Grain markets in Africa suffer from a range of constraints. Smallholder farmers are particularly affected owing to their vulnerability to price fluctuations and their weak bargaining position. Many African governments as well as donors reckon with improvements through warehouse receipt systems. The article illustrates the theoretical potential of the WRS and some of the obstacles in setting them up in African countries.

Not only is biodiversity a valuable asset, but it also represents a possible source of income for rural communities. The article shows how Peru is making use of this potential in the context of the BioTrade concept to sustain both, rural livelihood and conservation of native biodiversity. It further analyses the challenges farmers face and how targeted support for supply chains can help to overcome these challenges.

Improving watershed conservation and household food security has been one of the major development challenges in the semi-arid areas of northern Ethiopia. The initial survey by ILRI’s Improving Productivity and Marketing Success project has revealed that physical conservation measures alone do not result in higher farmers’ income. However, the introduction of market-oriented commodity development such as beekeeping, sheep-fattening, and high value crops resulted in farmers’ income rising fivefold from 2005 to 2009.

The basic role for agricultural policies consists of providing the core investments and services that farmers need to develop their operations into viable farm businesses. Focusing on the sector’s enabling environment benefits both agriculture and the wider rural economy, facilitating the construction of diversified rural economies. Such policies are likely to be more effective in the long term than subsidies or market interventions, which have the opposite tendency.

Innovation takes place not only in laboratories, and disseminating knowledge need not depend on classrooms. The Cambodian GIZ project “Best Farmer 2012” is an example of how achievements of small-scale farmers can be appreciated and their co-farmers can simultaneously benefit from new insights.

“There is plenty of innovation. The trick is to get it to the farmers,” it is often said when technology transfer to farmers, and smallholders in particular, is referred to. In addition to the financial resources, they often lack the knowledge needed to be able to benefit from the new technologies. The ‘whole value chain approach’ of the Africa Harvest organisation shows how technology transfer can work.

The Government extension services in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are weak. There is a general lack of money and staff, and the country has a poor infrastructure. Above all small-scale farmers in remote areas are left out of developments. This applies in particular to women farmers, despite their providing 85 per cent of the rural workforce.

In the Karnataka state of India, the First Agro farm has more than 40 varieties of vegetables on sale, all of them free of chemical residues. Both hotels and restaurants as well as more and more retailers are appreciating the range of certified products from this young enterprise.

Today, it would be difficult to imagine agricultural extension without modern information and communication technologies. What they can do, where they fit in, and where they reach their limits is shown in the following examples.

Secure tenure of farming and forest land is increasingly recognised as an important factor of household food security and nutritional status. This is borne out by a study by the Laotian Land Issues Working Group. It demonstrates mutual impacts, how government land-related policies affect the factors involved, and who the winners and losers are.

A project in Burkina Faso has given a clear demonstration of what supporting family farms can achieve in terms of poverty alleviation and rural development. One important success factor was the transfer of land to farmers, accompanied by a secure land-tenure policy adapted to their needs.

Snakebites are a crucial, yet underreported issue in many South Asian countries. In India, they kill some 50,000 people every year. However, the government has neglected the issue. Now, it’s time to seriously address this all but forgotten public health problem, our author maintains.