatively high (66.3%). We also find that farmers’ participation in agricultural value chain activities has a significant poverty reduction effect. The multidimensional poverty level of farmers using improved fertilizer, organizational acquisition, and using storage technology (compared with non-participating farmers) decreased by 30.1%, 46.5%, and 25.0%, respectively. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of male farmers using improved fertilizer and participating in the organizational acquisition is greater than that of women. The multidimensional poverty reduction degree of female farmers using storage and fresh-keeping technology has a greater impact than the males using storage and improved storage technology. Government should widely promote the value chain in the form of pre-harvest, production, and post-harvest technology. The public–private partnership should also be strengthened for availing innovative technologies and infrastructure development.

scholarly journals Agricultural Support Policies and China’s Cyclical Evolutionary Path of Agricultural Economic Growth

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6134
Author(s):  
Xiangdong Guo ◽  
Pei Lung ◽  
Jianli Sui ◽  
Ruiping Zhang ◽  
Chao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Economic ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Growth Trend ◽  
Agricultural Economy ◽  
Growth Status ◽  
Growth Regime ◽  
Agricultural Support

Due to the weak nature of agricultural production, governments usually adopt supportive policies to protect food security. To discern the growth of agriculture from 2001 to 2018 under China’s agricultural support policies, we use the nonlinear MS(M)-AR(p) model to distinguish China’s agricultural economic cycle into three growth regimes—rapid, medium, and low—and analyze the probability of shifts and maintenance among the different regimes. We further calculated the average duration of each regime. Moreover, we calculated the growth regime transfers for specific times. In this study, we find that China’s agricultural economy has maintained a relatively consistent growth trend with the support of China’s proactive agricultural policies. However, China’s agricultural economy tends to maintain a low-growth status in the long-term. Finally, we make policy recommendations for agricultural development based on our findings that continue existing agricultural policies and strengthen support for agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.

scholarly journals Smallholders’ perceptions of policies for preserving the traditional Ongole cattle breed of Indonesia

2020 ◽  
pp. 003072702098358
Author(s):  
Eko Nugroho ◽  
Simon J Oosting ◽  
Rico Ihle ◽  
Wim JM Heijman
Keyword(s):  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Cattle Breed ◽  
Target Group ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Beef Production ◽  
Policy Success ◽  
Policy Awareness ◽  
Selection Programme ◽  
Genetic Potential ◽  
Participation Level

Agricultural policies can only be effective if intended beneficiaries are sufficiently aware of them. This basic condition for policy success is substantially challenged by smallholder farmers’ lack of awareness of existing support schemes. We studied the perceptions of 600 farmers of preservation policies for the traditional Indonesian Ongole cattle breed. We measured farmers’ knowledge of existing policies, their perceived ease of participation, their participation level and their satisfaction with the benefits obtained. We found that the target group has little awareness of existing policies. Policy awareness increases with education, the less remote the farm is, and with increasing specialization in cattle farming. We recommend therefore that policymakers should simplify and redesign existing policy schemes to create one coordinated policy. The various support schemes currently implemented should be combined in this policy and it should be presented in such a way that is easily understood by farmers. Incentives for Ongole breeders should be tailored, the establishment of farmers groups facilitated, and a breeding and selection programme initiated to improve the genetic potential of Ongole for domestic beef production.

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